Sign up landing page: where visitors drop out

Most sign up pages are judged on the form, but a visitor passes through two stops: the form itself, then a message they have to act on from another app. The form loses people who are not yet sure what they would be signing up for, and it loses them quietly, with no error to show why. The confirmation step loses people who opened the email on their phone and tapped the link in a different browser, then found they were not signed in to the account they had started. Both show up as one drop in analytics, so the owner rebuilds the form, which was not the only problem.

• How many fields appear before the visitor knows what the account is for?
• Are the password rules shown before the visitor types, or only after Submit?
• Does the check-your-email screen offer a resend and a way to fix a typo in the address?
• Does the confirmation link open in a browser that knows the visitor who started the sign-up?
• Are the Google or single sign-on buttons checked on their own, since a run uses the email path?

A visitor who has just read one headline has not decided whether the product is for them. Each extra field asks them to commit before they know what they are getting. Wrong: company size, role, phone number, a password with rules that appear only after Submit, and a terms box. Right: an email and a password, with the rules printed under the password field before anyone types, and the questions about the business asked on the first screen after sign-up, when the visitor has already decided to stay.

Pre-ticked boxes deserve a look too. A box that is ticked before the visitor reaches it reads as a choice they made, and many visitors do not notice it until a later email arrives. Check each checkbox on the form and make sure a visitor has to tick it themselves if it is there at all. Count the boxes before you count the fields, since each one is a question the visitor must answer.

A screen that says 'We sent you a link' with no resend button and no way to change the address leaves a visitor stuck after one typo. Many will assume the product is broken and go back to the search results. Wrong: a single line of text and a blank space. Right: the address they typed shown back to them, a 'Resend email' button, and a link that says 'Wrong address? Start again', so the visitor can fix the mistake on the spot.

The link itself needs a test. Visitors open the email on their phone, and the mail app can open the link in its own browser, which does not hold the session from the sign-up tab. The visitor then lands on a sign-in page, and the account they just made looks as if it never existed. A run shows whether the link opened and where the visitor went next, so you can see whether that page sends them back to the start.

A visitor in Mimiq cannot sign in with Google or single sign-on, so a run uses the email and password form. If your sign-up page leads with a Google button, the run covers only the path below it, and that path can be fine while the main button is broken. Check the Google and single sign-on buttons yourself, on a phone and on a laptop, and confirm the account they create lands on the same first screen as an email sign-up.

Keep the two paths separate in your notes. A bug in the email form and a bug in the Google button need different fixes, and a single report of 'sign-up is broken' sends the team to the wrong code. A run names the step, so write down which path it covered before you change anything. Write one line per path with the date, so the next person knows what was checked.

A new welcome screen, a changed confirmation email or a different redirect after sign-up can stop the path even when the form is untouched. Rerun the same visitors after each change to the form, the email or the first screen. Compare the new run with the old one, so you can see which step moved and which change moved it.