Your Landing Page Sucks. Here's a Dev's Checklist to Fix It.

The brief always lands on your desk looking simple: “We just need a quick landing page for the new feature.” But you know the truth. That “quick” page is a minefield. What should the headline say? What sections does it need? Where do you get visuals that don’t look like they’re from 2005?

Building a landing page that doesn’t suck is an art. But as developers, we can turn it into a science with a good process and a great toolkit. Stop staring at a blank page. The next time a landing page task comes your way, just run through this checklist.

1. The Blueprint: Steal from People Smarter Than You

Your first step is never to open a code editor. It’s to see what’s already working. Do not try to invent a new landing page layout from scratch. The best ones follow proven formulas.

For Proven, High-Converting Structure: This is your go-to for understanding the sections of a good page: Hero, Features, Social Proof, Pricing, CTA. This site is a goldmine of real-world examples from successful companies.

Why it’s a game-changer (Pros):

• It’s a pattern library for business goals: You see how real companies build pages that are designed to convert, not just to look pretty.
• Saves mental energy: You don’t have to guess what sections to include. Just follow the patterns you see here.

For Creative and Visual Inspiration: Once you know your structure, you need to make it look unique and engaging. Lapa Ninja has a massive, curated gallery of beautiful designs.

Why it’s essential (Pros):

• Huge, High-Quality Library: With over 7000 examples, you’re guaranteed to find visual ideas for color palettes, typography, and unique layouts.
• Excellent Curation: The quality is consistently high, so you’re not wading through junk to find gems.

The catch (for both):

• Your job is to translate, not copy. Steal the principles, not the pixels. Notice how they build trust or why their CTA stands out, and apply that thinking to your own content.

2. The Name: Find Something That Isn’t Taken

You need a name for the project or feature. The brainstorming session is going nowhere and every good domain is taken.

The Solution: Use an AI to do the brainstorming for you.

Why it’s a game-changer (Pros):

• Breaks your mental block: It generates dozens of ideas—some weird, some brilliant—in seconds. Perfect for getting a creative session started.
• Checks availability: It often has features to check if the domain or social handles are available, saving you a ton of manual searching.

The catch:

• AI isn’t a branding expert: The AI can generate clever names, but it doesn’t understand your brand’s tone or target audience. You still need to use your human brain to pick a winner.

3. The Visuals: Illustrations Without an Illustrator

Your page is just a wall of text. It needs visuals to break up content and explain your feature. You don’t have a design team or a budget for custom illustrations.

For Polished, Customizable Illustrations: This is my top choice. The ability to change colors and add animations is just unmatched.

Why it’s a game-changer (Pros):

• On-Brand Colors Instantly: Paste in your brand’s primary color, and it recolors the entire illustration to match. This feature alone is worth its weight in gold.
• Animation Built-in: You can add simple animations and export as a Lottie file to add some life to your page.

For a More Human, Hand-Drawn Vibe: Sometimes the clean, corporate vector style isn’t right. For a more personal, approachable feel, this is the perfect alternative.

Why it’s a fantastic alternative (Pros):

• Build-a-Person Kit: It’s a library of hand-drawn heads, bodies, and legs that you can mix and match to create unique scenes and characters.
• Stands Out from the Crowd: The hand-drawn aesthetic feels more authentic and less like generic “startup” illustrations.

The catch:

• Attribution: Both of these fantastic resources require you to provide an attribution link on their free plans. It’s a tiny price to pay for such high-quality assets.

4. The “Trust” Section: The Right Logos for the Job

A great way to build trust is to show the tools your product integrates with, or the customers you serve. But you need logos, and you need them now.

For Real Company Logos: Stop using Google Images and dealing with low-quality, non-transparent PNGs. This is the definitive source for brand icons.

Why it’s the undisputed champion (Pros):

• Comprehensive and Correct: It has thousands of up-to-date SVG logos for virtually every tech company you can think of.
• Clean and Simple: Just search for the brand you need and download the clean, perfect SVG. No fuss.

For Placeholder Logos: What if your landing page has an “Our Customers” section, but you don’t have any customers yet? A section of empty space looks terrible.

Why this is a genius idea (Pros):

• Solves the “Empty State” Problem: It provides a huge variety of stylish, placeholder logos. This allows you to build out your layout and have it look polished and complete, even before you have real customer logos to display.
• Variety of Styles: You can choose a style of logo that fits the aesthetic of your page.

The Landing Page Workflow

1. Inspiration: Spend 15 minutes on Saaslandingpage to map out your sections (Hero, Features, Testimonials, CTA). Spend another 10 minutes on Lapa Ninja to find a visual style you love.
2. Naming: If needed, use Namify to brainstorm a name for your project.
3. Visuals: Choose your aesthetic. Grab a custom-colored, animated illustration from Storyset or build a unique, hand-drawn scene with Open Peeps.
4. Social Proof: Fill your “Integrates With” section using crisp SVG logos from Simple Icons, and populate your “Customers” section with placeholders from Logoipsum.
5. Build: Now, with a clear plan and all your assets ready, you can finally open your code editor and build with confidence.