The Homepage Conversion Audit Checklist: 18 Things to Check

A Homepage Has a Different Job Than a Landing Page

A landing page is built for one intent from one traffic source. A homepage has to handle multiple intents at once — first-time visitors who don't know your product yet, returning visitors looking for something specific, and people who arrived from a dozen different referral sources with different expectations. That means a homepage audit checks for different things than a landing page audit: routing and navigation clarity matter here in a way they don't on a single-intent landing page.

First 5 Seconds (4 checks)

• Can a visitor who has never heard of you tell what the product/company does within 5 seconds?
• Is the value proposition specific to your actual product, or generic enough to apply to any competitor?
• Is there a single, clear next step visible without scrolling (not three competing CTAs)?
• Does the hero avoid jargon that only makes sense to people who already understand the category?

Routing & Navigation (4 checks)

• Can different visitor types (new customer, returning customer, evaluating buyer) each find their path within one or two clicks?
• Is the main navigation limited to genuinely important destinations, not every page on the site?
• If you serve multiple distinct audiences or use cases, does the homepage route them, or does it force everyone through the same generic message?
• Is search (if present) easy to find for visitors who know exactly what they want?

Trust & Credibility (4 checks)

• Is there real evidence beyond your own claims — and can every specific number or testimonial shown actually be verified?
• If customer logos are shown, are they real, current customers you can name if asked?
• Does the page acknowledge who the product is and isn't for, rather than claiming to be right for everyone?
• Are security/compliance signals visible if relevant to your buyer (especially B2B/SaaS)?

Conversion Paths (3 checks)

• Is there a low-commitment next step (free trial, free audit, demo) as well as a path for people who are ready to buy now?
• Does the primary CTA repeat at reasonable intervals down the page, not just once at the top?
• Is pricing (or a clear path to it) reachable without hunting, if pricing transparency fits your sales motion?

Technical & Mobile (3 checks)

• Does the homepage load fast enough on mobile that impatient visitors don't bounce before it renders?
• Is the mobile navigation genuinely usable (proper hamburger menu, adequate tap targets), not a squeezed desktop layout?
• Do any promotional banners or announcement bars push the actual content and navigation out of view, especially on mobile?

The One Question That Matters Most

After going through all 18 checks, ask one more: if you handed this homepage to five people who'd never seen it, could each of them tell you what the product does and what to do next? If the answer varies by person, the routing and clarity checks above are where to look first — a homepage that works for one visitor type but confuses another is usually a hierarchy problem, not a content problem.

To run this same structured pass automatically and get findings ranked by impact, see the homepage conversion audit or the underlying conversion rate optimization audit methodology.