A holding page is one, singular page on your website which is present whilst your full website is being built or under construction. A holding page (or coming soon page) is a sample for your users to see who you are, and to identify that your website is being worked on and to come back at a later date.
Why Are Holding Pages Important?
Holding pages allow you to increase brand awareness, build trust, generate leads and boost your search engine visibility – before your website is even live. They are used when a website is being built, and can also be used if your website is ‘taken offline’ before a product launch.
What to Include On a Holding Page
Design
The first thing to consider when creating a holding page is the design. Your page should be consistent with your branding and should give users a feel for how your website will look when it’s launched. Using colour gradients or an attractive background image can promote brand awareness as users will remember your brand.
Contact Information
One of the main things that you should include on your holding page is your contact information. This should be shown prominently on the page to allow users to stay in contact with you, or gain more information. Details should include:
- Contact form
- Email address
- Social media links
You should explain why your website is currently unavailable, and give them incentive to come back when your website is ready.
Strong CTA
Be sure to include a strong call to action on your holding page, to make users take action and know what to do next. Whether this be signing up to an email newsletter, following on social media or pre-ordering a product, users need to know what they get from taking action – it has to be two-sided.
Offer an Incentive
An email list is important for the success of your business, and your holding page can help you to grow your email list. When users land on your holding page, it is likely because they are interested in what you have to offer. Leverage this interest by encouraging them to sign up to your newsletter, to help convert users to leads.
You can include an email sign up form as standard on your page, or to maximise chance of sign ups you could offer users an incentive. Examples of incentives include:
- A discount code for when your website launch
- Early bird access to the website
- Free consultation or gifts
You may also want to offer a free download that users will find of value – this could be a downloadable brand brochure for customers to find out more about you. For e-commerce sites, you may want to include a downloadable PDF product catalogue that users will find interesting and build excitement for what you offer, which they can then come back and purchase from your website once it launches.
Once you’ve collected their details and email addresses, you can reach out to them to build strong relationships via a series of emails.
Optimise for SEO
SEO will be something that you will focus on when your website launches, but there’s nothing to say that you can’t start this process pre-launch. Optimising your holding page for search engines such as Google will allow your content to be shown in search and found by your target audience. To do this, include relevant keywords and phrases.
Boost Sales (even if customers can’t purchase yet)
Dont miss out on potential customers. We’ve already spoken about pre-sale opportunities above, and this is of high importance, especially if you’re an e-commerce business. Pre-selling a product is a great way to sell it before your website (or the product itself) launches. Using your holding page in conjunction with online marketing campaigns and events is a great way to build brand visibility and interact with your target audience.
Use Countdowns
Adding countdowns on your holding page for when your website or product is launching is a great way for visitors to see progress and helps to engage them with your brand, helping to build brand relationships. Countdowns instil excitement, increasing chances of them coming back to the website.
Optimising your holding page is a great way to create a buzz around your brand which will help when launching your website, and your holding page allows you to increase customer leads and gain that all important customer data.
Want a sparkly new website for your business, to help you succeed online? Contact us now for a free consultation to see how we can create your website and bring your project to life.
Whether you are building a brand new website or if your website is temporarily offline whilst undergoing changes or updates, putting a holding page in place will help you to build and maintain trust with users and website visitors, making it easier for you to build an audience.
