Landing page best practices are the conversion rules that keep a page focused on one visitor, one promise, and one action.
This guide covers 15 practical ways to improve landing page conversion rates, from CTA clarity and social proof to forms, page speed, message match, and testing.
What is a landing page?
Like many marketing terms, “landing page” means different things to different people. Some think that it’s any page on your website which is reached from a search engine. Others define them as pages which capture visitor information through lead forms.
All of these descriptions are untrue. Heck, if they were then any blog post with decent SEO would be a “landing page” from Google, which would include so many results as to make the term useless.
Landing pages are lead generators, they’re a single page which is aimed to make the visitor perform a single action.
This could include (among other things):
- Signing up to a mailing list
- Creating a new product account
- Buying a product
- Booking a demo
- Browsing the rest of a website
Think of them as a focal point in your audience’s journey to do what you want them to do. Each landing page is tailored to both market and sell visitors on taking the action you want them to, whether it’s by entering their information, signing up for a new account, or paying to subscribe to a service.
The purpose of a landing page
Landing pages exist to promote a single course of action, they don’t try and push the audience to do everything that could benefit their creator at once.
It’s not about explaining every last detail or teaching new concepts. Visitors should “land” on the page and, through seeing the content, perform the desired action as soon as possible.
That’s not to say that you’re trying to trick the audience. An audience which genuinely wants to perform and benefits from the action is leagues more important than duping a greater number of signups who will never look at your stuff again.
Achieving this is where things get complicated as, even though you’re only trying to inspire one action, you need to account for the different users, backgrounds, interests, and experience levels that your audience will have. No matter who they are, if they fall into your intended audience, they should all want to perform the action you’re promoting.
That’s where the following 15 landing page best practices come into play.
Landing page best practices
Have a single purpose
One of the most important things to do when creating a landing page is to make sure that is has a single purpose. Don’t confuse the viewer by trying to make them do more than one thing.
If you want them to sign up to your mailing list, get them to enter their details. If you want them to buy a product, sell the product.
Don’t split their attention and try to make them do more than one thing.
I understand, it’s tempting to try and get your viewer to do everything you’d like them to while you have their attention. You’ve done the hard work of getting them to go onto your website, so why not capitalize on it while you can?
Two words; audience retention.
If you bombard the viewer with too many calls to action on a single page (especially a landing page) the only thing they’ll reliably do is to hit the back button and contribute to your bounce rate. It’s the same principle behind pop-up ads, you might get some more conversions but when the entire web page is designed to do that anyway you’ll push away more people than you convert.
Make the CTA obvious
One of the more obvious landing page best practices, it’s vital to make sure that your CTA is the most obvious thing on the page. If the audience can’t see it, they won’t do it.
The method for doing this will change based on the type of landing page and action being promoted but there are a couple of tried-and-tested techniques:
- Make your CTA a large button with clear text
- Use contrasting colors to make the CTA stand out
- Put the CTA in the center of the page
- Use arrows (or people) to point to the CTA
- If it’s a large page, have one CTA for your action visible on every full page scroll length
- Grey out the rest of the page for pop-ups
Most of these are self-explanatory but I’ll clarify the last two a little more.
Let’s say you have a homepage (which is a core example of a landing page). Chances are that you’ll want to include lots of information, pictures, videos, social proof, and so on to convince the audience to sign up (your one chosen action).
Instead of having just one CTA to “Sign Up” at the top and bottom of the page, include enough so that the user can see one of these buttons no matter what part of the page they’re scrolled to. That way the action is always there, ready to be taken as soon as the user is convinced.
Again, pop-ups aren’t ideal for a landing page but if you absolutely must have them they serve as a good example of drawing attention to a specific part of the screen.
Remove all unnecessary action options
While this follows the same thinking as “stick to one purpose per landing page”, you can go one step further and remove the potential for other actions to be taken.
Think of it as the other half of the equation; first, you stop telling your audience to do more than one thing, then you follow up by limiting their options to that one thing. You’re limiting the active CTAs and the passive opportunity to do something else.
Yuppiechef did just that when trying to optimize their Wedding Registry service landing page performance. Using Visual Website Optimizer (who also published the Yuppiechef case study), they tested the conversion rate of their landing page as it was compared to if they removed the website navigation bar.
This alone increased their conversion rate by 100%.
While you don’t have to remove literally every option, it’s certainly worth weighing up the value of each and every action opportunity on your landing pages and assessing whether they’re worth keeping. If they’re not at least equal in value to the main landing page purpose, get them out of there.
