Three seconds.  That’s how long your typical internet user will take before deciding whether or not to hit the ‘back’ button.  It’s a cliché but it’s true: first impressions are everything.  If you’re going to spend your hard earned money on clicks then you absolutely need to make sure you’re not shooting yourself in the foot by presenting a poorly designed landing page—especially when your competition is one mouse click away.

So let’s take a look at how to design a landing page that will drain your pay-per-click budget as fast as it sends visitors away from your site. Hopefully, by knowing what not to do you’ll be in a better position to make a better first impression.

Here are a few pointers on how to design a really ineffective landing page:

• Make sure your central message, or call-to-action, cannot be quickly discerned.  Avoid using your keyword in your message. And avoid text formatting that would otherwise draw your visitor’s eyes to your message.  Your call-to-action should blend in seamlessly with the rest of your content so as to not command the user’s attention.   Do not include multiple calls-to-action near the top, middle and bottom of the page to account for different screen sizes/resolutions.

• Your landing page should not meet the expectation created by your pay-per-click ad.  Make sure the overall tone and character of the landing page isn’t consistent with your ad.  Get their hopes up by making a bold promise and then under-deliver by offering something that is far less impressive or even somewhat misleading.

• Do not make it easy for your user to scan the layout of your landing page.  Do not group information together in easy-to-read ‘chunks’.  Instead, lump all information together with little-to-no white space in between.  If they’re up to a challenge, they’ve found the right landing page as this will test their patience and commitment to remaining on your site. Avoid the use of bullet points and concise, descriptive phrases.  Avoid the use of testimonials.

• Make it hard to navigate to any other page within your website.  Avoid the use of descriptive links that might capture their interest and keep them on your site.

• Avoid the use of illustrative images that might keep their interest and reinforce the meaning of your message.  Or, alternatively, load the landing page with so many images that it takes more than 5 seconds to load.

• Force your visitors to enter information into a form before they perceive any real value in what you’re offering.  Or, take it to the next level by making your visitors enter an email address and other information before they are allowed to enter your site. This should be part of your overall strategy to design your landing page to meet your needs rather than the needs of your visitor.

• Your landing page message should do little to instill a sense of trust in your organization.  Avoid looking at things from your visitor’s perspective and just assume that there are no concerns in need of addressing. Focus on how great your company is rather than how you intent to meet your visitor’s needs.

• Never test variations of your landing page.

There you have it, some helpful advice on how to design a poorly performing landing page.  Use them wisely.