Best practices for writing landing page copy

After months with a product, its vocabulary feels like plain English. A visitor arrives with a task and a different set of words for it, usually the words of the problem they have. When the copy speaks in product terms, the visitor has to translate each sentence before they can judge it, and some will not bother. The copy has not failed to be clear to you. It has failed to be the visitor's language.

• Every noun in the headline names something a stranger could point at on the screen.
• Each benefit sits beside the step that produces it, in the same sentence.
• No claim appears twice, and each one has a plain proof or a named case beside it.
• The button label is a verb and an outcome, such as Start a free trial or Get a quote.

Platform, workflow, solution and ecosystem describe the product from the outside. A visitor cannot point at one on screen, so the sentence gives them nothing to picture. The wrong version reads: a unified platform that streamlines your workflow. The right version names what the visitor would see: a folder for each client, with uploads inside it. Each noun in the headline should be a thing a stranger could circle on the screen. If a noun only sounds like a product, cut it.

Watch the verbs as well. Empower, grow and transform describe a feeling the visitor is supposed to have, not an action they take. Write the verb the buyer would use for the task, such as send, upload, invoice or book, and the sentence starts to point at something real. A verb like that also tells the visitor what their first click will do.

Save time and get more done are benefits without a mechanism, so the visitor's next thought is always how. The right version puts the step beside the benefit in one sentence: send the month's invoices from the saved client list, instead of copying figures from a spreadsheet. A stranger can see the saving because they can see the step it replaces.

Benefits that sound like feelings need the same treatment. Peace of mind, confidence and relief are what a buyer hopes to feel after the job is done, and they do not tell the buyer what the job is. Name the job, and let the feeling follow from it without being written down. A buyer who knows the job is done will feel the relief without help from the copy.

Repetition feels like emphasis to the writer and like padding to the reader. A page that says the product saves hours in the headline, the features and the footer makes the visitor skim, and they skim past the one sentence that mattered. Works for every team is a claim with nothing under it. The right version attaches the claim to a named task, a named kind of business, or a plain statement the visitor can check.

Proof does not need to be large. A sentence that says what a customer did, in the words they would use, works better than a badge. If you have no case to name yet, say so plainly and describe the test you ran, with the actual count of what happened in it. A visitor can weigh a line like that, and it does not claim more than you know.

The report gives each visitor's step and the thought they had there. Read the thought beside the line it followed. A thought that asks what the product is points to a noun the visitor cannot picture. A thought that asks how it works points to a benefit with no step. A thought that says everyone says that points to a claim with no proof. A thought that asks which button to press points to a label that names no action.

Edit one of those, then rerun the same visitors. A visitor who repeats your words back, in their own sentence, is the sign the copy now works for this kind of buyer. If a thought is unclear, ask the visitor a question after the run, such as what they expected the headline to mean, and use their answer in the next edit rather than your own guess.

Copy drifts back toward product vocabulary. A new hire, a launch deadline or a fresh idea for the hero can bring the word platform back into the headline. Rerun the same visitors after each rewrite, on a preview address, and check their first thought against the words you meant to use.