You paid for the click. The visitor arrived. Then they left — and you’ll never know why.
That’s what happens on most landing pages most of the time. Unbounce’s analysis of more than 57 million conversions across 41,000+ landing pages put the median conversion rate at 6.6%. In other words, on a typical page, roughly 93 out of every 100 paid visitors leave without doing anything.
The good news: the reasons are predictable. Run your page through these 25 checks. Most pages fail at least five — and every fix is cheap compared with buying more clicks.
Before you start: one page, one offer, one action
A landing page isn’t a mini website. It exists for one offer (a free consultation, a price list, a viewing, a discount) and one action (fill in the form, or tap WhatsApp). If you can’t write the page’s goal in one sentence, fix that first.
Speed and mobile (checks 1–5)
- Loads in under 3 seconds on mobile data. Google found 53% of mobile visits are abandoned after three seconds. Test on your phone, on 4G, not on office Wi-Fi.
- Images are compressed. A 4 MB hero photo is the #1 cause of slow pages. Aim for under 200 KB.
- The form or main button is visible without scrolling on a phone — or one thumb-swipe away at most.
- Buttons are thumb-sized (at least ~44px tall) and text is readable without zooming.
- No pop-ups on mobile that cover the offer before the visitor has read it.
Speed isn’t a technical nicety. Portent’s analysis of thousands of landing pages found pages loading in 1 second converted around 3x better than pages loading in 5 seconds.
Headline and message match (checks 6–10)
- The headline repeats the ad’s promise. If the ad said “Free first consultation”, the headline says “Your first consultation is free”. Not “Welcome to Smile Dental”.
- It says what they get, not who you are. “Get 3 cleaning quotes in 10 minutes” beats “Dubai’s trusted cleaning partner”.
- A subheadline answers “for whom, where, how fast”. “For villas in Arabian Ranches and Mudon. Booked within 24 hours.”
- The page is in the ad’s language. Arabic ad → Arabic page. Mixed audiences → a clear language switch.
- The visual shows the result — the finished room, the happy customer, the actual apartment — not a stock photo of a handshake.
Offer and copy (checks 11–15)
- The offer is specific. “Save 20% on your first deep clean, this month only” beats “Great deals available”.
- 3–5 benefits as short bullets, each starting with a verb or an outcome.
- The price or price range is shown if it’s competitive. Hidden prices make people leave to “check elsewhere”.
- Objections are answered — cancellation, how long it takes, what happens after they submit.
- No jargon. Read it to someone outside your industry. If they ask “what does that mean?”, rewrite it.
Form and call to action (checks 16–20)
- Three fields or fewer to start: name, phone (or email), and one qualifying question.
- The button says what happens: “Book my free consultation”, not “Submit”.
- The phone field accepts local formats (+971, 05x) without errors.
- A WhatsApp option for audiences that prefer it — in a YouGov poll, 85% of UAE residents said they’d prefer to reach businesses on WhatsApp.
- The thank-you message sets expectations: “We’ll call you within the hour, 9am–9pm.” Then actually do it (see the 5-minute rule).
Trust (checks 21–23)
- Real social proof: Google rating, review quotes with first names, client logos you have permission to use. BrightLocal’s 2026 survey found 97% of consumers read reviews when choosing a local business.
- Who you are is clear: business name, location, licence or permit numbers where your industry requires them (Dubai property ads need a Trakheesi permit, for example).
- A privacy line under the form: what you’ll do with their details, and that you won’t spam them.
Distraction and tracking (checks 24–25)
- No navigation menu, no footer link farm. Every exit is a lost lead.
- Every lead goes straight to your CRM with its source — not into an inbox to be copied by hand. You can’t improve what you can’t attribute.
Printable scorecard
| Area | Checks | Your score |
|---|---|---|
| Speed & mobile | 1–5 | __ / 5 |
| Headline & message match | 6–10 | __ / 5 |
| Offer & copy | 11–15 | __ / 5 |
| Form & CTA | 16–20 | __ / 5 |
| Trust | 21–23 | __ / 3 |
| Distraction & tracking | 24–25 | __ / 2 |
20+: you’re in good shape — start A/B testing headlines. 14–19: fix the misses this week. Under 14: rebuild the page around one offer before spending more on ads.
Instant form or landing page?
If you advertise on Meta or Snapchat, you can also collect leads without a landing page, using in-app forms. They usually bring more leads at a lower cost, but often lower intent. We compare them honestly in Instant Forms vs landing pages.
Build a landing page in Cotnek
In Cotnek, go to Campaigns › Landing pages › Create with AI and finish the sentence “Create a landing page for…”. Cotnek designs the page from your business profile; you review and approve it before it goes live. Pages are hosted for you, can include a “Chat on WhatsApp” button, and every form submission lands in your pipeline automatically. Each page shows its views, leads and conversion rate.
Sources
- Unbounce Conversion Benchmark Report (Q4 2024 data), reported by Search Engine Land and MarketingProfs.
- Google, mobile page speed benchmarks.
- Portent site-speed and conversion research, summarised by Shopify.
- BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026.
- Zbooni / YouGov UAE survey, reported by Communicate Online.
Describe what you need in English or Arabic. Cotnek prepares the campaign, the posts, the landing page or the follow-up — and waits for your approval before anything goes live.
