Marketing page conversion
A marketing page earns its keep by moving one kind of visitor to one action. This skill is an
index. The rules below settle most decisions. §8 points to one distilled note per guide in
references/ beside this file, to read only when a decision needs more than the rule.
1 · Route the page type by where the traffic comes from
- Paid ads, launches, single offers and email campaigns get a dedicated landing page. Organic brand search, direct and discovery traffic get the homepage.
- A landing page removes standard navigation. In one cited case, removing nav doubled conversion from 3% to 6% (VWO/Yuppiechef). A homepage serves parallel paths (new, returning, researcher).
- Measure landing pages on conversion rate, homepages on engagement. A/B test on landing pages, never on the homepage.
- Give each traffic source or campaign its own page. On a SaaS site every page type (home, feature, pricing, blog) needs its own conversion logic, because most visitors never land on the homepage.
- Benchmark: landing-page median conversion is about 6.6%, and top performers exceed 10% (Unbounce, cited by three guides).
2 · Lay out the page in the default order, then deviate on purpose
Hero → Problem → Solution → Benefits → Social proof → Features → Pricing/process → FAQ → Contact.
- SaaS: lead with the visitor's problem before naming the product. Show the product before any signup wall. Publish pricing, because a gated price loses a buyer-intent signal. Put trial/demo/pricing in the primary nav.
- The hero states the value within ~10 s. It must also work for someone already scrolling, since the most-viewed strip sits ~550 px down.
- One-page site: give every section an anchor id, use a sticky nav with smooth scroll, and put the lead form above the fold with ≤3 fields.
- FAQ: an accordion with
aria-expanded/aria-controls, full keyboard use, and FAQPage JSON-LD validated in Rich Results Test. Rich display is not guaranteed.
3 · Fix in impact order: form → headline → mobile → speed → proof
- Form: name and email at the point of conversion; everything else after it. Cutting 11 fields to 4 gave +120% (Imagescape). Mobile forms are single column with correct input types.
- Headline: passes a 5-second "what's in it for me" test. If a stranger can't restate the offer, rewrite it before touching visuals.
- Mobile: touch targets ≥48×48 CSS px (Google) or ≥44 pt (Apple); body text ≥16 px.
- Speed: compress images, use a CDN, enable caching. Server tuning only matters past a 3 s load.
- Proof: see §4.
- Under ~1,000 weekly visitors to a page, don't A/B test; apply this order instead. With enough traffic, test one element for 2–4 weeks.
4 · CTA, copy and proof rules
- CTA count: one primary CTA, repeated at hero, mid-page and end. Every alternative is visibly secondary. Keep the wording identical site-wide.
- CTA phrasing: first person ("Start my free trial") beat second person by 90% (ContentVerve). Put the objection-killer next to the button: "No credit card required".
- CTA friction: match it (trial vs demo vs contact sales) to the real go-to-market motion. The mismatch costs conversions, not the friction level itself.
- Reading level: 8th grade in general, 5th–7th grade for SaaS. Sentences under 20 words, active voice.
- Testimonials: named, with photo, role and a quantified outcome. Place each one against the objection active at that point of the page. Generic praise gets cut.
- Where proof goes: spread it near CTAs, pricing and feature pages instead of one testimonials block. Moving proof alone lifted trial signups 22% (VWO/Buildium).
- Two trust layers: credibility (logos, named customers) early on the page; reassurance (security, privacy) right at the form.
- Loss framing: only when anchored to a real, specific cost. Never fabricate urgency.
5 · Hold the technical floor
- Core Web Vitals at the 75th percentile of real users: LCP <2.5 s, INP <200 ms, CLS <0.1. Lab scores alone don't prove it.
- Never lazy-load above-the-fold images. The mobile version must have full content parity, because indexing is mobile-only.
- Title tags are 40–60 characters with the primary keyword in the first 3–5 words. The brand goes last, except on brand-search pages. No duplicate titles, no stuffing, no stale years. Meta descriptions stay under 160 characters.
