Splash Page Vs. Landing Page: What's The Difference

Did you know that putting multiple offers on your landing page can reduce conversions by 266%?

Nowadays, web designers, e-commerce store owners, blog writers, online marketing agents, or any other player in the world of e-commerce face a myriad of options.

In this article, we explain the differences and the advantages of each solution with real-life examples.

Are you ready to learn more?

Keep on reading.

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A landing page in the digital world is a standalone web page designed to promote a marketing or advertising campaign.

A great landing page design is the best choice for increasing the conversion rates of your marketing campaigns and lowering the cost of obtaining a lead or sale in several industries.

Landing pages are great options to increase conversion and maximize the potential of your marketing campaigns.

A good landing page template has constant elements that should be displayed to ensure success.

These elements are none other than headline, copy, some type of form field, call-to-action, specific features, and benefits worth mentioning.

You will need more than just the headline on your landing page to impress most people.

You need a message.

A feature describes a particular quality of your product or service, while a benefit describes the feature's beneficial effects.

Successful landing pages have one link in them.

More links can distract visitors which drastically decreases conversions.

Call-to-actions are eye-catching buttons that encourage visitors to click. A CTA can be a standalone button on a click-through page or a form.

Fonts, colors, and contrast are also important, do not be afraid to A/B test your CTAs.

As we have already discussed, a high-quality landing page has one conversion goal.

Keep the conversion goal in mind when designing your landing page and design and optimize the entire page accordingly.

With landing pages, it is time to shine. And by shine, we mean visualization.

The first impression is the most important one; whatever the visualization is, it will be the first thing visitors see on your landing page.

When a user visits a website, the first thing they usually see is a splash page. Splash pages cover up the site before entering and have more animations, videos, and eye-catching elements than the main page.

You can use them to:

Wait, how does it differ from a landing page, you might ask 🤔

They have some similarities like aesthetically pleasing high-quality visuals, short, concise, and to-the-point texts, and CTAs.

Also, one of its principal aims is to draw visitors' attention to special products or services, information, special offers, or even a CTA.

At the same time, they create landing pages for specific conversion goals.

Splash pages have several advantages.

People use splash pages to support the brand's mission or story and create and build customer trust, which can cause increased sales and sign-ups.

With a good splash page design, you have the chance to get a question out of the way, and with that, you can distract the visitors’ attention to what you want without them noticing.

Also, it is like opting-in; it requires page visitors to be qualified.

Splash pages differ from landing pages because they pop up when a visitor enters the site.

But what about pop-ups?

It can be either a delay or an element. In contrast to this, splash screens are always integrated into the page. Pop-ups typically have one single message.

Pop-ups can appear in all shapes and sizes.

Here are some examples to show you the variety.

This is an excellent example of an exit-intent pop-up because a mouse movement triggers it to the top of the page.

This way, you can keep your visitors longer or offer them a solution if the site they have seen was not satisfactory.

This type of pop-up appears at the bottom of the page. As discussed earlier, pop-ups are not integrated into the page; here, delay triggers it.

It is one reason it would not be a suitable splash screen.

It would not work as a splash page since it is not the first thing visitors see entering the website and has a clear conversion goal.

There are some cases where a splash page works the best while sometimes they are not the best options.

In this paragraph, you can find a few examples of why designers might have made the splash page or landing page as-is.

Forbes used a splash page to pass on a thought-provoking quote to their visitors before entering the website.

It acts as a bridge to draw readers to the content and tone of the website.

The primary purpose was to attract attention, not to increase conversions directly, and without a CTA and a clear conversion goal, this page would be unsuitable as a landing page.

An excellent example from Ikea on highlighting and drawing attention to a specific product is when they announced the seating series called “SÖDERHAMN”.

Users visiting the IKEA site have been faced with a mysterious splash page after entering the website.

It does not have a specific conversion goal like every other landing page has, so the navigation buttons are bold exit links here.

Budweiser sells alcohol, so you must be of legal drinking age to enter their website.

First, they ask where you are from because the age of majority may vary from country to country.

A splash page is a great way to age verification since it is the first page that visitors see when they enter the website.

In terms of structure, this is a typical splash page. It has a minimal copy: just a simple question to answer and an emphasized visual representing the main product.

Zara is one of the biggest international fashion companies and belongs to one of the world’s largest distribution groups.

A splash page is a brilliant choice for Zara because of the differences in stock because of the varying supply.

Therefore, before entering the main page, visitors must select their country and are automatically redirected to the website.

Their splash pages also have a minimal copy, and they usually emphasize beautiful fashion-related visuals.

Zara uses drop-down menus to get to know more about visitors’ country and language, which are also important factors user experience-wise.

A microsite is a single web page or a small group of pages designed to serve as a standalone entity within an existing website or to supplement an offline operation.

The main page of the microsite may have its domain name or sub-domain.

Remember that a well-designed microsite is crucial to the project’s success; otherwise, users may become confused.

A completely new interface and incomplete information can lead to a poor user experience, ultimately preventing users from returning to the website or completing a particular conversion goal.

A landing page is a landing page that aims to collect opt-in email addresses from potential subscribers.

So its main conversion goal is to capture email addresses.

A squeeze page is a short form page that includes a simple lead capture form.

Not necessarily a standalone page because it can be present on a homepage. Eventually, most of the time it is followed by a welcome or thank you email in exchange.

Examples:

When it comes to websites, the primary aim is to catch, drive, and maintain visitors’ attention.

An image, graphic, gif, or video that is engaging, eye-catching, but still restrained will increase your conversions remarkably.

However, it can also hurt them.

So plan and position the visual material on your website carefully, making it more attractive rather than distracting.

Experience with splash pages, pop-ups, microsites, or even squeeze pages and find what works best for you and your audience.