How to create a landing page that converts

What is a landing page anyway and what is its purpose

Before we dive into the structure, let's clarify one thing that confuses a lot of people.

A landing page is not the same concept as a website's homepage. The homepage covers your entire business, all services, and all information. A landing page has one single task: to make the visitor do one specific thing.

Order. Send an inquiry. Sign up. Download a document.

One thing.

That is the reason why landing pages created by paid advertising agencies always look different from the rest of the website. There is no navigation at the top. There is no link to the blog. There is no "read about our other services too". Everything that could distract attention from that one action has been intentionally removed.

Once you understand that, everything else begins to make sense.

Who is the person coming to your landing page

This is the step that is skipped most often, and without it, everything else falls through.

Before you write a single word or place a single image, you must know who is coming to that page and where they are coming from. This is not a philosophical question; it is a technical question that directly affects the copy you are going to write.

Someone coming from a Google ad that says "web design for hair salons" already knows what they are looking for. They don't need an explanation of what web design is. They need a reason why you, why right now, and how much it costs.

Someone coming from an Instagram story who is hearing about you for the first time does not have the same context. They need a bit more of an introduction.

The same landing page for both cases will never be optimal for either of them.

So, before you start: define one specific person you are writing to and where that person is coming from. Everything else is written for that person.

The structure of a landing page that works

There is a reason why successful landing pages look similar to one another. It's not about a lack of creativity; it is about users having habits and expectations. When you meet those habits in the right order, conversion rates go up. When you break them because "we want to be different," users get lost and leave.

Here are the sections that must be there and why.

Hero section: you have five seconds

A user coming to your landing page decides whether to stay or leave within a few seconds. This is not an exaggeration; it is a measured reality.

The hero section is what they see before they start scrolling. It must contain three things:

What you offer. Specifically, without metaphors and without poetry. "A website for your small business" is clear. "Digital solutions for your success" is nothing.

Who it is for. "For entrepreneurs just starting out" is targeted. "For anyone who wants progress" is for nobody.

Why someone should buy it from you. This is your biggest advantage expressed in a single sentence.

In addition, the hero section must have a visible call-to-action (CTA) button that states exactly what happens when clicked. "Send an inquiry" is clear. "Learn more" is useless.

The photo or graphic in the hero section should support the message, not replace it. If your image says nothing about who you are and what you do, replace it with something more relevant or remove it completely.

The problem you solve: show that you understand

This is the part that distinguishes a good landing page from a great one.

After the hero section, before you start talking about yourself and your service, briefly show that you understand the problem your potential client has. Don't write about it philosophically. Write concretely.

"You have a website but nobody is sending inquiries."

"You have Instagram but you don't know how to convert people into buyers."

"You pay for ads but visitors leave as soon as they arrive."

When someone reads their own situation described, their brain automatically reacts with "this is for me". That is the moment when attention becomes interest.

Your solution: concrete and without empty words

Now, and only now, talk about what you offer.

The mistake made here almost every time is talking about the process instead of the outcome. The client doesn't care how many steps your process has. They care about what they will have at the end.

Instead of: "We go through a phase of research, wireframing, design, and testing."

Better: "You get a landing page that has been tested on real users and optimized to convert visitors into clients."

Do you see the difference? The first describes your job. The second describes what the client gets.

Here you can use a short list of benefits, but do not turn the entire section into bullet points. Copy that tells a story always reads better than a list.

Proof that you are trustworthy: social proof

This is one of the most important sections, yet many either skip it or handle it superficially.

Social proof exists in several forms:

Reviews and client testimonials are the most powerful. A quote describing a concrete problem and a concrete solution ("Before working together, my website didn't generate a single inquiry a month, now I get 3 to 4 a week") is worth ten times more than "Great collaboration, highly recommend!"

Portfolio and work examples speak louder than words. If you sell design, show design. If you sell results, show results.

Numbers if you have them. "17 landing pages for clients in 2024" or "an average conversion rate increase of 40% in the first month" are concrete reasons for trust.

If you are new and don't have any of these things, start with a single pro bono project and gather an honest review. One good recommendation is worth more than the absence of any recommendations.

Price or price range: do not hide it

This is a topic around which there is a lot of controversy. Many advise not to publish the price, suggesting instead to wait for a conversation with the client.

My experience is different.

When you don't publish any pricing information, users with a limited budget leave without ever getting in touch. Users with a realistic budget for your service often leave because they don't know if they can afford the collaboration and do not want to waste time on a call.

You do not have to provide a fixed price list. You can give estimated ranges ("projects in this category range from X to Y euros depending on the scope") or explain what the price depends on.

Transparency builds trust much faster than mystery.

Final CTA: ask for action

At the end of the page, it must be clear once again what you want the person to do.

Many designers place a button only in the hero section and think the job is done. A user who has read the entire page and is now ready to act should not have to search for the button. They must find it immediately.

