Shorter homepage for a free course offer: +13% email sign-ups
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsA trimmed, shorter homepage lifted email sign-ups by 13% and click-throughs to the courses page by 25%.
Markitekt ran this test for Designboost, a site offering free design courses, and it was published as a VWO case study.
The agency had seen short pages beat long ones before when the offer was free, and tested it here rather than assuming.
- Email sign-ups: +13%. This was the main conversion for the free offer.
- Click-through to the courses page: +25%. More visitors moved on from the homepage.
- Sample size, duration and confidence were not shared.
The change
The variant cut the homepage down to a shorter page; blocks shown are illustrative.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
A long homepage promoting Designboost's free design courses, with more content before and around the sign-up.
Variant
A trimmed, shorter version of the homepage with less content for visitors to get through.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- A free email sign-up asks for little, so visitors may not need a long case before saying yes.
- Less content means fewer distractions between the visitor and the sign-up or the courses link.
- A shorter page puts the key actions closer to the top, where more people see them.
Caveats: Sample size, test length and statistical confidence were not shared. Which content was cut was not described in detail, so the result reflects the page as a whole, not any single section.
Who ran it
Markitekt ran this test and published the results (VWO case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Markitekt →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we cut our homepage down to the essentials, then more visitors will sign up for our free offer because a low-commitment ask doesn't need a long pitch.
- Primary metric
- Email sign-up rate from the homepage
- Guardrails
- Click-through to key inner pages
- Bounce rate
- Activation or engagement of new sign-ups
- Who should test it
- Lead-gen and content businesses whose homepage goal is a free sign-up, such as a newsletter, course or download. It probably won't hold for high-price or complex offers, where visitors need more information before they commit.
Questions
Are short landing pages better than long ones?
It depends on the ask. For free or low-commitment offers, short pages often do well, as in this test.
For expensive or complex offers, longer pages can win.
What should I cut from a long homepage?
Start with sections that get little scroll depth or few clicks in your analytics.
Keep the value proposition, the main call to action and enough proof to build trust.
Will a shorter page hurt SEO?
It can if you remove useful content that ranks.
Consider moving detailed content to inner pages rather than deleting it.
AGConsult