Your Landing Page Has One Job: Make the Next Step Clear
Imagine someone clicks on your ad and lands on your page. They read the headline. Scroll a little. Look around. And then they think, “Okay... what am I supposed to do now?”
That is a problem.
A landing page should make the next step obvious and clear. Whether you want someone to buy, book a call, fill in a form, download something, or sign up, they shouldn't have to figure out what you want them to do. They should just know.
That doesn't mean every landing page needs a huge BUY NOW button at the top of the page. The next step depends on what you're offering and how ready your customer is to take action.
If you're selling a $27 social media template, asking someone to buy it immediately might make sense. If you're offering a $4,997 consulting service, asking them to book a call first probably makes more sense. And if someone has only just discovered your business, downloading a useful resource or joining your email list might be a more realistic next step.
Different offers require different next steps. But whatever that step is, your landing page should make it clear.
And this is where understanding your customer matters. Deciding what someone should do next isn’t only about putting a button in the right place. You need to understand why they came to the page, what questions they have, and what they need to know before they feel comfortable taking action.
More Information Doesn't Always Make a Better Landing Page
One of the easiest mistakes to make when creating a landing page is thinking, "Maybe I haven’t given them enough information.”
So you add another section. Then another benefit. Another testimonial. Another button. Another explanation of your process. Before you know it, your landing page has become very long, but the person reading it still isn’t sure what they’re supposed to do.
More information doesn’t automatically create more clarity. Sometimes, it does the opposite.
Think about how people actually browse online. They may be checking your page while waiting for a meeting to start, scrolling on their phone before bed, or comparing you with three other businesses in different tabs. They’re probably not going to carefully study every sentence on your page.
Instead, they’re scanning and asking themselves questions:
Is this what I'm looking for?
Can this actually help me?
Do I trust this business?
What happens if I click this button?
Your landing page needs to help them answer those questions without making them scroll around trying to piece everything together.
This is especially important if you sell a service. Your customer isn’t only thinking about the result you promise. They may also be wondering how much it costs, how long it will take, what they’ll need to do, whether it will work for their situation, and whether you’re the right person to help them.
If your page leaves too many of those questions unanswered, they might decide, “I’ll come back to this later.”
And we all know what usually happens when we say we’ll come back to something later. (We don't.)
Decide What You Want People to Do First
Before you start writing your landing page, ask yourself one simple question:
What is the one thing I want someone to do after reading this page?
Maybe you want them to book a consultation, buy your product, fill in an application, register for an event, download a free resource, join your waitlist, or subscribe to your email list.
Choose the main action first.
You might be thinking, “Duh, isn't it obvious?” But a lot of landing pages try to do everything at once. Imagine you’re a consultant and the main goal of your landing page is to get people to book a strategy call. At the same time, you also want them to download your free guide, read your case studies, follow you on Instagram, explore your other services, join your mailing list, and contact you if they have questions.
All of those actions can be useful, but they don’t all need to compete for attention on the same page.
If the purpose of that page is to get qualified people to book a strategy call, then booking the call should be the obvious next step. Your case studies, testimonials, FAQs, and other sections should help someone feel confident enough to take that step, rather than lead them in five different directions.
This is also one of the main differences between a website and a landing page. Your website gives people room to explore. Someone might want to read your About page, look through your services, browse your blog, or learn more about your work before deciding what to do.
A landing page usually exists for a more specific reason. Someone clicked because of a particular offer, ad, email, or piece of content. Your job is to make the next step from there clear.
Make Your Call-to-Action Mean Something
Take a button that says Submit.
Technically, it tells someone what to do. But it doesn’t tell them much about what happens next.
Compare that with Book Your Free Consultation, Get the 30-Day Content Calendar, Reserve Your Workshop Seat, or Apply to Work With Us. Now the action has meaning. The visitor knows what they’re clicking for and what they can expect on the other side.
The copy around your button can make the next step even clearer. For example, if you want someone to book a consultation, you could explain that you’ll spend 20 minutes talking through their current situation, what they’re struggling with, and whether your service is the right fit.
That small explanation removes some of the uncertainty around booking.
Because sometimes people aren’t hesitating because they don’t want what you’re offering. They’re hesitating because they don’t know what they’re agreeing to. Will someone call them immediately? Is it going to turn into a sales pitch? How long will the call take? Do they need to prepare anything? Are they committing to something just by filling in the form?