Use videos (where appropriate)
Videos can help when they make the offer easier to understand. A short product demo, walkthrough, or customer proof clip can answer questions faster than another block of copy.
The risk is distraction. A video that autoplays, hides the CTA, slows the page, or makes visitors watch ten minutes before they understand the offer will hurt more than it helps. Use video when it reduces friction, not when it becomes the page.
Ted Vrountas has written an excellent breakdown of video landing page examples and what they do well. To summarize a few key points:
- Directly show the product or action you’re promoting
- Use screenshots if applicable
- Explain and demonstrate what the desired action will involve
- Have a CTA at the end of the video matching the landing page CTA
- Avoid distracting or misleading content, such as irrelevant animation
- Have an obvious play button so visitors know it is a video immediately
- Keep it short. A two-minute demonstration usually beats a ten-minute presentation
Show social proof
Social proof is powerful and widespread. Showing your audience what others think of you helps to reassure them that your action is the right one to take. Whether it’s from the mouth of a celebrity, a large brand which is also a customer or simply a collection of your current users, showing social proof is a tried-and-tested way to increase conversion rates.
However, that’s not to say that every landing page needs it.
Take our study of the top 100 startup homepages. It found that even successful pages did not always lead with social proof, especially when the product category or marketplace model already carried enough trust for the visitor.
This is because social proof is less useful when it comes to services like Amazon, Crunchyroll, and Postmates. Companies which serve as marketplaces (for products or online content) or to promote other services stand to gain more by leaping directly into the meat of their offer rather than providing a supporting comment.
It’s worth noting, however, that these are also exceptions to many of these landing page best practices. For example, a marketplace wants to provide as many CTAs as possible on its main landing (home) page to show the variety of goods or services on offer.
Branding should be immediately visible
While not every startup homepage had social proof, absolutely every example we examined had their branding elements immediately visible.
Whether by showing the brand name, logo, or another branding element, landing pages are a great opportunity to build brand recognition with the audience and make it more memorable in future. If people recognize and remember you, they’re more likely to come back and interact further, maybe purchasing another product or referring you to their friends.
It’s not difficult and is very hard to make distracting to the detriment of your landing page’s purpose. All that you usually need to do is include your brand’s name and/or logo at the top of your page.
As a quick note, it’s worth considering whether to make your branding elements link back to your homepage. On one hand, this gives the audience a chance to further familiarize themselves with you and take more direct action with the brand.
However, it’s not always worth giving the extra option. Remember; if navigating to your homepage isn’t much more valuable than the single purpose of your landing page, it might be worth cutting out that extra option. Not to mention that they don’t need a link to your homepage if they’re already on it, you’ll just be giving them an extra chance to lose interest.
Offer a demo (where possible)
Although it’s not always relevant, offering a demo is a great way to get your audience to interact further and calm any fears they have. This is vital, as landing pages that need a demo video (or offer) often come at a major point in the viewer’s buying decision.
Demos are best used when your audience has learned a little about what you’re offering (a service, some software, a SaaS product, etc) and knows what the general benefits are. The demo helps to clear up any remaining confusion about how the product works, what it does, and so on.
Again, not every landing page needs to offer a demo, but providing the opportunity to book one on a product’s homepage or alongside your “Create an account” button can truly work wonders for your conversion rate.
Show trust and support routes
A landing page still needs one primary action, but visitors often need reassurance before taking it. That reassurance can come from contact details, live chat, pricing clarity, a security note, a short FAQ, customer proof, or a clear explanation of what happens after the form.
The right trust signal depends on the offer. A self-serve signup page may need transparent pricing and product screenshots. A demo request page may need a short form, clear scheduling expectations, and proof that the team understands the buyer’s problem.
This also creates useful feedback. If visitors keep asking the same question before they convert, the landing page is missing something. Add the answer to the page and test whether the conversion path improves.
Remove risk factors
While we’re on the topic of risk factors, it’s worth taking time to think about your landing page to examine what a viewer might be concerned or confused about.
Whether their confusion or fear is warranted or not, the more you can do to quell those feelings before they take root and scare away the viewer, the more likely they are to stick around and consider your offer further.
For example, some common risk factors which can be covered with a bare minimum of information are:
- Contents of the offer
- What the viewer needs to do
- Price points
- Benefits
- Social proof
- Timescale
These factors will change depending on the landing page and offer but the theory is the same for all. Provide enough information to satisfy perceived risks, as most viewers won’t take action otherwise.
Give visitors enough decision-making context
You need enough information on a landing page to explain the offer, reduce uncertainty, and make the next step feel obvious. That does not always mean a fixed word count.
