Trends & Best Practices for Landing Page Design in 2022
In a saturated online world, providing a unique user experience and a creative design look and feel are absolutely essential for the success of your landing pages. But what are the necessary elements to achieve this in 2022? That’s what we’ll explore in this article, so you can upgrade and optimize your landing pages based on data-driven decisions and emerging trends.
But before we dive in, let’s start from the beginning and understand the purpose of landing pages. Then we’ll move on to discuss how to create a beautiful, high-converting landing page.
What is a Landing Page?
A landing page is a purpose-built web page for the promotion of a specific product or campaign. It’s the page that a visitor ‘lands on’ after clicking on a link in a marketing email, Google ad, native ad, social media ad or post, or any other advertising link.
Landing pages should be conversion-oriented with a specific goal in mind. While technically any web page can be a “landing page,” if it is not created as a campaign-specific page serving a specific purpose, it won’t be effective at gaining conversions.
How is a landing page different from a homepage?
A homepage is excellent for showcasing your company’s main message, mission, and maybe even some sales-oriented content.
However, to boost conversion rates of website visitors, you need much more than a regular website or homepage. You need landing pages.
Landing pages focus on a single goal, and you can have several landing pages for different campaigns. A landing page has one central Call to Action (CTA), focusing the visitor on the message and driving them to convert. On the other hand, homepages have diverse elements and a more general message. A homepage will have several links to different parts of the website, not just one main CTA, so it will be a more distracting and open-ended experience.
A homepage is a long-term investment. It is not updated or changed very regularly. Landing pages are used for focused campaigns, so they usually have a shorter ‘shelf life.’ That’s why it’s best to use an online landing page editor with several templates to choose from.
This makes it much easier to craft high-converting landing pages quickly without investing in design and coding every time. In Moosend’s editor, you can create landing pages with many different designs. Here’s an example:
Landing Page Trends in 2022: What to Expect
Like all marketing assets, landing pages are subject to popular trends in visual design and user experience. Here are some of the upcoming trends in landing pages that can help drive high conversions in 2022:
Micro animations add depth to page design
While short animations are not new to web design, in 2022, we anticipate a growth in this trend. Subtle GIFs and animations will bring your landing page to life, providing a more engaging experience for visitors.
True to their name, micro animations are small, but they are very powerful. Micro animations effectively highlight key sections of a landing page and draw the user’s attention to the content you want them to read or an action you want them to take.
Micro animations also offer a personal and creative touch to your landing page, making it a bit different from the competition. Think about how objects move on a curve or wheel instead of a flat plane. Use this as inspiration to animate micro-elements on your page and create a unique user experience.
Leverage illustrations as hero images
More and more, we are seeing the trend of illustrations replacing photographic images on landing pages. Compared to photos, illustrated graphics are smaller in file size, so they load quicker on the landing page, a significant advantage.
Thanks to the new Core Web Vitals guidelines by Google, web designers and developers are looking for solutions to speed up page load times and improve the user experience. Illustrations are one such option.
In addition, well-crafted graphics have the power to express an idea behind a product or service in a more fun and concise way. A customized, one-of-a-kind illustration is a great way to attract readers’ interest and imagination.
In 2022, illustrated characters will continue to be a popular theme for landing page designs. Characters unique to your site design and identity create a memorable brand experience.
Another way to use illustrated characters is positioning them as part of the CTA (Call to Action), making the conversion fun without being forceful. This helps increase conversions and strengthen your landing page results.
Differentiate your scrolling experience
In the quest to create unique user experiences, web designers are experimenting with alternative scrolling strategies on landing pages.
Vertical scrolling is the most common, while horizontal scrolling is a disruptive UX design concept that catches users’ attention while remaining simple and functional. For example, Gelateria Amande incorporates a horizontal scrolling carousel with high-quality product photos, attractive drawings, and animated typography.
Throughout 2022, we expect to see more landing page designs that incorporate original and non-traditional approaches to scrolling.
Unique scrolling leverages more advanced visual design and front-end development abilities to increase time on page and user engagement. DJI’s web designers took it to the next level with a highly interactive user experience: users scroll or click through to view their new product lines.
Pique user interest with abstract shapes
In 2020, geometric shapes were a significant website design trend, but in 2022, abstract, original, or organic-inspired shapes will be all the rage. Consider, for example, the forms found in nature, such as hills or the borders of a lake.
