This is the checklist we run every landing page through before it ships — ours and the ones we build for other people. It's 21 checks across five areas: structure, the hero, proof, offer clarity, and the call to action. If a page fails more than two or three, it's not a copy problem, it's a build problem. Copy the list and run your own page through it.
How to use this
Open your landing page on your phone, not your laptop — most traffic is mobile and most pages are designed on desktop. Read it top to bottom once as a stranger would. Then go through the checks below and mark each one pass or fail. Fix the fails in order; structure first, wording last.
Structure (the section order)
- [ ] The page has one job and one primary action. If it's asking for a signup and a demo booking and a newsletter subscribe, it's three pages wearing a trench coat.
- [ ] There's no site navigation in the header. A landing page has one exit.
- [ ] The sections run in a logical persuasion order: hook → problem → mechanism → proof → offer → risk reversal → objections → close. Not "features, features, features, buy."
- [ ] Every section does exactly one job. If you can't say what a section is for in five words, cut or merge it.
- [ ] The page is scannable — subheads alone tell the story if you read nothing else.
The hero (above the fold)
- [ ] The headline sells an outcome or transformation, not a format or a feature.
- [ ] A stranger can tell who it's for within three seconds.
- [ ] There's one primary button, and its label says what happens ("Start free," not "Submit").
- [ ] No jargon, no "revolutionary," no "unlock the power of."
- [ ] The first screen loads with the value proposition visible — not a full-bleed image you have to scroll past.
Proof
- [ ] There's at least one specific, attributed proof point (name, role, and a number or concrete result).
- [ ] Proof sits next to the claim it supports, not only in a carousel at the bottom.
- [ ] Numbers are real and specific ("20 minutes," "3x," "from two days to one afternoon") rather than vague ("amazing," "game-changing").
- [ ] If you have logos, they're relevant to this visitor, not just impressive-looking.
Offer clarity
- [ ] A visitor can state exactly what they get after clicking, in one sentence.
- [ ] If there's a price, it's on the page. If there's a free tier, what it includes — and where it stops — is explicit.
- [ ] There's a risk reversal (guarantee, "cancel anytime," "no card needed") and it's placed right next to the CTA, where hesitation actually happens.
The call to action
- [ ] The same primary action appears in the hero and at the close, with the same label.
- [ ] The final section restates the offer so the warmest lead — the one who read the whole page — doesn't have to scroll back up.
- [ ] The button is visually the most obvious element in its section.
- [ ] The three most likely objections ("no time," "won't work for me," "tried this before") are each named and answered somewhere on the page.
What we do with the results
A page that fails on wording gets an edit. A page that fails on structure — sections in the wrong order, no mechanism, no single job — gets rebuilt, because no amount of rewriting fixes a page that was assembled wrong. That distinction is the entire reason we build pages from pre-decided frameworks instead of a blank document: it makes most of this checklist pass by default. If you want the structures themselves, each one has its own breakdown and template.