Chances are that if you are advertising in order to drive clicks to your web site, you’re probably using landing pages as a campaign component.

A few companies see nice double digit conversion rates, but many companies see only about 3% to 5% of paid clicks convert, which is a lot of conversions left on the table. So if you are like most marketers, you’d like to improve your conversion rate in order to maximize your ROI. A good place to start is to take a hard look at your landing pages.

When users click on your ad, they are reacting to a simple ad message. Something in the ad caught their attention and they wanted to know more. Or maybe they were searching for something specific and your ad seemed like it might lead somewhere relevant.

Yet too often when they land on the page they’ve been directed to, they quickly leave. Part of the abandonment may be due to overload. Too many landing pages have been developed using the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach. And when we dump those ad respondents onto a landing page with a ton of copy, links, choices, or a long form, we break the rhythm and expect them to do all the work.

It may be really tempting to dump all sorts of tidbits of info on your landing pages to try to convince web visitors to fill out your web forms or make an order. But his approach to building landing pages often backfires.

Instead create an experience that keeps them in the “split second” flow that they are in when they click on the ad. Keep them moving forward by presenting them with simple, relevant choices and letting them flow through a conversion path to the point of actually converting.

Weed out all but the most essential points. Don’t waste your visitor’s time with tons and tons of unnecessary information to the task at hand. Determine what the most pertinent, relevant questions are and focus only on those.

A landing page need not be a single page. If your product or service is complex, you can provide more pages or links for those prospects who may want more information. Just keep each piece of info simple and to the point. Edit, edit, edit.

Simplify each part of the experience. Get rid of all the distractions.

When we simplify the page—including the message, the copy, and the choices—users will ultimately flow through at a much higher rate of conversion.