Answer honestly. Get a live score and exactly what it means — the same scorecard Lee runs before touching a word of copy.
**The headline says what you do, not how you feel about it.** “We’re passionate about results” is a feeling. “We help X get Y” is what you do. Score 0 if your headline is an adjective parade.
**A stranger could tell who this is for within three seconds.** Read your headline and subhead out loud. Could a person in your target market think “that’s me”? Could a person outside it think “not me”? Both need to be true.
**The outcome is concrete, not vague.** “Grow your business” is vague. “Fill your calendar with qualified leads” is concrete. Vague outcomes get a 0.
**There’s one obvious next action, and only one.** Count the buttons and links in your hero. If there are more than two competing calls to action, the visitor has to choose, and a confused visitor chooses nothing.
**The subheadline adds new information, it doesn’t repeat the headline.** A subhead that restates the headline in different words is wasted space. It should answer the next question the headline raised.
**There’s no industry jargon a customer wouldn’t use.** If your buyer wouldn’t say the word out loud at their kitchen table, it doesn’t belong on your homepage. Score 0 for every “synergy,” “holistic solution,” or “best-in-class” you find.
**You could explain your headline to a twelve-year-old.** Clarity has no floor that’s too low. If a smart kid would be confused, so is your distracted buyer.
**No sentence makes the reader work to understand it.** Long, comma-spliced, sub-clause-stacked sentences are a tax on attention. Read each one. If you run out of breath, it’s too long.
**The reader is the hero, not you.** Count how many sentences start with “We” versus “You.” If “We” is winning, your homepage is a brochure about you, not a promise to them.
**Every claim is specific enough to be falsifiable.** “Trusted by thousands” is a 1. “Trusted by 3,400 dental practices” is a 2. Specific is believable. Round and grand is forgettable.
**The page names the specific problem your customer has, in their words.** Not the problem you wish they had. The one they’d describe to a friend.
**The problem appears before the solution.** If you lead with your features before naming the pain, you’re answering a question nobody asked yet.
**The stakes are clear: what happens if they don’t solve this?** Cost, time, stress, risk, missed opportunity. A problem with no stakes isn’t urgent enough to act on.
**The customer would read the problem section and think “yes, exactly.”** This is the recognition moment. If they don’t see themselves, they don’t keep reading.
**There’s social proof above the fold or immediately below it.** Logos, a testimonial, a number, a name. Something that says “real people have done this.”
**At least one piece of proof is specific and named.** “Great service!” from “A happy customer” proves nothing. A full name, a company, a specific result, a photo. Anonymous proof reads as fabricated.
**The proof matches the promise.** If you promise speed, show a testimonial about speed. Proof that doesn’t reinforce your core claim is just noise.
**There’s evidence of outcomes, not just effort.** “They worked so hard” is effort. “We doubled our booked calls in six weeks” is an outcome. Outcomes sell.
**The button text describes what happens next, not “submit.”** “Submit,” “Click here,” and “Learn more” are dead ends. “Get my free quote” and “Book a 15-minute call” tell the visitor exactly what they’re getting.
**The CTA is repeated as the page gets longer.** A visitor ready to act at the bottom of a long page shouldn’t have to scroll back up to find the button.
**The risk of clicking is low and stated.** “No credit card,” “free,” “no obligation,” “takes two minutes.” Name the reason there’s nothing to lose.
**There’s one primary action per screen, not a menu of choices.** Every additional option lowers the odds of any single one being taken.
**The headline is fully readable without zooming or scrolling sideways.**
**The primary CTA is visible without scrolling on a phone.**
**Text is large enough to read at arm’s length.** If you squint, so does everyone else.
**The page loads in under three seconds on a phone.** Every second past three loses a meaningful chunk of visitors. Test it on cellular data, not your home wifi.
**The page names what makes you different, specifically.** Not “quality and service,” which everyone claims. Something a competitor couldn’t honestly copy onto their own page.
**You’ve named who you’re NOT for.** Counterintuitive, but saying “this isn’t for everyone” makes the right person trust you more. A homepage that tries to be for everyone is for no one.
**Your difference is framed as a benefit to them, not a feature of you.** “We use a proprietary process” is a feature. “You’ll know the price before we start, every time” is the benefit that process creates.
**The path from “interested” to “in touch” is short.** Count the clicks from homepage to contact. More than two is friction worth cutting.
**Your contact form asks for the minimum.** Every field you add lowers completion. Do you really need their phone, company size, and budget before they’ve even talked to you?
**There are no dead ends.** Every link works, no “page coming soon,” no broken images. One broken thing makes the visitor doubt all of it.
**The page doesn’t ambush the visitor with a popup before they’ve read anything.** A popup in the first three seconds is a door slammed in the face of someone who just walked in.