The Complete SaaS Landing Page Optimization Playbook

This landing page audit checklist was created based on my experience analyzing 200+ SaaS websites over the last couple of years.

Below are the guidelines your landing page needs to follow to be in the top 10% of the highest-converting pages on the Internet.

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Category

The type of element, content or attribute the task is associated with.

where

The type of element, content or attribute the task is associated with.

when

The type of element, content or attribute the task is associated with.

General

These are the key items your landing page should check off. Don't move further without making sure these guidelines are met.

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Two CTAs are fine (e.g. signup and demo lead to the same end goal), as long as the end goal is the signup.

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Jacob’s Law says that “users spend most of their time on other sites”. This means that users prefer your site to look and work the same way as all the other sites they already know.

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The more complex the offer (and the lower the users’ awareness), the more content should be used to explain it and convince users to take action.

As a rule of thumb, your page should contain at least as many words as you’d use when selling your product face-to-face. That’s because you don’t have the luxury of being able to ask for objections, so your page needs to address all of the most common objections. [per Conversion Rate Experts]

Hero section

Hero section is the most important part of the landing page as it's seen by 100% of visitors. If you fail to grab visitors' attention at this point, they won't scroll down to learn more about your product.

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Within 5 seconds after landing on the page, users are able to answer the following questions:

  • Where am I? (the company or product name is present)
  • What can I do here? (it’s clear what the product’s purpose is)
  • Why should I do it? (the value proposition is compelling enough to make users want to scroll down and learn more)
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Body

After successfully grabbing users' attention with your hero section, you should use the body section to show them how your product works, how it solves their problems, and how it is a better choice than their existing solution.

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The alternative solution very often isn’t your direct competitor. It can be Excel or a piece of paper. It’s crucial to know what your prospective users compare your product to in their minds so you can use a relevant comparison.

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Clicking away from your landing page can result in users getting distracted by content on external websites and not coming back and converting.

Signup flow

Your landing page was convincing enough to make users reach the signup screen. Now, let's make sure the UX of your signup flow doesn't cause them to drop off before seeing your product.

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Making users leave the signup flow before finishing it can result in them getting distracted e.g. by finding other unread emails in their inbox and engaging with them. When (and if) they return to complete the signup, their motivation will most likely be lower than when they started it.

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Make sure to mark the bar in a way that the first step is already partially complete. Humans are more motivated to complete a task when they feel they have already made some progress towards it (endowed progress effect).

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The further in the flow users are, the less likely they are to abandon the process as they don’t want their effort to go to waste.

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For example, the country field can be filled out based on the user’s IP, the website field based on the email domain, and B2B data like job role, company type, and size can be filled out using Clearbit API.

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Other

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If you’re unsure how your target audience perceives your page, run a test on UsabilityHub to get users’ feedback about it.

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Use TTI - time to interactive metric. TTI is the time a page needs to load all content and become fully usable. Use Google PageSpeed Insights to check your page load time.

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Use a cross-browser testing tool like LambdaTest to check it easily.

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Always check your copy for correctness using Grammarly or QuillBot before publishing.

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Bonus: Pricing Page

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If you don’t disclose your prices at all, visitors will not only get the impression that your pricing is too expensive for them but it also makes your brand seem untrustworthy, and hard to deal with in general. If your competitors display their prices, you’ll lose business to them.

In the case of complex pricing structures that don’t let you display fixed pricing plans, either say 'starting from $x' or use an instant quote calculator.

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When users see a single plan, they make a decision whether to subscribe or not. When they see multiple options, they skip this consideration and jump straight into figuring out which option is best for them.

In most cases though, a 3-plan ‘good-better-best’ pricing is the best solution.

For more complex products (e.g. HubSpot), multiple pricing tables should be used.

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Useful tools to help you with optimizing landing pages:

  • Hemingway App - free app to help make your copy clearer and easier to read.
  • Wynter - B2B message testing tool to get feedback on your copy from relevant audiences.
  • UsabilityHub and Conversion Crimes - user and usability testing platforms to get feedback on any aspect of your page.
  • And of course, an A/B testing tool like VWO or Convert to test new optimization ideas.
  • MarketerHire - best way to hire the top growth marketers already vetted for you. Start with $500 off your first hire.
  • Scrapbook teardown - detailed analysis of your landing page and onboarding experience done by the creator of this checklist.
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And if you have any feedback regarding this checklist or just wanna say hi, hit me up through this form or via twitter DMs.

FAQ

What is a CRO audit?
A CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) audit is a comprehensive analysis of a user journey on your website. It includes evaluating aspects such as messaging, UX, design, information and visual hierarchy, behavioral psychology, and brand consistency.

The goal of the audit is to identify the issues stopping users from converting, and recommend optimizations.

The analysis is based on research, heuristics, and deep knowledge of what makes users convert. Not on personal preferences.
How much does a CRO audit cost?
CRO audits cost between $250 and $10,000 depending on many factors such as:
  • Experience of the CRO specialist or agency reviewing your website.
  • Number of pages - reviewing the whole website will require much more effort compared to reviewing a single page.
  • Scope of the audit - heuristic analysis review will cost less than a full-fledged report including user testing, qualitative and quantitative data analysis.
Then, implementing the recommendations would further add to the total audit cost.
If you're on a budget and need a free CRO audit, I recommend using the checklist above to analyze your landing page yourself. It won't replace an expert conversion audit but is surely a good start.
Where can I find some good CRO audit examples and templates?
Here are some example audits I've done for clients in the past so you can get som inspiration from:
Health & beauty ecommerce store audit
Marketing SaaS audit
Do you offer landing page optimization services?
Yes, you can order your landing page audit here. And if you have any questions about the service, please reach out to me through the contact page.
What should be included in a CRO audit?
The audit report should contain a list of issues and recommendations, together with screenshots (or screen recordings) describing the problems, ideas, and optimization suggestions. The list should be prioritized based on the potential impact implementing them can bring to the business. All insights should be backed by qualitative and/or quantitative data or research.
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