Landing page design 101 | Starter Story

The most important thing on a landing page is what visitors see before they scroll. One experienced designer estimates they spend 80% of their time on what's "above the fold"—the hero section. This is the first thing people see when they open a website, and it has to deliver the full message within the first couple seconds. Anything that saves the visitor time or money, or solves a painful problem, should be in the headline and subheading, followed by a clear call to action.

The psychology of first impressions

The reason the hero section matters so much comes down to how people make decisions online. Visitors arrive with a specific problem or desire, and they're scanning for a quick answer to one question: "Is this for me?" If the page doesn't answer that within seconds, they leave. The designer explains that people don't read landing pages the way they read articles—they skim, looking for signals that match their need.

This is why vague or clever headlines fail. A headline like "Revolutionize Your Workflow" tells the visitor nothing concrete. A better headline names the problem directly: "Stop Wasting Hours on Manual Data Entry." The subheading then adds the mechanism: "Our tool automatically syncs your spreadsheets with your CRM in real time." The visitor instantly knows whether this applies to them.