If You Confuse, You Lose: The Clarity Test Every Landing Page Must Pass
Most landing pages get written under duress.
A product demo's running late. There are three Slack threads open. And the only creative direction is a loose “Make it pop” dropped halfway through a kickoff call
A little like Hedwig on Muggles Lane. Noble delivery, but… no idea where she’s landing.
And the only thing even remotely systematic is the briefing. A 30-minute Zoom (if you’re lucky) where someone walks through the product, skims over the audience, and ends with, “It should feel clean but conversion-focused.” If you’re really lucky, you get a 2-day sync block with the product team. If not, it's just vibes and an old Notion doc.
This checklist is my small rebellion against that.
It’s a sharp, usable review system for content folks, product marketers, and founders who want the copy to actually say something and not just look pretty in a wireframe.
And no, I didn’t invent this from scratch. It’s a mix of what I’ve learned from frameworks like Punchy, Copyhackers, and a hundred overwritten landing pages that made me mutter, “we can do better.”
🧭 What This Checklist Helps You Do
Clarify your hero section in plain, sharp language
Ditch fluff, filler, and “delightful experiences” that don’t convert
Anchor every section to what your visitor actually wants
Audit CTA logic, feature flow, and proof structure — fast
✅ Built On
Emma Straton’s Punchy - Anti-Jargon Rules
Stripe’s Atlas Copy Framework
Copyhackers' clarity-first UX formulas
A hundred painfully overwritten landing pages I’ve rewritten over the years
📌 Who It’s For
SaaS founders writing their own copy
Content folks reviewing product pages
Marketers planning a mini site refresh
Anyone tired of vague “value props” that don’t say anything real
🔎 A Quick Look Inside
There are times when you open a landing page and you can feel it trying to sell you something — but you have no idea what?
You scroll back to the top. You reread the headline. Maybe you catch a glimpse of a benefit, but it’s buried under words like “agile” or “delightful.”
It’s trying really hard. And saying very little.
🦸🏻♀️ Hero Section Litmus Test
“If someone only read your headline and subhead, would they know what you do, who it’s for, and why it matters?”
If the answer’s no, don’t move on. Nothing else on the page will save you.
<aside> 🥇
I built this checklist to answer questions I’ve learned to ask on every landing page I touch:
Does the hero explain what it is, who it’s for, and why they should care?
Do the CTAs actually finish the pitch — or just sit there, vague and unconvincing?
Are the feature blocks helping me believe, or just filling space?
Is this something a real buyer would trust? Would I trust it? </aside>
🧠 CTA Alignment Check
“Does your CTA actually finish the story you're telling or does it feel like a jump cut to a sales pitch?”
Most CTAs say “Get Started.” But started with what? Why now?
If your header says “Get insights in minutes,” your CTA should not be “Contact sales.” That’s a tonal betrayal. And users feel it.
🐝 Buzzword Decontamination
You know what they are. You’ve written them before.
Now delete them.
Agile. seamless. intuitive. delightful. scalable. next-gen. robust. synergy. seamless.
Replace with:
what it does, who it helps, and why it matters right now.
🧱 Feature Block Compression
Too many pages try to make every feature sound like a product.
You don’t need five blocks. You need one reason to believe.
This checklist helps you group features by outcome, kill repetition, and avoid the “another thing we also do” trap.
🎛️ That’s just a peek. The full checklist covers layout logic, decision-mapping, rhythm, content hierarchy, and a few uncomfortable edits you’ll be glad you made.
📥 Get the Checklist
There is no fake urgency and neither is it A blowy “limited time only” asset. It’s a free resource that might help your next landing page
Drop your email and I’ll send it your way.
🍻 Here’s to the dead-simple framework to make your next landing page better than the last.
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