The final CTA should have a slightly warmer tone than the first one. The hero CTA can be direct ("Send an inquiry"). The final one can be a bit more relaxed ("Let's talk about your project" or "Schedule a free call").

Reduce friction. If you ask them to fill out a form, ask only for what you really need at this moment. Name and email are usually enough for the first step.

Copy that sells without sounding like an ad

This is the part that decides whether someone stays on the page or leaves.

There is one thing users immediately feel when reading copy on a landing page: whether that page is talking about them or about you.

A page that talks about you says: "We are a team of experts with years of experience applying the latest methods and technologies."

A page that talks about the client says: "You get a website designed to attract clients, not just to exist on the internet."

The difference is huge. The check is simple: count how many times the words "we" and "our" appear compared to "you" and "your". If "we" is in the lead, you have a problem.

Writing for a landing page is not the same as writing an essay or a technical paper. Sentences are short. Paragraphs are short. It is read quickly, scanned quickly. The user does not sit and carefully read every word like a novel. They scan with their eyes and stop on whatever catches their attention.

Therefore:

Write headlines that make sense even without reading the surrounding text. Write opening sentences that immediately state what it is about. Use concrete words instead of abstract ones. "Three times more inquiries per month" is concrete. "Significant improvement in results" is nothing.

Design: less is more, but less does not mean lazy

You might have noticed that successful landing pages of big companies often look relatively simple. This is not accidental, and it is not cheap. Simplicity in design is harder to achieve than complexity.

A few rules worth keeping:

One dominant color for actions. CTA buttons should be the same color throughout the entire page. The user needs to learn where to look when they are ready to act.

Whitespace is not empty space. The space between elements is not unfilled space, it is breathing room. A page cluttered with content looks cheap and is hard to read.

Typography must be legible without effort. A font that is "interesting" but hard to read is an enemy of conversion. A user who has to strain to read a sentence will not read to the end.

The mobile version is not a secondary task. More than half of visits come from phones. If your landing page on a phone looks like a squeezed desktop site, you have lost that percentage of users upfront.

When designing, ask yourself for every element you place: "Does this help the user decide to take action, or is it here for some other reason?" Anything that does not pass that test, consider whether you need it.

Technical details that must not be skipped

Even perfect content and design don't help much if the page has technical issues.

Loading speed is one of the most critical factors. Every second of waiting reduces the probability of a user staying. Optimize images before uploading them. Do not use videos that autoplay in the background unless there is truly no other way. Test the speed on Google PageSpeed Insights and fix everything you get as a warning.

HTTPS is a requirement nowadays, not an option. Users who see a "site not secure" warning in their browser leave before they even read the first sentence.

Meta data must be set up properly. The title tag and meta description that appear in Google search results are your first advertisement. If they are automatically generated or blank, you are missing your first chance to get the user to click.

The contact form must work. It sounds trivial, but the number of sites that have a form that doesn't send emails or sends them to spam is astonishing. Test it yourself before sending the page out into the world.

Mistakes that are made almost every time

To wrap up this article, here are the most common mistakes I see when looking at clients' landing pages before we start working together.

Too many CTA actions. When you offer a user five different actions ("buy", "learn more", "follow us", "download for free", "schedule a call"), decision paralysis is almost guaranteed. One primary action, possibly one secondary as an alternative.

A hero headline that says nothing. "Welcome to our website" or "Your success is our priority" are sentences that could be on a thousand different websites. Your headline should be uniquely yours.

Lack of social proof. A user who does not know you has no reason to trust you just because you described yourself nicely. Gather testimonials, even if they are from friends for whom you did a free project.

Ignoring mobile users. This still happens more often than I would think. Design for phone from the start.

A page that has no clear focal point. If you have three different services, create three different landing pages. Trying to sell all three with one page is an attempt to sell none of them effectively.

How to know if your landing page is working

In the end, all of this is theory until you look at the data.

The metrics that matter to you for a landing page:

Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who did what you asked them to do. For B2B services, 2 to 5 percent is considered good. If you are below one percent, something is fundamentally wrong.

Time spent on page tells you if people are reading. If the average is 15 seconds, users are leaving before they even reach the offer.

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave without making any clicks. A high bounce rate combined with short time on page means the hero section is not passing the first five seconds of the test.

Where visitors are coming from is data that helps you understand if the content is aligned with the traffic source. If you are paying for ads and the conversion is low, the problem might be an imbalance between the message in the ad and the message on the page.

Google Analytics and Search Console are free, take an hour to set up, and give you all this data. There is no reason not to have insight into how your landing page is performing.

A landing page that brings in clients is not complex in terms of having many elements. It is complex in the sense that every element must be in the right place, for the right reason, written for the right person.

If you have a page that is not delivering results and you don't know where the problem lies, that is exactly what I do through a UX audit. We look at every part of the page, understand why it's not working, and you get concrete recommendations on what to change.

If you need someone to build that page from scratch in Framer, I can do that too.

In any case, now you know enough to design a page that has a chance of working. Use that.