Landing Page Critique.

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name: landing-page-critique
description: Delivers a blunt, structured teardown of a landing page — hero, offer clarity, trust signals, CTA, friction, and mobile — with scores and rewritten copy for everything that fails. Use when the user asks for a landing page review, critique, or teardown, or says things like "why isn't my page converting", "roast my landing page", or "review this page".
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# Landing Page Critique

A useful teardown is specific, scored, and ships the fix. "The headline is weak" is a tweet; "the headline is weak, here's the stronger one" is a critique.

## Ground rules

- No compliment sandwiches. Lead with the biggest problem. If something's genuinely good, say so once and move on.
- Every criticism comes with the rewrite or the fix — actual copy, not "make it clearer."
- Score each area /10 and justify the number in one line.
- Ask what the page is supposed to do (call? form? purchase?) and where traffic comes from before judging anything. A page can't fail a goal it doesn't have.

## Intake

- [ ] The page (URL, screenshot, or pasted copy — for URLs, review actual current content)
- [ ] The one conversion goal
- [ ] Traffic source (Google Ads, Facebook, organic, flyer QR code — this sets message-match expectations)
- [ ] Who the customer is and how urgent their problem is

## The teardown — nine areas, in order

**1. The five-second test.** Cover everything below the fold. From the hero alone: what is this, who's it for, what do I do next? If any answer takes thought, that's the first fix and probably the biggest one.

**2. Headline.** Must name the outcome or the problem — not the company, not a welcome. Rewrite formulas to reach for:
- Outcome + timeframe: "A new furnace installed by Friday"
- Problem you're rid of: "Never chase an invoice again"
- Specific proof: "312 Des Moines kitchens remodeled"
The vaguest word in the headline is the one to kill first ("solutions," "quality," "trusted").

**3. Call to action.** One primary CTA, repeated down the page — not three competing ones. Button text = verb + what happens: "Get my free quote" beats "Submit" beats "Learn more." Above the fold, visually loudest thing on the page. If the business runs on phone calls, the number is a CTA — clickable, huge on mobile.

**4. Offer clarity.** After 30 seconds a stranger should know: what exactly you get, what it costs (or how pricing works), what happens after you click. "Contact us to discuss your needs" is not an offer. Free quote, free inspection, $99 first visit, 10-minute callback — an offer has edges.

**5. Trust.** Reviews with full names and faces (or at least names and towns), review-platform logos with counts, licenses/certifications by number, guarantees with teeth ("on time or the service call is free"), photos of the actual team and actual work. Stock photos actively subtract trust — flag every one.

**6. Friction.** Count the form fields; every field past ~4 costs conversions — challenge each one ("do you need their address to give a quote?"). Check: does the form say what happens next? Is there a phone alternative? Any surprise steps (account creation, PDF download, "someone will reach out eventually")?

**7. Visual hierarchy.** Squint test: the eye should land on headline → proof → CTA. If everything is bold, nothing is. Walls of centered text, carousels, and auto-playing anything get flagged.

**8. Mobile.** Most local-business traffic is mobile. Check: hero readable without pinching, CTA/phone reachable with a thumb, form usable, load under ~3 seconds, no element wider than the screen.

**9. Message match.** The ad/post/QR that brought them must match the headline that greets them. Ad says "emergency AC repair," page says "Comfort solutions since 1987" → instant bounce. Score against the stated traffic source.

## Output format

```
# Teardown: [page] — Overall [X]/10

**The one thing:** [the single change worth the most, in two sentences]

| Area | Score | Verdict in one line |
|---|---|---|
| 5-second test | x/10 | |
| Headline | x/10 | |
| CTA | x/10 | |
| Offer | x/10 | |
| Trust | x/10 | |
| Friction | x/10 | |
| Hierarchy | x/10 | |
| Mobile | x/10 | |
| Message match | x/10 | |

## Findings
[per area: **What's wrong** → **The fix** (with rewritten copy)]

## Do these three today
1. ...
2. ...
3. ...
```

## What not to do

- Don't critique brand aesthetics when conversion is the goal — ugly pages with clear offers outconvert pretty ones with vague offers.
- Don't recommend A/B testing to a site with 200 visitors a month; they need bigger swings, not statistics.
- Don't pad the score to be nice. A 4 that gets fixed beats a 7 that gets framed.

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