Most landing page advice is about the page. Most landing page failure is about the mismatch between the page and whatever brought the person to it.
Every term used above is defined in our experimentation glossary, and three experiments taken apart step by step sit in the case studies. Longer pieces with the workings attached are in the field notes.
If the ad or the email said one thing and the first screen says another, the visitor spends their first two seconds checking they are in the right place. That is the cheapest possible loss and it is invisible in analytics.
Do this: Read your ad text, then your first screen. If the same words are not present, fix the page before testing anything on it.
A page offering a demo, a download, a newsletter and a phone call converts worse on all four. Every extra option is a decision the visitor has to make before the one you wanted.
Do this: Count the distinct actions on your page. Remove everything except one, and put the removed items on their own pages.
Send traffic and baseline rate. We reply with the smallest effect your test can actually detect. One email, no call.
A page that takes four seconds loses people who never appear in any of your qualitative research, because they left before anything rendered. They are counted as visits and never as anything else.
Do this: Measure on a throttled mobile connection, not your office wifi. That is the experience of the people you are losing.
At most traffic levels you cannot detect a button colour. You can detect a different offer, a different headline promise or a removed step. Test things large enough for your traffic to see.
Do this: Compute the minimum detectable effect for your page. Test only changes plausibly larger than it.
This is teaching material and our own reading of standard practice, not advice for your specific site. Check anything important with your own specialist before you act on it.
Traffic, baseline rate and what you changed. We reply with the minimum detectable effect and whether the result meant anything. No cost, no call.