- Structured data is JSON-LD matching the real content (FAQ, Product, BreadcrumbList).
- Word count is not a ranking factor. Size a blog post at ±20% of the top 5–10 ranking pages; conversion pages stay short.
6 · Add the vertical's must-haves
- All transactional verticals: no account before the core action; trust signals at the exact decision point; real photography over stock when buyers judge quality; soft-launch to 10–20 people first.
- Ecommerce: guest checkout by default, zoomable product images at true scale, shipping cost before checkout, a visible return policy, checkout under 3 s on cellular.
- Donation: a single-step form with site nav stripped, suggested amounts from low to high anchored near the real target gift, recurring giving pre-selected or equal, impact stated in numbers.
- B2B/industrial: desktop-first research, spec-first scannable type, certifications matched to the buyer's industry and placed near the RFQ, vertical landing pages, configurators for configurable products, case studies with metrics.
- Local service/salon: in-site booking with live availability (no redirect), published prices, staff profiles linking to booking, visual register matched to price point.
- Church/multi-audience: design separately for visitor, member and staff. The visitor block (times, directions, kids, values) is non-negotiable.
- Multilingual:
/es/subdirectories, hreflang with self, reciprocal and x-default entries, server-rendered translations, conversion-critical pages translated first, and keyword research per language. - Conflicts to resolve per case: mobile-first vs a desktop B2B buyer; embedding a flow vs a low-fee external giving platform; few steps once someone has decided vs deep self-service content while they evaluate.
7 · Portfolio sites
Reviewers filter in stages: presentation in seconds, relevance in under a few minutes, then a deep read of process. Design for all three in that order.
- Curate 2–5 projects (20–30 images for photography), strongest first, grouped by capability rather than by date.
- Each case study runs context → approach → implementation → results (+ learnings), with process shown and outcomes written as outcomes.
- State the specialisation early. Show a visible email address, not only a form.
- Load under 3 s on mobile. Refresh every 3–6 months.
8 · Index — read one note when §1–7 are not enough
| Question | Read |
|---|---|
| Conversion fix order, forms, testing thresholds | references/landing-page-best-practices-convert.md |
| Landing page vs homepage, nav removal, CTA wording | references/landing-page-vs-homepage-difference.md |
| SaaS marketing site by growth stage, pricing, trust layers | references/saas-website-best-practices.md |
| One-page site order and anchors · FAQ section/page | references/how-to-create-one-page-website-guide.md · references/how-to-create-an-faq-page.md |
| Title tags · CWV/mobile/schema thresholds · blog length | references/how-to-write-website-titles-that-rank-and-convert.md · references/master-ux-seo-7-steps.md · references/how-long-should-blog-post-be-data-backed-guide.md |
| Ecommerce conversion · ecommerce build | references/ecommerce-optimization-tips.md · references/ecommerce-website-build.md |
| Donation · church/multi-audience · salon/local service | references/donation-website.md · references/church-website.md · references/hair-salon-websites.md |
| B2B/industrial · multilingual | references/industrial-website-examples.md · references/multilingual-website.md |
| Portfolio: review psychology · photography · marketing/client · student · UX case studies · artists selling · fast-scan (model) | references/how-to-make-an-art-portfolio.md · references/avoid-common-photography-portfolio-mistakes.md · references/how-to-build-marketing-portfolio-gets-clients.md · references/student-portfolio-examples.md · references/11-ux-portfolio-examples.md · references/how-to-build-website-for-artists.md · references/model-portfolio-examples-that-book-jobs.md |
Provenance
Distilled on 2026-09-13 from the public guides at lovable.dev/guides, paraphrased, never copied.
Named sources are as cited by the guide (second-hand), so verify a number before quoting it.
Vendor listicles were excluded; the triage is in the plugin's sources.tsv.