A landing page has one job: turn a visitor with a specific intent into an enquiry. That narrowness is the whole point. A homepage serves everybody and therefore serves nobody in particular; a landing page serves one audience arriving for one reason.
Most landing pages underperform for structural reasons rather than aesthetic ones. Here is the structure that works, section by section, and what quietly undermines each part.
Before the Structure: One Page, One Purpose
Decide the single action the page exists to produce — a form submission, a call, a booking — and design everything around it.
The most common failure is a page asking for several things at once: enquire, but also download the guide, also follow us, also read the blog, also see other services. Each additional option reduces the likelihood of the primary one. Choice is a cost.
Section One: Above the Fold
You have a few seconds to answer three questions in the visitor's head: what is this, is it for me, and what do I do next.
The headline
It should state the outcome the visitor wants, in their words. If they arrived from a search or an ad, it should echo what they searched for closely enough that they recognise it immediately.
Clarity beats cleverness every time. A headline that requires interpretation has already cost you visitors.
The supporting line
One or two sentences adding the specifics the headline could not carry: who it is for, what is included, or what makes it different. Concrete, not adjectival.
The primary call to action
Visible without scrolling, on a button that looks like a button, with text describing what happens rather than a generic verb. "Get a fixed quote" tells the visitor what they receive; "Submit" tells them about their own effort.
One credibility signal
Something true and verifiable placed near the call to action — a genuine review, a real client logo you have permission to use, a relevant accreditation. One is enough here; the rest come later.
What kills this section
- A carousel. The first slide is the only one most people see, and the rest is loaded weight.
- An immediate popup, before the visitor has read anything.
- A large hero image that pushes everything meaningful below the fold on a phone.
- Autoplaying video with sound.
Section Two: The Problem
Briefly show that you understand the situation that brought them here. Two or three sentences, or a short list of the frustrations they recognise.
The purpose is confirmation, not persuasion. A visitor who thinks "that is exactly my situation" reads the rest of the page differently.
Keep it short. Dwelling on the problem past the point of recognition becomes tiresome.
Section Three: What You Offer
Now the substance. What the service is, what is included, and what the visitor ends up with.
The discipline here is translating features into outcomes without abandoning specifics. "Mobile responsive design" is a feature; "works properly on the phones most of your customers will use" is the outcome; the strongest version usually contains both.
Break it up so it can be skimmed. Most visitors will read the headings and stop at whichever one matters to them.
Section Four: Proof
This is where a decision usually gets made, and it is the section most often filled with things that are not proof.
What counts:
- Named reviews from real customers, ideally with a link to where they can be verified
- Genuine examples of work, with what was done and what changed
- Client logos you have permission to display
- Real accreditations or memberships
- Specific numbers you can actually substantiate
What does not count, and actively damages you: invented testimonials, unattributed quotes, statistics with no source, stock photography of a team that is not yours, and awards nobody has heard of. Visitors are considerably better at spotting these than most businesses assume, and the moment one is doubted, the entire page is doubted.
If you have little proof yet, use less of it rather than inventing more. A single genuine review outperforms six invented ones.
Section Five: Pricing or Price Guidance
Most business-to-business landing pages omit this, and most lose visitors because of it.
You do not have to publish a fixed price. You do need to give people enough to know whether they are in the right place: a starting figure, a range, or an explanation of what makes the number move.
Withholding it entirely means some visitors leave to find someone who tells them, and others enquire only to discover the figure is nothing like what they assumed. Price guidance filters both problems out before they cost anyone time.
Section Six: Objections
Every service has three or four recurring hesitations. Answer them on the page, in the visitor's own terms:
- How long will this take?
- What do you need from me?
- What if I do not like it?
- What happens after it is finished?
- Have you done this for a business like mine?
An FAQ section works well here because it is skimmable and because people go looking for exactly this before enquiring.
Section Seven: The Form
Keep it as short as the conversation allows. Every field costs submissions.
- Ask only what you need to reply usefully — usually name, contact detail and a message
- Label every field visibly. Placeholder text that vanishes on focus is a usability problem and an accessibility one.
- Mark optional fields rather than required ones, if most are required
- Say what happens next: who replies, and roughly when
- Show errors next to the field, in plain language, without clearing what was typed
- Offer an alternative — a phone number or email — for people who will not use forms
Then test it. Submit it from a phone, on mobile data, and confirm the message actually arrives.
The Mobile Version Is the Real Version
For most landing pages, the majority of visitors arrive on a phone. Design decisions that read as minor on a desktop mockup become significant there:
- Buttons large enough to tap accurately
- Text readable without zooming
- The primary action reachable without long scrolling
- Form fields that do not disappear behind the keyboard
- Correct keyboard types for email and telephone inputs
- Tap-to-call on every phone number
Review the page on an actual device before signing it off, not in a narrowed browser window.
Speed Is a Conversion Feature
Visitors who leave before the page renders never see any of the work above. On paid traffic, each of those is a click you paid for and received nothing from. Compress images, remove unused scripts, and check the page on a mid-range phone rather than a fast laptop.
Measuring Whether It Works
Track submissions, calls, and the conversion rate against visitors. Then change one thing at a time — headline, form length, price guidance, call-to-action wording — and give each change enough traffic to mean something before drawing a conclusion.
Changing five things at once produces a result you cannot interpret.
Summary
A landing page that converts answers what it is, who it is for and what to do next before the visitor scrolls; then explains the offer, proves it honestly, gives price guidance, answers the obvious objections, and asks for as little as possible in the form. One purpose per page, real proof only, and test it on a phone.
If you want a landing page built to do that rather than simply to look finished, talk to us.
Discuss a Landing Page See Our Work
Frequently asked questions
What should be above the fold on a landing page?
Enough to answer three questions in seconds: what this is, whether it is for them, and what to do next. A clear outcome-focused headline, a supporting line with specifics, one visible call to action, and a single piece of genuine credibility.
How many form fields should a landing page have?
As few as the conversation needs — usually a name, a contact detail and a message. Every additional field costs submissions, and you can ask everything else in your reply once the person is already engaged.
Why is my landing page not converting?
Most often it asks for several things at once, buries the call to action, offers no price guidance, or fills the proof section with things that are not proof. Test it on an actual phone, from a search result, as a stranger would.
