7 Landing Page Mistakes That Kill Your Conversion Rate

The Landing Page Mistakes Nobody Tells You About

Most landing page mistakes aren't dramatic. They're subtle — small decisions that seem reasonable in isolation but silently kill your conversion rate. A headline that's slightly too clever. A page that loads one second too slowly. A CTA that blends into the background instead of standing out.

The frustrating part is that these mistakes are fixable. You don't need a redesign. You don't need to hire a conversion rate optimization agency. You need to identify the specific issues dragging your numbers down and fix them systematically.

We've audited hundreds of startup landing pages, and the same seven mistakes appear over and over. Each one costs you conversions. Combined, they can cut your conversion rate in half — or worse.

Mistake 1: Slow Page Load Time

This is the most destructive landing page mistake because it kills conversions before visitors even see your page. Google's research is clear: 53% of mobile visitors leave a page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Each additional second beyond that reduces conversions by approximately 7%.

Why Startup Pages Are Slow

Most startup landing pages are slow for predictable reasons:

• Uncompressed images — A single unoptimized hero image can be 3-5MB
• Too many JavaScript libraries — Analytics, chat widgets, A/B testing tools, animation libraries
• Custom fonts loading — Multiple font weights and styles that block rendering
• Render-blocking CSS — External stylesheets that prevent the page from displaying
• No CDN — Serving assets from a single server location

How to Fix It

Test your page speed first. Use Google PageSpeed Insights and aim for a score above 90 on both mobile and desktop.

Quick wins:

• Compress images to WebP format — saves 50-80% file size
• Lazy load images below the fold
• Remove third-party scripts you're not actively using
• Inline critical CSS and defer the rest
• Enable gzip or Brotli compression on your server
• Use a CDN (Cloudflare has a free tier)

Target performance metrics:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Under 2.5 seconds
• First Input Delay (FID): Under 100 milliseconds
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Under 0.1

If your page builder is inherently slow, a custom-built landing page gives you full control over every byte that loads. We compare the performance tradeoffs in our Webflow vs custom landing page guide.

Mistake 2: Too Many CTAs (or Too Few)

Having multiple competing calls-to-action is like asking a friend "Do you want pizza, sushi, burgers, or tacos?" They'll spend more time deciding than eating. The same thing happens on landing pages with too many options.

The Problem

Every landing page should have one primary action you want visitors to take. Not three. Not five. One.

Common offenders:

• "Start free trial" AND "Schedule a demo" AND "Download the whitepaper" all competing in the same section
• Navigation menu with 8 links pulling attention away from the CTA
• Social media links in the header (why would you send people away?)
• Multiple "Learn more" links to different pages

How to Fix It

Pick one primary CTA. Everything else is secondary or gets removed.

Remove navigation links — or at minimum, make them visually minimal. Your landing page has one job: convert. Every link that doesn't serve that goal is a leak in your funnel.

The exception: You can repeat the same CTA multiple times throughout the page. Having "Start free trial" in the hero, after features, and at the bottom isn't too many CTAs — it's the same CTA in multiple convenient locations.

The "Too Few" Problem

The opposite mistake also exists: a single CTA at the bottom of a long page. If a visitor is convinced after reading your hero section, they have to scroll past everything else to find the signup button. Add your CTA at every natural decision point.

Mistake 3: No Social Proof (or Weak Social Proof)

Visitors arrive at your landing page with skepticism. They've been burned by products that overpromised and underdelivered. Social proof is what bridges the trust gap — and without it, your claims are just claims.

What Counts as Weak Social Proof

• Generic testimonials with no name, no title, no company ("Great product!" — John)
• Stock photos next to testimonial quotes (visitors can tell)
• Logos of companies you've "worked with" that are actually friends or one-off conversations
• "As featured in" badges for publications that never actually featured you

What Strong Social Proof Looks Like

• Named testimonials with title, company, photo, and a specific result
• Case studies with measurable outcomes ("Reduced churn by 23% in 90 days")
• Customer logos that your target audience would recognize
• Real user counts ("Trusted by 8,400+ teams")
• Third-party validation (G2 ratings, Capterra reviews, Product Hunt badges)

If You're Pre-Launch

You can still build social proof without customers. Show your team's credentials, display advisor names, share your waitlist count, or highlight the problem with data that validates demand. Our pre-launch landing page guide covers strategies for building trust before you have users.

Mistake 4: A Headline That Says Nothing

Your headline is the first — and often only — thing visitors read. If it doesn't immediately communicate what you do and who you do it for, visitors leave. It takes less than 3 seconds for a visitor to decide whether to keep reading or hit the back button.

Headlines That Fail

• "The Future of Work" — What does this even mean?
• "Reimagine Your Workflow" — Vague, generic, forgettable
• "Welcome to [Company Name]" — Wastes the most valuable real estate on the page
• "The All-in-One Solution" — For what? For whom?
• "Powered by AI" — So is everything in 2026. What does it DO?

