Top 10 landing page mistakes to avoid

You wrote the page, so every line reads clearly to you. A stranger has none of that. They read the headline in a few seconds, scan for a price, and decide whether to keep going. Each of the ten mistakes below costs a visitor at one point in that order, so the one to fix is the one at the step where they stopped.

• The headline says what the product does, in words a buyer uses, and names who it is for.
• The main button names the next step in the visitor's terms, such as Start a free trial.
• The page shows the product itself, not a stock photo of people at laptops.
• The proof names what it proves, and the price or its starting point shows without a form.

Mistake one is a headline that names a category instead of a result. Streamline your workflow could describe any tool, so a stranger cannot tell whether it is for them. The right version names the result for a named customer, such as taking table bookings from your website without a phone call. Mistake two is a button that says Submit or Learn more. A visitor who is ready to try the product does not know what Submit gives them, so they hesitate. Write the button as the visitor's next action, such as Start a free trial, and say what happens after it in the line beneath.

Mistake three is a stock photo of people smiling at a laptop, placed where the product should be. It tells the visitor nothing about what the screen does. Replace it with a screenshot of the real screen a customer will use, cropped to the part that matters, such as the booking list. A visitor who sees the screen can say what it does in their own words, which is the sentence the headline failed to give them.

Mistake four is a claim with nothing under it, such as Works for every team or Built for the way you work. A stranger reads those as filler, because any product could write them. Name the proof you actually have: a specific use, a customer who runs the same kind of business, or the exact feature that solves the problem in the headline. Mistake five is the missing price. A visitor who cannot see a starting point will not know whether a form is worth their time, and some leave without saying so.

Mistake six is two offers on one page: book a demo in one corner and start a free trial in the hero. The visitor has to choose between them before they know what the product does, so the visitor may pick neither. Keep one primary action on the first screen, and move the demo to a line lower down for buyers who want a person first.

Mistake seven is a form that asks for everything before it gives anything: a phone number, company size, role and budget. A visitor who only wants to see the product leaves rather than fill in six fields. Mistake eight is an error message that names nothing. Please check your details tells a stranger something is wrong, but not which field, so they retype everything. Name the field and the reason beside it.

Mistake nine is a reply with no next step. The page says thanks after the form, and the visitor is not told who writes next, whether to check an inbox, or what to do in the meantime. A visitor with no answer to those questions assumes nothing happened, and may send the form again. Say who writes next and when, and give them one thing to do now, such as reading the first guide the product sends.

Mistake ten is the one you will not see on your own laptop. On a phone the first screen is shorter than the one you designed, and the button that sat above the fold now sits under the headline, the photo and a cookie banner. A sticky bar at the bottom can cover the same button when the keyboard opens. Open the page on a phone, count the scrolls it takes to reach the main button, and fix the layout before you rewrite the copy. A visitor who cannot reach the button never reads the headline you rewrote.

Pages change in small edits: a new headline for a campaign, a new photo, a button label changed for a launch. Each edit can bring back a mistake you had already fixed. Rerun the same visitors after each edit, on a preview address, and read the step where each one stops.