Landing page best practices that still hold up
The landing page best practices that still work: one goal, message match with the ad, specific proof, short forms, fast loading and honest testing.
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Short answer
A good landing page does one job for one audience. It repeats the promise from the ad that sent people there, shows specific proof, asks for as little as possible, loads fast on a phone, and gets better through careful testing. Most other "best practices" are variations on those five.
Landing page advice tends to pile up. Every year brings a new list of dozens of tips, many of which contradict last year's list. We'd rather give you the short list of landing page best practices that have held up across platforms, industries and design trends, and explain why they work, so you can judge new advice for yourself.
These apply whether the traffic comes from Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn or an email. They matter most for paid traffic, because every visitor who bounces is one you paid for.
1. One page, one goal
The most reliable improvement to most landing pages is removing things. A landing page should have one action you want the visitor to take: call, book, request a quote, download, buy. Everything on the page either supports that action or competes with it.
That usually means:
- No main site navigation, or a stripped-down version
- One primary call to action, repeated as the page gets longer
- No links to your blog, careers page or social profiles in the middle of the pitch
- Secondary options (like a phone number on a form page) only if they serve the same goal
If you have two audiences or two offers, build two pages.
2. Message match with the ad
When someone clicks an ad for "same-day water heater repair in Aurora," the page should say same-day water heater repair in Aurora, near the top, in words they'll recognize. If they land on a general plumbing homepage, they have to work out whether they're in the right place, and many won't bother.
Google's own Ads guidance says to "choose a landing page that closely matches your ad and keywords" and to provide useful, original information about whatever you're advertising. Landing page experience is also one of the components of Quality Score, which Google describes as how relevant and useful your landing page is to people who click your ad.
Good message match covers:
- The headline: repeats the core promise of the ad
- The offer: if the ad says "free estimate," the page says free estimate, not "contact us"
- The audience: if the ad targets property managers, the page talks to property managers
- The look: for display and social ads, the page should feel like a continuation of the creative
3. The anatomy of a page that converts
Most effective landing pages share a recognizable structure. The order can flex, but the parts are consistent.
- Headline and subhead that match the ad and state the outcome
- Primary call to action visible without scrolling on a phone
- Proof right away: a review count, recognizable clients, a short testimonial
- What you get: the offer, the process, what happens after they click
- Objection handling: pricing signals, guarantees you actually honor, FAQs
- A final call to action for people who read to the bottom
4. Proof that's specific
"Trusted by thousands" proves nothing. Specific proof does:
- Real reviews, with names (with permission) and enough detail to be believable
- Your actual review rating and count, if they're good
- Client names or logos you have permission to show
- Credentials that matter to this buyer: licenses, certifications, warranties
- Photos of real work, real staff, and your real location
Google's Ads guidance suggests "adding reviews that show real opinions from other customers." One caution: if you show reviews or testimonials, they have to be genuine. The FTC's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials took effect in October 2024 and covers fake or misleading testimonials.
5. Ask for as little as possible
Every form field is a small reason to leave. Ask only for what you need to take the next step, and collect the rest later.
For most service businesses, that's name, a way to reach them, and one question that helps you route or qualify the lead. Everything else (budget, timeline, how they heard about you) can wait for the first conversation.
There's one exception worth knowing: sometimes a few qualifying questions are worth the drop in volume, because they filter out leads your team would waste time on. That's a trade-off to test, not a rule. If your sales team complains about lead quality, a slightly longer form may be the fix. If they complain about lead volume, cut fields first.
Make the form easy on a phone, too: correct keyboard types for email and phone fields, large tap targets, clear error messages, and no CAPTCHA puzzles unless spam forces your hand.
6. Fast, especially on mobile
A slow page wastes ad spend before anyone reads a word. Google's Core Web Vitals give clear targets: the main content should load (Largest Contentful Paint) within 2.5 seconds, the page should respond to taps (Interaction to Next Paint) within 200 milliseconds, and the layout shouldn't jump around (Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less), measured at the 75th percentile of visits.
The common culprits on landing pages:
- Oversized hero images and autoplay background video
- Page builders that load every component on every page
- Too many tracking scripts, chat widgets and pop-ups
- Fonts loaded from several sources
A plain, fast page with a clear offer will usually beat a beautiful slow one.
7. Test without fooling yourself
Testing is how a good page becomes a better one, but it's easy to draw conclusions from noise.
- Test big things first: the offer, the headline, the form length, the proof. Button colors rarely matter.
- Change one meaningful thing at a time so you know what caused the difference.
- Wait for enough conversions. A test on a low-traffic page can take weeks. Deciding after a handful of leads is guessing with extra steps.
- Judge by the business outcome, not just form fills. If version B gets more leads but fewer become customers, it lost.
A hypothetical example: a page gets 20 leads a month. You change the headline and get 24 the next month. That might be the headline, or it might be the season, the ad budget, or chance. Run both versions at the same time, split the traffic, and wait until the difference is clearly bigger than the normal month-to-month swing before calling it.
A landing page best practices checklist
| Check | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| Goal | One action, one audience, one offer |
| Message match | Headline repeats the ad's promise |
| Above the fold | Headline, proof and CTA visible on a phone |
| Proof | Specific, genuine, relevant to this buyer |
| Form | Only the fields you need right now |
| Speed | LCP within 2.5 s at the 75th percentile |
| Tracking | Every conversion recorded, including calls |
| Testing | One meaningful change, judged on outcomes |
What we'd do
If you handed us an underperforming landing page tomorrow, this is the order we'd work in:
- Check tracking first. Many "bad" pages are actually untracked calls and form fills.
- Read the ads that send traffic to it, then fix the headline and offer to match.
- Cut everything that competes with the main action, including navigation.
- Move proof and the call to action up so they're visible on a phone without scrolling.
- Trim the form to the minimum and fix any mobile usability problems.
- Fix speed issues, starting with the hero image and third-party scripts.
- Only then start A/B testing, beginning with the offer or headline.
Steps 1 through 6 aren't tests. They're fixes. Testing is for the decisions you genuinely can't call.
Frequently asked questions
Should a landing page have navigation?
Usually not. Navigation gives visitors exits that don't lead to your goal. A logo and a phone number at the top are often enough.
How long should a landing page be?
As long as it takes to answer the questions that stop someone from acting. A simple, cheap, familiar offer can be short. A big-ticket or unfamiliar one needs more explanation and proof.
Do I need a separate landing page for every ad?
Not every ad, but every distinct offer or audience. If two ad groups promise different things, they should land on pages that say those different things.
For more on whether paid search is worth it in the first place, see do Google ads work for small businesses?, and for the words on the page, our website copywriting field guide. If you'd like us to build the landing pages themselves, that's what our web design team does.
