The Landing Page Teardown Template

Somebody looks at a landing page, notices the headline is weak, and writes eleven paragraphs about the headline. The headline may well be weak. It is rarely what is costing the conversion, and the eleven paragraphs have now made it the client’s priority.

A teardown that starts with an opinion finds evidence for that opinion. This template exists to delay the opinion long enough for the page to say something, and it does it with six questions asked in a fixed order.

Inside: the six questions and why the order matters; the five-second test with the four rules that make it worth running; the squint test and the link-text-only test, which need no software and repeatedly find that the most prominent thing on a page is not the thing the page is for; and how to write the findings up so a client acts rather than politely thanks you.

There is a section of sentences that work in a client meeting and sentences that do not, because a correct finding delivered badly changes nothing.

What it is not: a promise about traffic. A page converting badly because it is sent the wrong visitors will fail every check here, and no teardown will surface that. The template says so and tells you what to ask first.

8 pages, A4, formatted for printing. Delivered as a PDF immediately after payment.