Landing Page Design Checklist: The Essential Best Practices
A landing page is ready to publish when it passes checks in seven categories: messaging, visual hierarchy, forms, trust signals, mobile performance, accessibility, and tracking. Miss any one of them and you either lose visitors before they convert or lose the data that tells you why. This is the checklist we run at Salterra before any landing page goes live, built from years of watching which small omissions quietly cap conversion rates.
Treat each section below as a gate, not a suggestion. A page can look finished and still fail half of these checks — and the failures are rarely obvious from a glance in the browser.
Messaging and Copy
Copy is the first thing to audit because no amount of design polish fixes a headline that doesn’t say what the offer actually is. Before launch, confirm the headline states the specific outcome or offer, not a vague brand tagline. A visitor should be able to read only the headline and subheadline and know exactly what they’re being asked to do and why it matters to them.
- Headline names the offer or outcome in plain language, not internal jargon
- Subheadline adds a concrete detail: timeframe, mechanism, or differentiator
- Every section answers “what’s in it for the visitor,” not just “what we do”
- Benefits are stated before or alongside features, never features alone
- Call-to-action button copy is a specific action (“Get My Free Audit”), not a generic “Submit”
- Reading level is conversational — short sentences, no filler adjectives
One thing we check that’s easy to skip: read the page out loud. If you stumble over a sentence or lose the thread of what’s being promised, a visitor skimming on their phone will too.
Visual Hierarchy and Layout
Hierarchy is what tells a visitor’s eye where to go next without them having to think about it. The single most common hierarchy failure we see on client audits is a page where three or four elements are all fighting for the same visual weight — a headline, a hero image, and a form all sized and colored to compete instead of guide.
- One primary call-to-action stands out clearly as the most visually dominant element
- Secondary and tertiary actions (like “learn more” links) are visually subordinate
- Whitespace separates sections so the page doesn’t feel cramped or fused together
- Font sizes step down logically from headline to subheadline to body copy
- Color contrast draws the eye toward the CTA, not away from it
- The page follows a single scannable path top to bottom — no competing focal points
Squint-test the page: blur your eyes and look at it for two seconds. If your attention doesn’t land on the CTA first, the hierarchy needs adjustment before anything else on this list matters.
Above-the-Fold Content
What loads before a visitor scrolls carries a disproportionate amount of the conversion weight, since a meaningful share of visitors never scroll at all. Confirm the fold contains everything needed to act, not just everything needed to be interested.
- Headline, a supporting line of value, and the primary CTA are all visible without scrolling on both desktop and mobile
- At least one trust signal (logo, review count, credential) is visible above the fold, not buried lower
- Hero image or video supports the offer rather than being decorative stock filler
- No auto-playing video with sound and no intrusive popup fires on page load
- Navigation is stripped down or removed so the fold isn’t competing with exit links
Forms and Friction Reduction
The form is where intent turns into a lead, and it’s the single highest-friction moment on the page. Every field you ask for is a small tax on conversion, so the checklist here is about justifying each one, not just formatting them.
- Every field on the form is one you’ll actually use — no “just in case” fields
- Field count is as low as the sales or qualification process genuinely requires
- Labels are visible (not placeholder-only text that disappears on click, which causes users to forget what they typed)
- Error messages are specific (“Enter a valid email”) not generic (“Invalid input”)
- Submit button restates the value, not just “Submit” — e.g. “Send My Quote”
- Multi-step forms show progress so the visitor knows how much is left
- Autofill is enabled and field types match input purpose (email keyboard on mobile, etc.)
If you’re unsure whether a field earns its place, remove it and watch the conversion rate. We’ve had clients recover meaningful lift just from dropping a “company size” dropdown nobody downstream ever used.
Trust and Credibility Signals
A visitor who’s never worked with you has no reason to hand over contact information without some evidence you’re legitimate. Trust signals close that gap, but they only work if they’re specific and verifiable — vague claims read as filler and can actually undermine credibility.
