Landing Page Checklist for a SaaS Launch: 30 Checks With Pass or Fail Thresholds

#How to use this checklist

This is a checklist for the page you're about to send launch traffic to: your homepage or a dedicated landing page for a SaaS, app or tool. It isn't a paid-ads conversion audit and it isn't a full technical SEO crawl. Our website launch checklist covers the site-wide items (domain, indexing, legal pages, analytics).

The checks are in priority order. Each has a pass or fail threshold and a way to test it in a few minutes. Where a number comes from research or an official spec, the source is linked. Where it's our judgment, we say so.

If you only have an hour, do sections 1 and 2. A slow page that's clear will still convert some visitors. A fast page nobody understands converts no one.

#1. The message: what it is, for whom, and why now

Nielsen Norman Group's research on page visits found that users often leave web pages within 10 to 20 seconds, and that pages with a clear value proposition hold attention much longer. Their advice: communicate your value proposition within 10 seconds. That research is from 2011, and attention hasn't grown since.

The five-second test. Show the page to someone for five seconds, hide it, and ask what it does, who it's for and what they'd click. Lyssna describes this method and runs it with recruited testers, but two or three people who've never seen your product is enough before a launch. If two of three get the category wrong, rewrite the headline before you touch anything else.

A quick before and after. "The AI-powered workspace for modern teams" fails checks 1 to 3: no category, no audience, no outcome. "Meeting notes that write themselves, for remote sales teams" passes all three, and it's shorter.

#2. The call to action

Why above the fold still matters: in Nielsen Norman Group's 2018 eye-tracking study, users spent about 57% of their page-viewing time above the fold, and 74% in the first two screenfuls. People do scroll, but the first screen gets most of the attention, so the decision to scroll is made there.

#3. Proof and trust

Launch visitors don't know you. Every claim on the page is asking them to take your word for it, so give them something to check.

On proof: don't invent it, and don't borrow it. The FTC's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials has been in effect since October 21, 2024, and it covers fake testimonials (including AI-generated ones), undisclosed reviews from insiders, and fake social media indicators such as bot followers. If you have no customers yet, use what's true: "Used by 40 people in our beta", a quote from a beta user who agreed to be named, or a short founder note on why you built it.

On the privacy policy: if you run Google Analytics, its terms say you must post a privacy policy that discloses your use of Google Analytics and how it collects data. That's one more reason item 18 isn't optional.

#4. Speed and mobile

Google's Core Web Vitals are the clearest published thresholds for "fast enough". A page passes when it meets each one at the 75th percentile of visits, on web.dev's definitions:

A brand-new site won't have field data in PageSpeed Insights yet, so use the lab numbers as a guide and recheck after launch traffic arrives. The usual culprits on a launch page are an uncompressed hero image or video, a chat widget that loads on every page, and a font loaded in four weights you don't use.

Also check text contrast. WCAG 2.2 asks for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 for normal text. Light grey text on a white hero is the most common failure on launch pages, and it's an easy fix.

#5. Search and AI search basics

A launch page won't rank in its first week, but it gets crawled, shared and summarized from day one. Get the basics right once.

Google's own guidance asks you to write descriptive and concise text for your title elements and to avoid vague titles like "Home". Our meta title and description guide covers the lengths and formulas in detail, and the SoftwareApplication schema guide has copy-paste JSON-LD. For the crawler side, see how to check AI crawler access.

#6. Link previews

Launch traffic arrives through shared links: X, LinkedIn, Slack, Discord, iMessage. A link with no image looks unfinished next to every other launch that day.

Make the share image readable at thumbnail size: product name, the outcome in five or six words, and a screenshot. Our OG image size guide covers each platform's rules and how to clear their caches when you change it.

#Run the checklist in 15 minutes

Most of sections 4, 5 and 6 can be checked by a tool. Sections 1, 2 and 3 can't: they need a human who hasn't seen your page. Split it that way.

1. Automated pass (5 minutes). Paste your URL into Verdy's free launch console. Its website check reads your homepage and scores 22 items: HTTPS, mobile viewport, title length (15 to 65 characters), meta description (50 to 160), og:image, social title and text, X card, favicon, a single H1, a visible call to action, a findable pricing link, first response time, page weight, image alt text, canonical, sitemap, robots.txt, page language, JSON-LD, llms.txt, AI crawler access and linked social profiles. Every miss comes with a plain-language fix, and fixing it counts toward your Launch Score.
2. Speed pass (5 minutes). Run PageSpeed Insights on mobile. Fix anything red.
3. Human pass (5 minutes per person). The five-second test on two or three people, then ask them to sign up on their phone while you watch without helping.

The free Verdy audit goes deeper than the console's check: it crawls about a dozen pages and adds speed from PageSpeed Insights, preview image dimensions and AI-readiness checks, with a severity for each finding. Neither will judge your headline for you. That's what the humans are for.

#Common mistakes

• Polishing speed before the message. A 100 PageSpeed score on a page with a vague headline is still a vague page.
• Two equal CTAs. "Start free" and "Book a demo" side by side, same size, splits the click. Make one primary.
• Hiding the price to "start a conversation". For a self-serve product, it mostly starts a bounce.
• Placeholder proof. "Trusted by thousands" with no names, or logos of companies that once signed up for a trial. Both are a risk now, not just a credibility problem.
• Testing only on a laptop. People open launch links from inside the X, Reddit and Slack apps, often on a phone. Check the first screen there.
• Changing the share image on launch morning. Platforms cache previews. Set it a few days early and re-scrape.

#FAQ

#What should a SaaS landing page include?

A headline that names the category, audience and outcome; one primary call to action above the fold; a real product screenshot or video; proof you can back up; visible pricing; a human behind it; and a footer with privacy policy, terms and contact. Technically it needs a descriptive title, a meta description, a share image and good Core Web Vitals.

#How long should a landing page be?

As long as it takes to answer the visitor's questions, and no longer. Nielsen Norman Group's 2018 study found about 74% of viewing time goes to the first two screenfuls, so put the headline, CTA, product visual and strongest proof there, then let detail (features, FAQ, pricing) follow for people who scroll.

#How do I audit my landing page?

Split it in two. Use a tool for the measurable parts (speed, titles, previews, schema, crawler access): PageSpeed Insights plus a free checker like Verdy's launch console. Use people for the message: a five-second test with two or three people who haven't seen it, then watch one of them sign up on a phone.

#What is a landing page teardown?

A teardown is a section-by-section review of a page: what the headline says, what the CTA asks, what proof is shown and where people would drop off. You can run one on your own page with this checklist by scoring each of the 30 checks pass or fail and fixing the failures in the order they appear.

#Does my landing page need SEO before launch?

It needs the basics, not a strategy. A descriptive title, meta description, one H1, canonical tag, sitemap and no leftover noindex take an hour and mean the page gets indexed and shared correctly. Ranking for competitive keywords comes later, from content and links.

#What is a good conversion rate for a landing page?

It depends too much on traffic source, price and product to give one honest number, and most published benchmarks come from tool vendors with their own samples. Compare against yourself instead: measure visitor to signup per channel during launch week, change one thing, and measure again.

#Final recommendation

Before you launch anywhere, make sure a stranger understands the page in five seconds and can act without scrolling. Then clear the technical floor: green Core Web Vitals, a proper title and description, a 1200 by 630 share image, and structured data. Run the mechanical checks with Verdy's launch console, run the human checks with two or three people, and then pick where to launch with our Product Hunt guide and first 100 visitors plan.