Writing a landing page that ranks and converts

A landing page makes one promise, proves it, answers the objections in the order they arrive, and asks once. Search adds three things to that: a title that matches what buyers type, the words they use rather than yours, and the questions they ask before paying. Here is the structure, with a worked example on a fictional product.

By , founder of Porteur · Updated 15 September 2026 · Markdown

One promise, in the buyer's words

The first line says what the product does for whom. Not the category, not the mission, not the technology. If a visitor cannot repeat your promise after five seconds, nothing below it will be read.

Weak openingWhy it failsStronger
The modern platform for data teamsSays the category, promises nothing.Import any spreadsheet into your database without writing a script
Work smarter, not harderTrue of everything ever sold.Close your books in an afternoon instead of a week
AI-powered invoicingNames the technology, not the outcome.Invoices that chase themselves until they are paid
Trusted by teams worldwideProof before a claim to prove.The promise first, this line second, with named customers

The words matter as much as the claim. Use the ones your buyers use in support tickets and sales calls, not the ones your team uses internally. If customers say "chasing invoices" and you say "receivables automation", you are writing a page for a search nobody makes.

The proof goes directly under the promise

Every promise creates a doubt. Answer it in the same screen, with the strongest evidence you honestly have.

  • A screenshot of the real product doing the thing, not an illustration of a dashboard that does not exist.
  • A number you can stand behind, with its source named. If you have none yet, say what the product does instead of inventing one.
  • A quote with a name, a role and a company, used with permission.
  • The logos of customers who agreed to appear, and none who did not.
  • A link to the documentation, which proves the product is real more effectively than any adjective.

Answer the objections in the order they arrive

A visitor's doubts come in a predictable sequence. The page should answer each one just before it is asked, which means the order of the sections is not a design choice.

  1. Is this for me?

    Name the reader: the solo founder, the two-person finance team, the agency with twenty clients. Being specific loses people who would not have bought anyway.

  2. What exactly does it do?

    The three or four things it does, each in a line, each with the screenshot or the example. Not eleven features.

  3. Will it work with what I have?

    The integrations, the import, the export. This is where most technical buyers decide.

  4. What does it cost, and what happens then?

    The price, or a link to it that is one click away. A page that hides pricing loses the buyer who was ready.

  5. Can I trust you with this?

    Who you are, where the data lives, how to get it out, how to reach a person. The trust signals belong here, not at the top.

  6. What if it goes wrong?

    Cancellation, refunds, the trial's end. Answering this removes the last reason to close the tab.

One call to action, repeated, never multiplied

One action, phrased as what happens next in the reader's terms. Repeat the same button as the page gets long, but do not offer a second, competing action beside it.

Instead ofWriteBecause
SubmitCheck my siteThe button names what happens, in the reader's words.
Get startedImport your first fileThe specific version tells them what the next screen holds.
Learn more, Sign up, Book a demo, Read the docsOne primary action, the rest as text linksFour equal buttons is a page that has not decided.
Start your free trial todayStart free, no cardThe objection is answered inside the button.

Where the action sits matters as much as its words: put it where the reader has just been convinced, which is after the proof and again after the objections, not floating over the text they are trying to read.

What search adds to a landing page

A landing page that ranks is a landing page that also happens to answer a search. Three additions do most of the work, and none of them requires writing for a machine.

  • The title tag matches what buyers type, which is usually the category plus the qualifier: "Invoicing for freelance designers" rather than "Yourproduct | Home".
  • The words on the page are the words buyers search. Read your own Search Console queries and your support tickets, and use the phrasing you find there.
  • The questions buyers ask before paying become a short FAQ at the foot of the page: cancellation, limits, what happens at the end of a trial, what data you hold. These are the sections assistants quote when someone asks about you.

One more technical rule: the text must be in the HTML. A page whose promise and proof only appear after JavaScript runs is read late by Google and not at all by the AI crawlers that answer questions about your category.

A worked example

Take yourproduct.com, a fictional tool that imports spreadsheets into a database. Here is the page, in order.

SectionWhat it says
PromiseImport any spreadsheet into Postgres without writing a script.
ProofA twenty second recording of a messy CSV becoming a clean table, and the documentation link.
Who it is forFounders and analysts who receive files from customers and import them by hand.
What it doesDetects the encoding, maps the columns, tells you which rows failed and why.
Fits withPostgres, MySQL, Google Sheets, and a CLI for the rest.
PriceThe plans, visible, with the row limit that decides the tier.
TrustWhere data is processed, how long files are kept, how to delete them, the founder's name.
ObjectionsCancel any time, export everything, what happens when the trial ends.
ActionImport your first file, no card.

The title for that page is "Import spreadsheets into Postgres without a script", because that is the search a buyer makes. The page then ranks for the job it does, which is the only search that brings someone ready to pay.

What to measure afterwards

Do not judge a landing page on its conversion rate alone. Judge it against where the visitors came from, because the same page converts very differently by source.

  1. Split by landing page and channel

    Sessions that began on the page, from organic search, and the key event that follows. A rate mixed across sources tells you nothing.

  2. Collect enough sessions

    A few hundred before you call a result. Below that you are reading noise.

  3. Change one thing

    The promise, or the proof, or the action. Change three and you learn nothing.

  4. Read the search side too

    In Search Console, the queries the page appears for tell you whether the title is attracting the buyer you wrote for, or someone else entirely.

Questions

Check my site, free

Paste your URL and the free check reads your site and the searches around it in about thirty seconds, then names the pages buyers land on and leave.

  • Free check, no card
  • Read-only, your own accounts
  • Readable by your agent

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