How to Audit Your Landing Page for Conversion Issues (Step-by-Step)

If your landing page isn't converting the way you expect, the problem is usually hiding in plain sight. A structured audit surfaces conversion blockers in 2–3 hours that would otherwise take months to notice through A/B testing.

Here's how to run one yourself.

Step 1: Audit Above the Fold

Open your landing page on a desktop browser set to 1280px wide. Without scrolling, answer these questions:

Clarity test:

• Can you tell what the product does in under 5 seconds?
• Is there a clear primary action (a CTA button)?
• Does the headline describe an outcome, not a feature?

Friction test:

• Are there more than two competing elements demanding immediate attention?
• Is the CTA button visually distinct from the rest of the page?
• Does any element in the first viewport make the product feel risky or complicated?

A well-optimised above-the-fold section passes all six checks. Most pages fail at least two.

Step 2: Map Form Friction

Find every form on the page. For each one, count:

1. Number of fields — Every additional field beyond the first three reduces completions by 5–10%. Map your field count against your current completion rate.
2. Required vs. optional — Remove the "optional" label. If a field is optional, delete it entirely. Optional fields still create hesitation.
3. Error handling — Fill in the form with a deliberate mistake. Are error messages clear and adjacent to the field? Inline validation (showing the error as you type) increases form completions by 22% on average.
4. Submit button copy — Does it say "Submit"? Change it. Use "Create my account", "Get my free score", or any action-outcome phrase.

Step 3: Assess Page Speed

Page speed is a conversion variable, not just a technical one. Google's research shows that a page loading in 5 seconds has a 70% higher bounce rate than one loading in 1 second.

Run your page through PageSpeed Insights and note your Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) score. If your LCP is above 2.5 seconds, your page is losing conversions before a visitor even reads your headline.

Quick wins for page speed:

• Compress all images to WebP format
• Defer non-critical JavaScript
• Use a CDN for static assets
• Remove unused fonts (each Google Font weight adds ~50ms)

Step 4: Conduct a Mobile Audit

Open your page on a real mobile device — not the Chrome DevTools mobile simulator. Walk through the following:

• Does the hero CTA button sit fully above the fold on mobile?
• Are all tap targets at least 44×44px? Buttons smaller than this are WCAG failures and cause mis-taps.
• Is the font size at least 16px for body text? Smaller text causes browser zoom on iOS, breaking your layout.
• Does the form work without a keyboard covering critical elements?

More than 60% of landing page traffic for consumer SaaS comes from mobile. If your mobile experience is broken, your overall conversion rate is broken.

Step 5: Audit Trust Signals

Trust signals remove the perceived risk of acting. Check for:

Social proof:

• Testimonials with real names, roles, and companies
• A logo strip (ideally with recognisable brands)
• Review counts or aggregate ratings (e.g., "4.8★ on G2")

Security signals:

• SSL badge or "256-bit encryption" near payment forms
• Privacy policy link near email capture forms
• "No credit card required" near free trial CTAs

Authority signals:

• Press mentions
• Specific customer counts ("2,400 audits completed")
• Named results ("37% avg. lift across audited pages")

A page with zero trust signals asks visitors to take a risk with no supporting evidence. Most won't.

Don't Audit Blind

Manual audits rely on knowing what to look for. An AI-powered audit crawls your page in the same way a CRO specialist would — checking signals, hierarchy, friction, and trust — but in 60 seconds instead of three hours.

Run a free audit on your landing page →

No account required. No site access needed.