The 12-point landing page checklist that actually moves conversion

Why the order matters more than the list

Most landing page checklists are flat: twenty items, all weighted equally, most of them about button colour. That is not how conversion actually behaves. A handful of decisions account for the majority of the movement, and everything else is rounding.

The list below is ordered by observed impact. If you only fix the first four, you will capture most of the available gain.

The 12 points

1. The headline names the visitor’s outcome, not your feature. “Get paid in 24 hours” beats “Automated invoicing workflows.” Write the sentence your customer would use describing the result to a colleague.
2. Proof appears immediately below the headline. Scepticism peaks in the first three seconds. Logos, a specific number, or a named testimonial there does more than the same element placed halfway down.
3. There is exactly one call to action. “Start free trial” and “Book a demo” competing side by side splits intent and reliably lowers total conversion. Pick the one you want and repeat it.
4. The page loads in under two seconds on mobile. Most paid traffic is mobile. Every additional second measurably costs conversions before anyone reads a word.
5. Objections are answered on the page. Price, contract length, switching effort, data security. If a visitor has to leave to resolve a worry, most of them will not come back.
6. The problem is stated before the solution. Recognition builds trust faster than claims do. Describe the visitor’s current situation accurately enough that they feel understood.
7. The mechanism is explained in three or four steps. Enough for credibility, not enough to become documentation. People need to believe it plausibly works.
8. The form asks for the minimum. Every additional field costs completions. Email alone converts better than email plus company plus phone plus role — collect the rest later.
9. Testimonials are specific and attributed. “Great service!” from “J.D.” is worse than nothing. A name, a company, and a concrete result carry weight.
10. Nothing links away except the CTA. A landing page is not a website. Full site navigation on a paid-traffic page is an invitation to leave.
11. The visual hierarchy survives a squint test. Blur the page. The headline and CTA should still be the two things you notice.
12. The page works with images blocked and JavaScript slow. Text-based value proposition, real HTML, no critical message trapped inside a hero image.

The mobile-specific items people skip

• Tap targets at least 44×44px with 8px of space between them. Miss-taps are silent conversion loss.
• The CTA visible without scrolling on a 375px-wide screen — or a sticky one that follows.
• 16px minimum body text, which also prevents iOS auto-zoom on form fields.
• No layout shift after load. Declare image dimensions. A button that moves as someone taps it is a lost conversion and an annoyed visitor.
• Correct input types so the right keyboard appears: type="email", type="tel".

How to know whether it worked

Fix the page, then measure the right thing. Conversion rate alone is misleading if traffic quality shifted at the same time. Track:

• Conversion rate by traffic source, separately. Paid and organic visitors behave differently and averaging them hides both.
• Scroll depth to find where attention actually stops.
• Form abandonment by field to identify precisely which question is costing you completions.
• Time to first interaction, not just page load — a page can paint quickly and stay unresponsive.

Give any change at least 300 conversions before drawing conclusions. Most “this variant won” claims are noise read confidently.

If you would rather not do this yourself, our Landing Page Sprint covers the structure, design, build and tracking for a fixed $3,200, live in 10–14 days.