This article is split into two. Click here for the 1-8 mistakes.

9. Your Page Tries to Sell Everyone Everything

Too many offers create paralysis.

Barry Schwartz’s work on the paradox of choice showed that more options often reduce decisions instead of increasing them.

If your page offers:

• three audiences

• six products

• nine CTAs

• multiple conversion paths

…your visitor stops deciding altogether.

A focused landing page usually has:

• one audience

• one primary promise

• one dominant CTA

Confusion kills momentum.

If you have two audiences. Write two landing pages. If you need two CTAs. Test two landing pages. If you want to try two offers. Test two landing pages.

10. Your Hero Section Uses Generic Stock Photos

Nothing says “authentic” like four coworkers laughing at a laptop no one is using.

Visitors have developed banner blindness for generic imagery.

Your visuals should reinforce:

• product understanding

• emotional outcomes

• credibility

• usage context

Show:

• the product

• the transformation

• the result

• real customers

• real interfaces

Every image should reduce uncertainty.

Otherwise it’s decorative wallpaper.

11. You Hide Pricing Until the End

Sometimes hiding pricing is strategic.

Most of the time it just creates suspicion.

Visitors mentally interpret hidden pricing as:

• “probably expensive”

• “sales call trap”

• “they don’t want comparison”

Transparency builds trust.

Even if you don’t list exact pricing, provide:

• ranges

• starting prices

• comparison anchors

• expected ROI

Dan Ariely’s research showed that people rely heavily on anchors when evaluating value.

No anchor means visitors invent one.

Usually a bad one.

12. Your Page Ignores Objections

Every visitor arrives with hidden resistance:

• “Will this work for me?”

• “What if I waste money?”

• “What if implementation is hard?”

• “Can I trust this company?”

Great landing pages proactively answer objections before they fully form.

This is where FAQs, guarantees, demos, onboarding explanations, and comparison sections matter.

Long-form direct response copy has historically outperformed short copy because it resolves objections thoroughly.

Selling is often objection removal more than persuasion.

13. Your Mobile Experience Feels Like Punishment

A landing page that looks beautiful on desktop but terrible on mobile is losing you money.

Most traffic is mobile now.

Yet many pages still have:

• tiny text

• massive walls of copy

• awkward spacing

• hard-to-click buttons

• endless scrolling chaos

Mobile users are impatient because context changes behavior.

They’re distracted. Busy. Multi-tasking.

Design for speed and clarity.

Not pixel-perfect Dribbble awards.

14. You Use Weak, Generic Testimonials

Bad testimonials sound fake because they contain zero specifics.

Weak:

“Amazing service!”

Better:

“We increased demo bookings by 38% within 3 weeks.”

Specificity increases credibility.

Include:

• measurable outcomes

• before/after states

• customer identity

• relevant context

Cialdini’s principle of authority also matters here.

A testimonial from:

• a known brand

• an expert

• a relevant peer

…carries dramatically more weight.

15. Load speed

Slow pages destroy conversions quietly and efficiently.

People don’t consciously announce: “I shall now abandon this page due to latency.”

They just leave.

Every second of delay increases abandonment risk.

Heavy animations, bloated scripts, oversized videos, and unnecessary effects all tax attention and patience.

Speed is persuasion.

Because speed feels trustworthy.

16. Your Copy Focuses on You Instead of the Customer

Count how many times your page says:

• we

• our

• us

Then compare it to:

• you

• your

Most companies accidentally write autobiographies instead of sales pages.

Visitors care about:

• their goals

• their pain

• their risk

• their success

Not your:

• methodology

• internal process

• innovation framework

• origin story

The customer is number one. They should feel that way.

17. You Never Tested Anything

This is the mistake that makes every other mistake more expensive.

Too many landing pages are built on opinions:

• founder opinions

• designer opinions

• stakeholder opinions

• “best practice” opinions

Claude Hopkins argued for measurable testing over assumptions more than 100 years ago.

What matters is not:

“Do we like this page?”

What matters is:

“Did conversions improve?”

Test:

• headlines

• CTA wording

• layouts

• proof placement

• pricing displays

• offer framing

• page length

The market tells the truth faster than meetings do.

Final Thought

Most landing pages don’t fail because of one major problem.

They fail because several small problems reduce trust, clarity, and momentum at the same time.

A vague headline makes the offer harder to understand.

Weak proof creates uncertainty.

Too many choices slow decisions down.

Extra friction gives people a reason to leave.

On their own, these issues may seem minor. Together, they reduce conversions significantly.

The good news is that most pages don’t need a complete redesign.

They usually need:

• clearer messaging

• stronger proof

• fewer distractions

• less friction

• better testing

Conversion optimisation is not about tricks or hacks.

It’s about helping people understand the offer quickly and feel confident taking the next step.