Writing a landing page for one purpose and nothing else

4 days ago
3 min read

Introduction

A landing page exists because somebody clicked something specific. An advertisement, a link, a listing, a message. They arrived with an expectation formed by whatever they clicked, and the page either matches it immediately or loses them. That is the entire job, and it is a narrower one than a general page has.

Most landing pages fail by trying to be a website. They introduce the company, list the services, add navigation, mention the newsletter and eventually get to the thing that was advertised. Each of those additions serves somebody internally and none serve the visitor, who came for one thing and is deciding within seconds whether they found it.

1. Writing a landing page for one purpose starts with matching the promise

The first requirement.

Whatever they clicked should be the first thing they see, in the same words. A mismatch between the promise and the page is the largest single cause of immediate departures. The visitor is checking that they arrived somewhere relevant, and that check takes about two seconds.

2. Use the same vocabulary as the source

The continuity detail.

If the advertisement said emergency repairs, the page says emergency repairs rather than reactive maintenance services. Any change in language reads as arriving in the wrong place. This is worth checking whenever the advertisement is edited and the page is not.

3. Name one action and remove the others

The discipline that defines the format.

One request, repeated. No newsletter, no downloads, no social links. Everything else on the page is competing with the reason you paid to bring somebody here. The cost of each distraction is higher here than anywhere, because this traffic was bought.

4. Consider removing the navigation

The structural decision.

A menu invites exploration, which is useful on a website and a leak on a landing page. Removing it reliably raises conversion, at the cost of visitors who wanted something else. Keep a single small link to your main site for anybody who needs it.

5. Answer the three questions immediately

The content order.

Do you do this specific thing, do you cover their situation, and roughly what does it cost. These belong above the fold, before any explanation of who you are.

6. Put the proof close to the claim

The supporting material.

Reviews, examples and figures beside the statement they support rather than gathered at the bottom. Separating a claim from its evidence weakens both.

7. Keep it as long as it needs to be

The length question, answered properly.

Short for a simple, familiar, low-risk action. Long for an expensive or unfamiliar one. The rule is that every section either answers a question or removes a doubt, and anything else comes out.

8. Make the page match the audience it was built for

The segmentation point.

A page serving one advertisement, one service and one area outperforms a general page serving all of them. Several specific pages beat one comprehensive one.

9. Check it on a phone, from the actual link

The verification.

Click your own advertisement on a phone, on mobile data, and see what a visitor sees. The mismatch between what was tested and what people experience is frequently substantial.

Be careful about pages so stripped that they lose credibility. A visitor who cannot find out who you are, where you are based or that you exist as a real business will not enquire, and removing everything is as much an error as including everything.

Conclusion

Match the promise, name one action, and remove everything serving another goal.

Use the same words as the source that sent them, repeat a single request rather than adding others, consider removing the navigation, answer whether you do this thing, cover their situation and roughly what it costs above the fold, place proof beside the claim it supports, let the length follow the complexity of the decision, build separate pages for separate audiences, and check the whole path from your own link on a phone.