Landing page vs Home Page – What’s the difference?

Before we get into that, let’s start by asking what’s the job of any web page? 

At the most basic level, the job of any page on your website is to anticipate what the visitor wants and deliver it to them.

Home pages have a simple job, but a complex design

Imagine you are the manager of Michelin star restaurant. Your menu will anticipate the choices your diners will want and help them make selections.

Your home page is the menu to your website. It’s job is to anticipate what your visitor’s functional needs are because it welcomes a range of visitors who are already committed to exploring your website.

They visitors could be artists, curators, collectors, critics or commercial clients. They could be your biggest supporters, who understand your work intimately and want to see  the latest developments. For others, it may be their first time on your website, trying to understand who you are and what you do.

Different people will be looking for different things.

That’s why home pages are packed with navigation. They have menus and often multiple outgoing links, so a broad range of different visitors can easily find what they need.

Landing pages have a complex job, but a simple design

At your Michelin Star Restaurant, the Landing Page is you star Chef, the single most important reason that everyone come to you. 

Landing pages anticipates what the visitor’s most important emotional needs is, and addresses this. The landing page gives first-time visitors to your website the most compelling reason possible to explore your website. You will have typically 10-20 seconds to grab their attention. 

The difficulty is deciding on your message because you need to have a good understanding of what you visitors really want and how you connect to that (check out our guide to understanding your followers here).

It’s vital that you are concise and provide enough of a teaser to get the visitor to take the next step. You need to be specific and deliberate and make sure the delivery of the message is consistent with the message itself.

Art Landing Pages focus on Profiles not Solutions

The landing page of a business explains what makes their solution, service or product unique, but, as an Art professional, your goal is not to solve function problems. You emotionally move people by delivering something unique.

The branding and messaging is around your authenticity and motivation, so visitors quickly get a sense of what makes you unique and what your personal brand is (check out our guide to branding in art here).

All Landing Pages Deliver Social Proof

In any field, visitors want to connect to people who are highly competent and respected, that’s why social proof is vital. Businesses achieve this with facts and figures, or customer endorsements and stories.

As an art professional you need to help people understand how you fit into the art world, perhaps who you have worked with, or where your work has been shown, which publications have featured you, what awards you have won.

Art vs Business Landing Pages – the Ask

Landing pages use this compelling story to guide the visitor towards the“Ask,” which could be to sign up to a trial, create an account, or join a mailing list. This ask is carefully designed to fit into the marketing plan of the business.

Art is a relationship driven business, so you ask is designed to move visitors closer to you. Ideally, your ask is that visitors follow you, so you can over time build stronger relationships with them. You have three basic options:

1. They sign up to your mailing list. This is what we would recommend (more information on why, here).
2. If you don’t want to manage a mailing list quite yet, ask users to follow you on your social media account. This is a reasonable second option.
3. If you feel asking people to follow you is too much, the ask could be to visit explore your website.

Get Inspiration from Instagram and Artist Websites

There are a few simple things you can talk about to engage and connect with visitors (check out our guide here).