Headlines That Work

• "Build proposals that close 40% more deals" — Specific outcome, specific audience
• "Track every delivery from warehouse to doorstep" — Clear product, clear use case
• "The CRM that doesn't require a CRM administrator" — Addresses a known pain point
• "Stop losing customers to slow support responses" — Names the problem directly

The Clarity Test

Show your headline to someone who knows nothing about your product. Ask them: "What does this company sell?" If they can't answer, rewrite it. For detailed headline formulas that consistently convert, see our landing page copy guide for startups.

Mistake 5: Terrible Mobile Experience

Over 60% of web traffic is mobile. Despite this, most founders design their landing page on a desktop monitor and check mobile as an afterthought. The result is a page that technically works on mobile but feels terrible to use.

Common Mobile Problems

• Text too small — Anything under 16px requires pinching to read
• Tap targets too close together — Links and buttons that are easy to mis-tap
• Horizontal scrolling — Content wider than the screen
• Pop-ups that cover the screen — Especially on iOS where closing them is hard
• Videos that don't play — Auto-playing videos that fail on mobile browsers
• Forms that are painful — Tiny input fields, dropdown menus instead of toggles

How to Fix It

Design mobile-first. Start with the mobile layout and scale up to desktop, not the other way around.

Test on actual devices. Chrome DevTools responsive mode misses real-world issues: slow loading on cellular connections, touch interaction problems, and keyboard behavior quirks.

Mobile-specific optimizations:

• Full-width CTA buttons
• Minimum 44x44px tap targets
• Sticky header with CTA on scroll
• Simplified content (less text, more visuals)
• Collapsible FAQ sections

Mistake 6: No Clear Value Proposition

A value proposition answers three questions: What do you do? Who do you do it for? Why is it better than alternatives? If your landing page doesn't answer all three within the first scroll, visitors have no reason to keep reading.

Signs Your Value Proposition Is Missing

• Visitors can't explain what you do after 10 seconds on the page
• Your bounce rate is above 70%
• You describe features but never explain the benefit
• The word "innovative" or "cutting-edge" appears on your page
• You could swap your company name for a competitor's and the page still makes sense

How to Fix It

Use the "For [audience], who [need], our product is a [category] that [key benefit], unlike [alternative], which [limitation]" framework.

Example: "For SaaS founders who need to ship fast, Soatech is a development agency that delivers working MVPs in 2-4 weeks, unlike traditional agencies that take months and charge enterprise rates."

This framework forces specificity. You can't hide behind vague claims when you have to name your audience, their need, and your differentiator.

Place this value proposition in your hero section. The headline captures the essence. The subheadline expands on it. The supporting visual makes it tangible.

Mistake 7: Hidden or Missing Pricing Information

Founders hide pricing for two reasons: they're afraid of sticker shock, or they want to force visitors into a sales conversation. Both reasons cost conversions.

Why Hiding Pricing Backfires

When visitors can't find pricing, they assume one of two things: it's expensive, or the company is being evasive. Neither assumption leads to conversion.

Research from Gartner shows that B2B buyers complete 57% of the purchase decision before ever talking to sales. If your pricing page is behind a "Contact Us" wall, most visitors will simply go to a competitor who shows their prices transparently.

When You Should Show Pricing

• You have standardized pricing tiers
• Your target customers are small to medium businesses
• Competitors show their pricing
• Your pricing is competitive
• Self-serve signup is part of your model

When Hiding Pricing Might Be Acceptable

• Enterprise sales with complex, customized pricing
• High-ticket consulting where the price depends on scope
• Regulated industries where pricing requires context

Even in these cases, provide a starting price or price range. "Starting at $500/month" or "Custom plans from $10,000" sets expectations without requiring a sales call.

How to Present Pricing

The Audit Checklist

Use this checklist to audit your landing page for all seven mistakes:

• Page loads in under 3 seconds on mobile (test with PageSpeed Insights)
• One clear primary CTA, repeated at natural decision points
• Named testimonials with specific results, or other credible social proof
• Headline clearly states what you do and for whom
• Page looks and works great on mobile devices (test on real phones)
• Value proposition is clear within the first scroll
• Pricing is visible (or price range provided)

If you check all seven boxes, your landing page is ahead of 90% of startup pages. If you're missing two or more, you have clear optimization targets that should improve your conversion rate.

For a full breakdown of what a high-converting page structure looks like, read our guide on the anatomy of a perfect SaaS landing page.

Fix the Mistakes, Fix the Conversions

Every one of these mistakes is fixable — most within a few hours. You don't need a complete redesign. You need targeted fixes to the specific elements that are costing you conversions.

Start with page speed (Mistake 1) because it affects everything else. Then work through the list. Measure your conversion rate before and after each change so you know what's working.

Want a professional audit of your landing page? Talk to our team — we'll identify exactly what's holding your conversion rate back and build a page that eliminates every mistake on this list.