YNOT – Even the best banner design won’t get you very far if you have a lousy landing page. A landing page is the destination to which users are delivered after they’ve clicked on a banner. You want this page to prompt a certain action from your visitor.

Here are some landing page design tips to get you started:

Keep it lean. Just like banner ads, landing pages that contain too much can confuse viewers. Make sure to keep your text in small blocks, rather than dense paragraphs. Leave a lot of white space so the information can be absorbed quickly and easily. Remember: Less is more.

Give the reader what they expect.[b] When a potential customer clicks on one of your banners, they obviously want to learn more or make a purchase. Don’t require them to search for what they want. You will only lose them. Make sure your landing page is exactly what your banner ad promises it will be.

[b]Use a simple form. Many merchants pack their landing page with multiple fields in their submission form. Try to keep the form to a maximum of five fields, and use large input boxes and fonts so it’s simple to fill out.

Put the most important information first. Believe it or not, many readers do not scroll down and keep reading, so put your main points at the top of the page. Just like the banner ad that drove the click, you want the page to provide a call to action — but make sure the call is on the top part of the page.

Make the page download fast. People are impatient. Don’t make them wait. If decreasing page-load time means less animation or fewer videos, images, etc., then so be it.

Use clear language. The same is true for landing pages as it is for banners: Be as straightforward as you can. Don’t be vague or use technical words that many people won’t understand. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Period.

Make it consistent. Use colors, images and fonts that are consistent with the banner ad that drove the click. You want viewers to recognize a connection between the landing page and the ad, so they will know they arrived where they intended to go.

This educational article was contributed to YNOT.com by Jane Stone of DesignPax. The company offers quick turnaround on made-to-order banner ads, Twitter backgrounds, landing pages, Facebook fan pages, mini-websites and WordPress themes.