# 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.

Updated 2026-09-15 · Source: https://porteur.ai/guides/writing-a-landing-page

## 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 opening | Why it fails | Stronger |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The modern platform for data teams | Says the category, promises nothing. | Import any spreadsheet into your database without writing a script |
| Work smarter, not harder | True of everything ever sold. | Close your books in an afternoon instead of a week |
| AI-powered invoicing | Names the technology, not the outcome. | Invoices that chase themselves until they are paid |
| Trusted by teams worldwide | Proof 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.

> Never show a figure the product does not hold. A fabricated customer count is the one mistake that cannot be undone quietly, and buyers who ship software check.

## 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 of | Write | Because |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Submit | Check my site | The button names what happens, in the reader's words. |
| Get started | Import your first file | The specific version tells them what the next screen holds. |
| Learn more, Sign up, Book a demo, Read the docs | One primary action, the rest as text links | Four equal buttons is a page that has not decided. |
| Start your free trial today | Start free, no card | The 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.

| Section | What it says |
| --- | --- |
| Promise | Import any spreadsheet into Postgres without writing a script. |
| Proof | A twenty second recording of a messy CSV becoming a clean table, and the documentation link. |
| Who it is for | Founders and analysts who receive files from customers and import them by hand. |
| What it does | Detects the encoding, maps the columns, tells you which rows failed and why. |
| Fits with | Postgres, MySQL, Google Sheets, and a CLI for the rest. |
| Price | The plans, visible, with the row limit that decides the tier. |
| Trust | Where data is processed, how long files are kept, how to delete them, the founder's name. |
| Objections | Cancel any time, export everything, what happens when the trial ends. |
| Action | Import 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

### How long should a landing page be?

Long enough to answer every objection a buyer has, and no longer. A product with a simple promise and a low price needs one screen; a product asking for a migration needs the integrations, the trust and the pricing detail. Length is decided by the doubts, not by a target.

### Should a landing page rank, or should a blog post rank?

Both, for different searches. The landing page should win the category and the job ("invoicing for freelancers"), because those searches carry buying intent. Guides win the how-to searches and link to the landing page where it genuinely helps.

### Should I hide pricing to get more demos?

Hiding pricing filters out the buyer who was ready and keeps the one who wants a call. For a self-serve product it costs more than it earns, and the pricing page is one of the first things people search for with your brand name.

### How many calls to action should a landing page have?

One action, repeated. The same button after the proof and after the objections is fine. Four different buttons of equal weight means the page has not decided what it wants, and the visitor will not decide for you.

### Do I need customer logos and testimonials to convert?

They help, and inventing them is fatal. With no customers yet, show the product working, name yourself, publish the documentation and be specific about limits. Buyers forgive a young product; they do not forgive a fabricated one.

## Read next

- [Landing page SEO: one page, one search, one promise](https://porteur.ai/guides/landing-page-seo): Give each landing page a target query, a clear promise, proof, and one CTA. Keep it from clashing with your home page. Steps and examples inside.
- [Pricing page examples: the patterns that convert, and why they work](https://porteur.ai/guides/pricing-page-examples): See six pricing page patterns that convert, why they work, and how to ship them on yourproduct.com without guesswork or hidden prices.
- [Trust signals on a product site: what a stranger checks before paying](https://porteur.ai/guides/trust-signals-on-a-product-site): What a stranger checks in the first minute, the pages that answer each doubt, how to show proof without noise, and a checklist you can ship today.
- [Website conversion rate: from the visit to the signup](https://porteur.ai/guides/website-conversion-rate): The plain formula, what to count as a conversion, why rates vary by page and search, the on-page fixes that move it, and how to measure it well.
- [Pages that get search clicks and no signups: the three causes](https://porteur.ai/guides/search-traffic-that-does-not-convert): Most search clicks that do not turn into signups fall into three causes. See which one you have, how to prove it, and what to change on the page.
- [Social proof when you have no customers yet](https://porteur.ai/guides/social-proof-with-no-customers): What to show on day one without faking it, how to earn your first three quotes, and how your page should change as real proof arrives.
- [Calls to action on guides and blog posts: one, in the right place](https://porteur.ai/guides/calls-to-action-on-content-pages): Add one call to action to each post, placed where the answer ends, phrased as the reader’s next step. Measure clicks and signups, not guesses.

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: https://porteur.ai/