Brands have begun adopting these kinds of unusual shapes, adding unexpected visual excitement to their landing pages. For example, Moosend leverages this trend with an organic shape as a background to the main hero shot.
Fluid forms are an excellent method to divide areas of a website without using sharp lines or angles.
Add videos to your landing pages
One of the top web design trends for 2022 is video on landing pages. Video is one of the most popular devices for telling a brand story or showcasing a product or service in a meaningful and memorable way.
Take, for example, the Outbrain home page. Before potential customers continue scrolling down the page, the video boosts customer engagement by grabbing their attention and helping them understand the brand and product.
If you’re building a new landing page in 2022, we recommend including videos in any format that works for your audience. For example, a product, explainer, or testimonial video can have enormous power to persuade potential customers to take action.
Make sure to keep landing page videos short and focused, no more than 1 to 2 minutes, so you get your message across without losing customer interest. Host it on another platform like YouTube or Vimeo and then embed it on your landing page. This way, you don’t risk increasing your page load speed, potentially harming your SEO metrics in the long run.
Voice search optimization & accessibility
Today, people don’t search on Google with simple keywords. They are more likely to ask a question in a conversational style. Similarly, website design is also trending to accommodate speech chatbots, virtual assistants, and other voice tools.
While voice-activated interfaces aren’t yet standard on most websites, in 2022, we should expect to see a rise in the number of landing pages that offer voice search as an alternative to traditional text search.
There is also the crucial issue of accessibility. This year and beyond, landing page design will need to be accessible, providing a positive user experience, easy navigation, and compliance with web accessibility laws.
Implement gradient elements
In 2016, when Instagram relaunched, the new gradient logo drew much attention. Although it was different from the dominant design styles at the time, their decision to modernize gradients had a significant impact on the future of design.
Gradients are becoming more and more popular among web designers looking for new ideas and inspiration, and we expect to see gradients incorporated into more landing page designs in the coming year. Brands like Stripe use gradients to pique visual interest and guide visitors through their website.
Ranging from subtle color overlays to eye-catching backdrops, gradients can provide depth to an illustration or add texture. Gradients are becoming more common with larger, stronger typography, but more on this trend below.
Supersized titles
The internet is a very busy place, and potential customers have less time to spend on more websites. As a result, landing pages are evolving to include large, bold headers and condensed messages to attract users’ attention and boost conversions.
The larger headings are frequently paired with a smaller sub-text copy to provide the user with more context. To take it to the next level, create a form using lead capture software like Hubspot and guide your potential customers through your copy into the next step of your marketing funnel.
Modern minimalism to increase engagement
Minimalism, also known as “flat design,” is not a new trend, but it is timeless. Often, flat design is integrated with negative or white space. Apple is an example of a brand that has built its whole online presence around minimal elements and aesthetics.
You don’t have to go all white to be minimalistic. In fact, in 2022, we’ll see experimentation with colorful minimalism on landing pages.
Colorful elements positioned in the right way capture the user’s attention while maintaining an ordered, clean look. This design can be very effective combined with a clear, solid call to action.
See below how Shopify does a great job with colorful minimalism. Their website uses a bright yet subtle background color, clear fonts, and minimal design components to create a look that is at once attention-grabbing yet easy on the eye.
Leverage color in creative ways
Α thoughtful use of color to generate specific moods will be important in 2022. Color psychology, or the study of how color affects human behavior, has been around for centuries. Marketers have long been using it to encourage potential customers to take action on their landing pages.
While people interpret colors differently, some colors are generally associated with certain moods. Green, for example, is often associated with nature and natural products, while red is associated with vigor and passion.
In 2022, web designers will use various colors on landing pages to express the mood or emotion of their brand or campaign. If you are looking to upgrade your landing page, take advantage of this trend and focus on the colors that create the right mood.
Make Your 2022 Landing Pages Shine
Every business or brand should be using landing pages in their digital campaigns. Landing pages are vital for encouraging a specific action and converting users to customers.
In 2022, a range of landing page design trends will help you ensure high conversion rates and increased revenues. From micro animations to fun illustrations, original scrolling methods, and colorful minimalism, make sure to brush up on the latest popular design ideas – and, of course, choose an online builder to make your landing page dream a reality.
