A Landing Page That Converts: My 14-Point Checklist for Every Project

A client sent me his landing page last month with a one-line message: "needs redesign, conversions are dead." I opened it, ran it through my checklist — and found 9 things broken. Not "needs redesign." Needs fixing.

I built this checklist over 8 years and a few dozen landing pages — B2B SaaS, agencies, e-commerce, a handful of edtech products. In 9 out of 10 cases the conversion problem isn't a design problem. It's a specific list of small things, in this order.

1. One CTA, not three

Primary action — one. "Order", "Buy", "Try free" — pick one and stick with it. Everything else looks like secondary: lower contrast, smaller, no highlight.

The worst case I've seen: a landing with five equally bright CTAs in the hero. The founder was convinced it was "giving people choice." A week after we left only one — conversion jumped from 1.2% to 3.8%. Choice is cognitive load.

2. Hero answers 3 questions in 5 seconds

WHO. WHAT. WHY.

Who you are, what you offer, why anyone should keep reading. If you can't summarize your hero to a friend in two sentences — rewrite it.

3. The offer goes in the headline

"Welcome" and "Innovations for your business" are dead words. The headline needs a promise with a measurable result. I once rewrote a client's headline from "We help businesses grow" to "We'll ship your CRM in 5 weeks. No overengineering." Same traffic, 2.4× conversion. Same product.

4. Social proof above the fold

Logos of known clients or one strong testimonial with a photo — directly under the hero. Not in the footer. If a visitor has to scroll to find social proof, it isn't doing its job.

5. Specific numbers, not adjectives

"Increased revenue by 47%". "Cut response time from 24h to 1h". "50+ shipped projects". Numbers persuade. "Innovative", "reliable", "premium" — they don't.

6. Mobile-first, but not blindly

60-80% of traffic is mobile, that's a real number. But here's the nuance: for heavy B2B products (CRM, ERP, analytics dashboards) the decision is made on desktop. A manager opens your site on a phone, scans it for 30 seconds — then opens it later on a laptop to show the team. Mobile sells "worth a look." Desktop closes.

So mobile-first — yes. Mobile-only — no, unless you're selling consumer e-commerce.

7. Load time ≤ 3 seconds

Each extra second costs you 7% of conversion — not my number, that's Google's. Image optimization, font preload, lazy loading for everything below the fold. Fix speed before A/B tests; you'll save weeks.

8. Form — minimum fields

Email + name. That's it. Anything else — after the first contact. If you absolutely need a phone, make it a separate field marked "optional" without an asterisk.

9. Pricing visible

Hiding price is old-school and stopped working around 2018. In 2025, a visitor who can't see pricing does one of two things: assumes it's expensive and leaves, or opens a competitor's pricing calculator in the next tab.

Can't commit to a fixed price? Show a range. "Starting at $2,000" is still pricing.

10. FAQ as objection handling — not for SEO

FAQ exists for the person who's hovering over the CTA, not for Google. The top 7 objections you need to close:

• "Too expensive"
• "Too complicated"
• "Takes too long"
• "I don't have time"
• "This isn't for my business"
• "We tried something like this, didn't work"
• "No guarantee this pays off"

Close every single one with a real answer, not "contact us, we'll tell you everything."

11. Trust elements at the bottom — and visible

A photo of a real human (yours, not stock). Real address. Phone with country code. Certifications, awards, memberships you actually hold. A footer without these reads as "we're hiding something."

12. Analytics set up BEFORE launch

GA4 + GTM + CAPI/server-side for ads, minimum. Every CTA is a named event. Scroll tracking to at least the 50% mark.

Without this you can't tell what's working a month from now. Which means you'll change things at random and learn nothing.

13. A/B test — on the main hypothesis, not on trivia

Testing button colors when you have 100 visitors a day is theater. Test hero messaging. Test offer structure. Test pricing. The things that can actually move conversion 2×.

Buttons get cosmetic attention.

14. One edit cycle — no more

Launch. Wait 2 weeks. Check metrics. Change one thing. Launch again.

Every "let's add another section", "let's rewrite the whole block", "maybe try a different font" — that's the death of focus and the death of learning what worked. If you want a big redesign, ship it as a separate release. Don't mix with optimization.

Check yours

Run these 14 points right now, with your landing page open in the next tab. How many checks?

Under 10 — there's room to grow, start from the top of the list. Under 7 — your landing is leaking, start today. Over 12 — the problem probably isn't your landing. Look at your traffic sources.