A simple signup page may need only a clear promise, a short form, trust signals, and a CTA. A B2B demo page, paid campaign page, or high-consideration offer may need more context: who it is for, what happens after submission, what proof supports the claim, and what risk the visitor avoids.
The rule is not “always write 500+ words.” The rule is to answer the questions a qualified visitor needs answered before they can convert. Cover those questions clearly, then stop before the page starts competing with its own CTA.
Use simple language
Another easy mistake to make is using language which is too complicated to easily read. The harder you make it for viewers to easily get the information they need, the more likely they are to click away and never come back.
This was another aspect we saw in our study of the best homepages for startups, where the strongest pages kept the copy easy to scan. Even technical audiences respond better when the value is obvious without decoding dense language.
It’s yet another case of making it easy to see what action you want them to take and why they should take it. The harder it is to see that, the worse your conversion rate will be.
As for some general tips:
- Simplify your words
- Use short sentences
- Avoid passive sentences
- Have a reading grade below 7
Test your own user flow
This best practice is more common sense than an industry secret. If you don’t test your own user flow on the landing page, how can you be sure that a new viewer will follow your own logic?
First, take note of all of the links that lead to the landing page. Consider the context of these links, what surrounding information is there, how specific and experienced your audience is, and whether you want to account for those who stumble across the page or link without reading around the topic first.
Next, boot up your landing page. With the notes about your audience, think about how obvious your CTA is and where your eyes are initially pulled. Try to imagine a viewer’s movements and logical progression, along with any points where they might hesitate or ask themselves a question.
These points of friction are the things you need to iron out.
If you find that the CTA isn’t the first thing your eyes are drawn to, the layout of the page or CTA needs to change. If you’re stopping to ask important questions or are left wanting for information, it’s time to add that into your copy without taking attention away from the main CTA.
Create multiple landing pages
Landing pages are not limited to homepages or product descriptions. The more specific the audience, source, and offer, the more useful it is to create a dedicated page.
This matters for message match. A visitor from a Google Ads campaign, partner email, webinar, comparison page, or retargeting ad may need a different proof point and CTA than a visitor from your homepage. Separate pages let you match the page to the promise that brought the visitor there.
A repeatable marketing automation workflow helps here because teams can launch, review, and update campaign pages without turning every small change into a one-off project.
If the action is important enough to promote to your audience, give it a focused landing page.
Segment landing pages by user and traffic source
If you want to take your landing page web one step further, consider creating multiple landing pages for the same purpose but aimed at different audiences. This then lets you segment your user and traffic sources to send different people to specialized pages.
For example, let’s say you update your service and send out an email to let your mailing list know about the new features with a link to the landing page promoting them. You know, however, that not all of your mailing list is already using the service in general.
The solution? Send non-users the link to a landing page promoting the service in general. Highlight the updates along with the most powerful/commonly used features to show everything your service has to offer.
Then, instead of sending current users to the same generic landing page, consider pushing them towards a landing page geared towards promoting a higher paid plan using some of the benefits of the new features. That way you’re encouraging new signups while also promoting upgrades to your existing audience.
All it took was an extra landing page and a little segmentation.
Consider the nine headline formulas for startups
Pretty much everyone knows that your headlines matters. After all, a clear headline tells the visitor whether the page is for them before they read anything else.
The same is true of landing pages.
Just because you’re creating a page to promote a single type of action doesn’t mean that you can pay any less attention to your headline than in your blog posts and other content. If anything, you need to put more effort into honing and perfecting the headline than usual, as these are the pages which will be responsible for the majority of your conversions.
Thankfully, we’ve already done the legwork for you to work out a great headline formula.
After analyzing the copy of 87 startup landing pages here at Process Street, Ben Brandall found that their headlines all fell into one of nine categories:
- [Software] for [target]
- The [superlative] way to [goal]
- [Imperative][benefit]
- Better [purpose]
- [Software] that [benefit]
- [Benefit]. [Benefit]
- [Benefit] without [drawback]
- [Question]
- [Purpose]
Create and update landing pages as you grow
Landing pages aren’t static, you can’t leave them as they are and expect them to perform anything but worse over time. Not to mention that even the best landing pages can step up their game through continuous improvement.
Whether you try out a new headline, update your copy, redesign the page entirely or test out one of the landing page best practices mentioned above, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of ways you can change, test, and improve your landing pages. All that’s left to do is go out and test them!
Do you have any landing page tips to share? I’d love to see them in the comments below.