Landing page glossary
The terms that come up when you work on a landing page, in plain words, with how to get each one right.
- A/B test
- An A/B test splits visitors at random between two versions of a page and measures which converts better. It's the most reliable way to know whether a change caused an improvement.
- Above the fold
- Above the fold is the part of a web page a visitor sees without scrolling. On a landing page it's the first screen: usually the headline, subline, main call to action and a visual.
- Buyer persona
- A buyer persona is a description of a typical buyer: their role, situation, goals, objections and how they decide. It helps teams write and design for a specific person instead of everyone.
- Call to action (CTA)
- A call to action is the prompt that asks the visitor to take the next step, usually a button such as "Start free trial" or "Book a demo". The primary CTA is the one action the page exists for.
- Conversion rate
- Conversion rate is the share of visitors who take the action a page is designed for, such as signing up, starting a trial or booking a demo. Conversions divided by visitors, as a percentage.
- Customer awareness stages
- Customer awareness stages describe how much a visitor already knows when they arrive: unaware of the problem, problem aware, solution aware, product aware, or most aware and ready to buy.
- Five-second test
- A five-second test shows people a page, usually its first screen, for five seconds, then asks what they remember: what the company does, who it's for and what they'd click.
- Hero section
- The hero section is the large block at the top of a landing page, usually a headline, a subline, a call to action and an image or product shot. It's the page's first impression.
- Message match
- Message match is how closely a landing page continues the message a visitor saw just before clicking: the ad, keyword, email or link that brought them there.
- Minimum detectable effect
- The minimum detectable effect is the smallest change in conversion rate an A/B test is designed to detect. The smaller it is, the more visitors the test needs.
- Positioning
- Positioning is how a product defines itself in the buyer's mind: what it is, who it's for, what it replaces and why it's better. On a landing page it shows up in the headline, the comparisons and the proof.
- Risk reversal
- Risk reversal is anything that moves the risk of trying a product from the buyer to the seller: a free trial, a free plan, a money-back guarantee, no credit card, or easy cancellation.
- Social proof
- Social proof is evidence that other people use and trust a product: customer logos, testimonials, reviews, case studies, user counts and ratings.
- Synthetic users
- Synthetic users are AI-generated stand-ins for real people: a language model given a persona profile and asked to react to a page, a message or a product as that person would.
- Value proposition
- A value proposition is a short statement of the benefit a product delivers, to whom, and why it's a better choice than the alternatives.
- Visual hierarchy
- Visual hierarchy is the order in which the eye moves through a page, set by size, contrast, colour, position and space. Good hierarchy leads the visitor from the headline to the call to action.