How I run a landing-page CRO audit.
A landing page sits at the front of every funnel. When it doesn't convert, teams reach for new designs — fonts, hero images, button colors. The fix is usually structural. An audit-first approach finds the real friction without burning a test cycle on a guess.
Traffic lands.
Nothing converts.
The team has a page that gets traffic — sometimes warm, often paid — but the conversion rate is sitting under expectations. They've tried redesigning the hero, changing button copy, adding logos. The number doesn't move.
By the time I'm called in, there's usually three months of well-intentioned iteration in the rearview, and nobody on the team can point to *which* friction is the actual issue. Everything is suspect, so nothing gets fixed.
Six lenses.
One framework.
Audit before test. I walk the page through six lenses — above-the-fold clarity, message hierarchy, CTA discipline, trust signals, friction (forms, clicks, page weight), and mobile parity. Each lens produces a short list of findings.
Findings are ranked P0 / P1 / P2 — what's load-bearing, what's lift, what's polish. Every recommendation ties to a measurable test, with the success metric named upfront. No "make the button bigger" — that's not advice, that's noise.
The iterations
- Day 1 — 2. Read the page on desktop and mobile. Walk the six lenses. Record a Loom for each finding so the reasoning is preserved, not just the bullet.
- Day 3 — 6. Write the punch list. Rank findings. Draft the A/B tests that would prove each P0. Share an early-look version with the team for context corrections.
- Day 7 — 10. Finalize the audit doc. Sit on a 30-min walkthrough call to answer questions. Hand off the doc + Loom + test scripts.
A doc you can act on.
Not a deck you have to sell.
The deliverable is one written audit document with line-item findings, ranked P0 / P1 / P2, paired with a Loom walkthrough so the *thinking* travels with the file. Plus the test scripts — what to A/B and how to measure it.
No 90-slide presentation. No vague "strategic direction" recommendations. The team should be able to read the doc on Monday and ship a P0 fix by Friday.
Three things
I look for every time.
1. Above-the-fold clarity is almost always the unfixed problem. A visitor must answer "what is this / who is it for / what do I do here" in under five seconds. Headlines that paraphrase the sub-head fail this test.
2. Forms reward subtraction more than copy. Every field below four costs measurable conversion. "Phone number" and "company size" are the two most common dead weight fields I cut.
3. The CTA is one verb away from being honest. "Get started" hides the next step. "Book a 30-min audit" tells the visitor exactly what happens next — and converts higher almost every time.