The more they understand what happens after they click, the easier it becomes to decide whether they’re ready to do it.
Don’t Ask for Too Much Too Soon
You also need to think about how ready your visitor is.
Imagine someone sees one of your Instagram posts for the first time. They like what you said, click through to your page, and the first thing you ask them to do is book a 60-minute strategy call.
That can feel like a big commitment when they barely know who you are.
Now imagine someone was referred to you by a friend who has already told them about your service and recommended that they speak to you. They arrive on the same page, and they may already feel ready to book a call.
It’s the same action, but the visitors have very different levels of trust.
This is why your call to action should match where your customer is coming from and how much they already know about you. Someone who is familiar with your business may be ready to buy, apply, or speak to you. Someone discovering you for the first time may need more information, proof, or a smaller first step.
That doesn’t mean you need to create a complicated funnel for every possible customer. Instead, think about who is landing on this page and what would feel like a reasonable next step for them.
If Your Landing Page Isn't Converting, Look for What's Missing
Let’s say people are visiting your landing page. They’re scrolling and spending time on it, but they’re not clicking.
It can be tempting to start changing the design. Maybe the button needs to be bigger. Maybe it should be a different colour. Maybe you need another CTA halfway down the page. Or maybe the whole page just needs a redesign.
Sometimes those changes help. But before changing the design, ask yourself: What might my customer still be unsure about?
They may be wondering whether the offer is actually for a business like theirs, how much it costs, how long it will take, what exactly they’re getting, or what happens after they book. Maybe they’ve tried something similar before and it didn’t work. Maybe they’re worried that working with you will create even more work for them.
These questions tell you what your landing page may be missing.
For example, imagine your customer is worried about how much time your service will require from them. Adding another testimonial that says “Amazing service!” probably isn’t going to change much.
A testimonial that says, “I was worried I wouldn’t have time for this, but the process was straightforward and most of the heavy lifting was handled for me,” is much more useful because it answers a concern the customer already has.
That’s the difference between adding content because you think your landing page needs it and adding content because your customer needs it.
Every Section Should Have a Reason to Be There
Once you know what you want someone to do, look at every section of your landing page and ask yourself:
Does this help them feel more ready to take the next step?
Your testimonials should build trust or address common doubts. Your process section should make working with you easier to understand. Your FAQs should answer the questions that might stop someone from moving forward. Your case studies should show that you can actually do what you’re promising.
If a section doesn’t help your customer understand the offer, trust you, or feel more confident taking action, ask yourself whether it really needs to be there.
Don’t add a section simply because every landing page template you’ve seen has one.
The same applies to design. You can have a beautiful landing page and still confuse people. If five buttons are competing for attention, the visitor doesn’t know which one matters. If your headline talks about downloading a free guide but your button asks them to book a call, the journey feels disconnected. If there are so many animations, colours, images, and sections that the actual offer gets lost, the design isn’t helping anymore.
A good landing page often feels simple, not because very little thought went into it, but because a lot of the thinking happened before it was designed.
A Simple Way to Check Your Landing Page
You don’t need an atas software to find out whether your landing page is clear.
Show it to someone who hasn’t seen it before. Give them a minute to look through the page, then ask them three questions:
What is this page offering?
Who do you think it’s for?
What are you supposed to do next?
If they struggle to answer any of those questions, there’s a good chance your customer will too.
You can also do the same exercise yourself. Instead of reading every word on your landing page, read only the headline, subheadline, section headings, and buttons.
Does the page still make sense? Do those elements tell the same story? Can you understand what is being offered, why it matters, and what you’re supposed to do next without reading every paragraph?
If not, you may not need more copy. You may just need clearer copy.
Make It Clear What Happens Next
The goal of a landing page isn’t to pressure someone into clicking a button. It’s to make the next step feel like the obvious thing to do.
If someone clicked because they wanted your free 30-day social media content calendar, make it easy for them to get the calendar. If they came because they’re interested in working with you, help them understand whether your service is right for them and show them how to get started. If they’re ready to buy, don’t make them search around the page trying to figure out where to purchase.
Start with what your customer came for. Answer the questions they need answered. Remove the things that distract them from what they came to do. Then make the next step clear.
Because sometimes the problem isn’t that people aren’t interested in your offer.
They just aren’t sure what to do next.