- Testimonials include a full name, and ideally a title, company, or photo — not “J.S., customer”
- Case study numbers or results are real and attributable, never invented or rounded up for effect
- Security badges, certifications, or partner logos are current and actually earned, not decorative
- A visible privacy assurance sits near the form (“We never share your info”)
- Author or business identity is clear — who’s behind this offer, and why should they be trusted on this topic
- Contact information or a real business address is discoverable, even if not front and center
Speed and Mobile Performance
Every other item on this checklist is irrelevant if the page hasn’t finished loading by the time a visitor decides to leave. Mobile performance deserves its own explicit pass, separate from desktop, because it’s usually worse and usually where most of the traffic lands.
- Images are compressed and served in modern formats, sized for the container they render in
- Largest Contentful Paint and Cumulative Layout Shift are checked in a real speed-testing tool, not eyeballed
- Fonts are limited to one or two families and preloaded, not render-blocking
- Tap targets (buttons, links) are large enough for a thumb, with spacing to prevent mis-taps
- The form is usable one-handed on a phone — no zoom-and-pinch required
- Third-party scripts (chat widgets, trackers) are audited and trimmed to only what’s essential
Accessibility Basics
Accessibility checks aren’t just a compliance box — they widen your addressable audience and, in our experience, correlate strongly with better usability for everyone, including visitors on poor connections or older devices. Run this pass even on pages you don’t consider “high risk.”
- All images have descriptive alt text, especially the hero image and any infographic
- Color contrast between text and background meets a readable minimum, particularly on CTA buttons
- The page is fully navigable by keyboard alone, including the form
- Form fields have properly associated labels for screen readers
- Heading structure is logical, without skipped levels used purely for styling
Tracking and Analytics Setup
A landing page you can’t measure is a page you can’t improve, and this is the category we see skipped most often under launch deadline pressure. Confirm tracking is live and firing correctly before the page goes live, not after the first campaign has already spent budget.
- Conversion event (form submit, call click, purchase) fires correctly and only once per action
- Analytics and ad platform pixels are installed and verified with a live test submission
- UTM parameters are consistent across every traffic source pointing to the page
- Scroll depth or engagement tracking is in place if you plan to analyze drop-off
- A/B testing tags, if used, are configured to split traffic evenly and reliably
- Thank-you or confirmation page exists and is also tracked as its own event
Test the entire funnel yourself end to end — submit the form, click the ad, make the call — before traffic goes live. It’s the fastest way to catch a broken pixel or a form that silently fails.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I re-run this checklist on an existing page?
Re-check it any time you make a meaningful edit, and do a full pass at least twice a year even on pages you're not actively changing, since browser updates, plugin changes, and content drift can silently break things like tracking or mobile rendering.
Which category matters most if I only have time for one?
Speed and mobile performance, because a slow or broken mobile experience undermines every other item on this list before a visitor even reads your headline.
Do I need every trust signal listed, or just a few?
A few specific, verifiable signals outperform a long list of generic ones. One detailed testimonial with a real name beats five vague, unattributed quotes.
Should this checklist be used before or after A/B testing?
Before. Run this checklist to get the page to a solid baseline first, then use A/B testing to improve on that baseline rather than to fix fundamentals this checklist would have caught.
Is this checklist different for B2B versus B2C landing pages?
The categories stay the same, but the emphasis shifts — B2B pages typically lean harder on trust signals and form qualification, while B2C pages lean harder on above-the-fold clarity and mobile speed.
What's the biggest checklist item people skip under deadline pressure?
Tracking verification. Teams launch, celebrate, and only discover a broken conversion pixel two weeks later when the reported numbers don't match reality.
Terry has 30+ years in software and SEO. He’s the founder of Salterra Digital Services and SEO Spring Training, host of the Roundtable SEO Mastermind, and lead instructor at SEO University — teaching the exact tactics his team uses on client work.
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