Landing pages

A landing page has one job. Everything on it either serves that job or costs you conversions.

Message match

The headline should confirm, in the first second, that this is the page the ad, search result or email promised. When the promise and the page diverge, people leave before they read anything else, and no amount of design recovers them.

Structure that works

The sequence

• A headline that states the outcome, not the company name
• One concrete supporting claim, evidenced rather than asserted
• A single primary action, repeated as the page scrolls
• Objection handling in the order objections occur
• Proof: testimonials, numbers, credentials, placed near the decision
• A form only as long as the qualification genuinely requires

What to leave off

Full site navigation, competing calls to action, unrelated offers, and anything that invites the visitor to leave. A landing page is a decision page, not a smaller version of the website.

Measuring it

Track conversion rate and downstream quality together. A page that produces many unqualified enquiries has not improved anything; it has moved the cost to the sales team.