Decide the one job of the page
Before you write, finish this sentence: "This page exists so that a [type of visitor] will [one action]." A landing page has one action, such as booking a call or downloading a guide. A brand homepage can have one main action and one quiet secondary one. If you cannot name the visitor and the action, you are not ready to write.
Write the top of the page first
Everything above the fold is the page, as far as most readers are concerned. It needs three parts:
- A headline that states the promise. See The headline carries the click for the test: could a competitor put their name under it? If yes, it is too generic.
- A line under it that says who the page is for and how you deliver. One sentence.
- One button with a verb that matches the promise, such as "Book a 20-minute call".
Then write the next line so it earns the one after, as described in The first line earns the second. The reader who stops here should still get the point.
Run the skim test
Copy only the headline, subheads and bold phrases into a separate document. Read them in order, as a stranger would. Do they tell a complete argument? Is the promise clear, is there a reason to believe it, and is the action obvious? If the skim path has holes, fix the headings, not the paragraphs. Most visitors will never reach the paragraphs.
Order the content from their world to yours
The instinct is to open with who you are and work towards what you offer. Invert it. Lead with what you can do for the reader and end with who you are. The reader cares about their own situation first. By the time you reach the About section, they should already want to know who is behind it.
The same order works inside the page: problem, outcome, how it works, proof, action. Keep the story of your company short and put it after the proof, not before.
Put proof close to the promise
A claim needs a reason to be believed. Place one strong piece of proof near the top, such as a named result, a short quote from a real customer or a number you can defend, and repeat the support further down. Never invent proof. If you do not have any yet, say plainly what you are doing and what you will share as it happens. Proof and risk reversal goes into this in depth.
Keep it tight and send detail elsewhere
A landing page is closer to one strong argument with the air squeezed out than to a sales letter. Cut every section that does not serve the one action. Move the deeper "how it works" content to its own page and link to it once. The hero earns the curiosity, and the next page satisfies it. For lead capture pages, One page, one promise, one action sets out the same discipline in more detail.
Check it on a phone
Common mistakes
- Opening with the company history or a mission statement.
- A clever headline that needs a second sentence to explain it.
- Three equal buttons. Visitors who face three choices often pick none.
- Stock photos that say nothing. Use a real screenshot, a real face or nothing.
- Writing in your own jargon. Use the words your buyer uses, and borrow them from calls and emails.
- Rewriting everything on a hunch. Change one thing at a time so you can tell what worked.
How you know it works
Ask someone who does not know your business to look at the page for five seconds, then tell you what you offer and for whom. If they get it right, the top works. After that, watch the numbers: share of visitors who click the main button, how far they scroll, and where they leave. A tool such as Microsoft Clarity or Hotjar shows scroll depth and clicks. Change one element, give it enough visitors to mean something, and keep what wins.
