The Ultimate Landing Page Checklist

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Eva Averill Written on January 27th, 2023, Last updated on October 10th, 2023

Your landing page is judged in a matter of milliseconds based on its design, in fact as Peep Laja states in his ‘First Impressions Matter’ article, it takes about 50 milliseconds (ms) for users to form an opinion about your website.

In this blink of an eye, decisions are made and you’ve either managed to hook them in, or they bounce. Hence why it is so important for your design and content to be user-friendly and look appealing to your audience.

According to a report by eConsultancy, companies spend $1 on conversion rate optimization for every $92 spent on customer acquisition. Improving your landing pages can significantly improve the efficiency of your marketing activities, and small changes can make a big impact.

Want to see how your landing pages score?

Use our new Landing Page Checklist to rate your page – see if there’s room for improvement or if you’re on track for landing page brilliance!

We could have made this checklist huge, but let’s be honest, no one would do it – so we’ve highlighted a few key categories and picked out what we think are the most important from them (in no particular order).

We’ll delve into detail about the 8 categories we’ve picked below, if you’d rather skip that and go straight to the checklist, fill out the form below and get instant access:




Copy

You could say the most essential part of your landing page, the way you talk to your users will either hook them in or push them away.

Throughout your page, the copy should aim to speak to the users’ motivations, and pain points and help them to understand how you will help to solve whatever problem they might have.

“Does the page have short, direct, and compelling headlines?”

https://cook.gousto.co.uk/unboxpossibility/

Gousto has a great way of communicating with their audiences, the copy they use is direct and enticing, and it gives you the sense they know exactly what their customers want!

Structure

One of the best ways you can build trust is by clever placement, e.g get those reviews high up on the page to gain trust and reduce the anxiety your users might have.

Pay attention to the visual hierarchy, reduce choice overload, make use of white space and reduce clutter to make your page easy to navigate and the content easier to understand.

“Are the social proof and USP sections placed high up on the page?”

https://monday.com/

Monday is a great example of how to make use of social proof on your landing page. The section is placed high up on the page, and the combination of recognisable customer logos as well as their customer count helps them gain that all-important trust from your users.

USPs

Vital to getting the user to buy into YOU and not your competitor, let’s show them what you’ve got that others don’t have! Focus on your value proposition and make sure it’s clear what differentiates you from others.

“Do they stand out in a clear and direct way?”

https://abtesting.ai/agencies/

Most good landing pages showcase their USPs with loud, short, and direct messaging, which is exactly how AB Testing has done it here. Numbers can draw users in, so another good thing AB Testing do here is to support its claims through statistics.

Interaction

One of the top priorities on your landing page is before and after conversion. In the landing page version of pushing a pull door, users expect the ability to carry out a function on your page without frustration, regardless of the device or browser they are using.

“Does the page have error handling? E.g required-entry messaging on a form.”

https://www.talon.one/lp/referral-program

Talon one gives a great example of using error handling with a form. By doing this correctly, they’ve created a user-friendly form that makes the form journey as easy and straightforward as possible. Although error handling is mostly for the users’ benefit, it also helps to ensure incorrect information isn’t submitted by the user.

Social Proof

One of the six principles of persuasion, as made popular by Dr. Robert Cialdini in his 1984 book ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’. Social proof makes your business more trustworthy, previous customers’ experience carries a lot more weight than your say so.

“Does the page make use of reassuring testimonials?”

A Bind Media project – Cloudways by DigitalOcean WIP

Having your social proof immediately underneath your hero is the perfect opportunity to build trust from your users as soon as they land on your page. We tend to use this as best practice at Bind Media, as seen here in our recent landing page for our client, Cloudways by DigitalOcean.

Visuals

Perhaps the first thing your user is drawn to, and the thing they may even remember the most! Did you know, the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than copy source

The visuals you use can have the ability to encourage or discourage the user journey, it’s as simple as that.

“Does the imagery demonstrate the product or brand?”

https://www.goby.co/

It doesn’t get much more obvious than this does it? Goby are positioning themselves as a contemporary, high-end toothbrush and we think they’ve got it spot-on with their photography!

CTAs

The one, most important aspect of your landing page…the CTA. Your action-oriented button that either gets the conversion or doesn’t. I’ll keep this bit short (like your CTA should be).

Ask yourself, when prefixing your CTA with ‘I want to’, is it clear and does it encourage the user to take action?

“Do the CTAs stand out, contrasting from the page?”

https://www.loom.com/?ref=lapaninja

Loom has the perfect use of a CTA. Firstly, it’s obvious, the use of contrasting colours ensures the eye is drawn towards it. Secondly, the copy they’re using on the CTA is enticing and lastly, it’s positioned well on the page without any distractions nearby.

Functionality

If you don’t have functionality, your page isn’t going to get very far at all. Imagine the frustration from the user if the buttons don’t work, they’re going to head straight to your competitor. 

“Does your landing page load within 0-2 seconds?”

https://pagespeed.web.dev/

Testing your landing page speed on this speed checker should be on your checklist ahead of putting your page live. As we know, a slow-loading landing page can lead to a higher bounce rate meaning you may have lost that user to a competitor. By actioning the recommended fixes such as optimising photography, your page should hopefully score highly and lead to less user frustration!

So, go ahead… Use the checklist and learn how you can improve your landing page! 

To score your page, check yes or no to the questions regarding your landing page and see how well you score out of 24. If you want to go one step further, you could even use your ‘no’ answers to highlight areas that may need amending on your page!

Good luck 😊


Well, how did you score? Did you learn anything new? Let us know in the comments if you have any different best practices and what you think of ours. We’d love to hear from you! Feel free to reach out to us if you want landing pages that offer a seamless experience out-the-box.

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Eva Averill Hey I’m Eva, I lead the design team here…I suck at spreadsheets but I do know a thing or two about design! I love figuring out the UX and the finer design details of projects to help create beautiful and converting creative assets for our clients. When I’m not drawing pictures at work, you’ll find me in the sea, come rain or shine (or snow).

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