Landing-page friction
The unnecessary work between interest and a useful next step.
Landing-page friction is effort, uncertainty or failure that makes a visitor's intended next step harder. It can be technical, cognitive, trust-related or operational. A broken field and an unexplained offer both create friction, but they need different fixes.
Necessary effort is not always waste
A qualifying question can help determine whether a service fits. Removing it may increase submissions while making follow-up less useful. Distinguish necessary decisions from pointless work. The goal is not automatically the shortest possible form; it is the clearest viable journey for the right audience.
For a hypothetical payroll enquiry, company location might affect service eligibility. Asking for it can be reasonable. Asking a visitor to repeat the same information on two screens is harder to justify. Explain why a less obvious field is needed when that explanation helps the visitor decide.
Diagnose in sequence
First, test the journey on a phone and with a keyboard. Check labels, validation, successful completion and recovery after an error. Next, compare the page's promise with the ad or link that brought the visitor there. Then inspect proof, next-step expectations and the handoff to the responsible team.
Use actual enquiries and rejection reasons alongside observed page behaviour. A low completion rate can reflect irrelevant traffic, not only a difficult interface. Conversely, a high completion rate does not mean the resulting enquiries are useful.
Measure the whole change
State the hypothesis before editing. If clearer eligibility reduces total enquiries but increases the suitable share, assess the business trade rather than declaring failure from the form rate alone. Compare similar cohorts and retain enough context to interpret later outcomes.
Friction borrows a word from physics, but people are not passive objects. Some effort can build understanding or protect service quality. The takeaway is to remove avoidable resistance while keeping the information and decisions the journey genuinely needs.