How to create a landing page without a website

Updated on December 6, 2024

9 min read

A great landing page gets people to act in the moment. It combines images, colors, and messaging to make visitors feel like they’ve found the dream solution.

That’s not the job of a great website.

A website’s main purpose is to serve as a digital storefront. It helps people learn, encourages people to take their time and browse, and doesn’t ask for anything specific in return.

Do the two always have to exist together? No.

But there are a lot of marketers out there who still believe they do.

We’re here to dispel that myth.

Here’s how you create a landing page that drives immediate action and captures leads—all without needing a full website.

What is the difference between a landing page and a full website?

Both a landing page and a full website require three things:

Compelling content
Effective design
Clear purpose

The difference between the two is that a full website is like a museum, while a landing page is like a single exhibit within that museum.

On a full website, visitors can explore various aspects of your business, from your services to your past work, making extensive navigation options essential.
In contrast, a landing page zooms in on one specific aspect of your business or story, concentrating on a single offer to avoid distractions and drive sales.

Landing pages are a tool for conversion.

Companies with 10 to 15 landing pages see a 55% increase in leads compared to those with fewer than 10 landing pages.

If there’s too much to explore, it’s easy for the visitor to get distracted, which dilutes the whole purpose of your messaging.

If someone clicks on an ad for “Live Candlelight Concerts near me” and lands on a homepage that also has dozens of other types of concerts—most without candles—instead of a select few that relate to the ad they clicked, chances are that they won’t make a purchase, and you’re probably wasting your ad spend.

Research shows that humans make approximately 35,000 decisions every day. This includes everything from major life choices to trivial daily activities, from what to wear to who to trust. We make a lot of decisions, so we avoid complexity unless it’s necessary.

For our candlelight concert example, it might be more advantageous to focus on one specific concert coming up soon and go deep into the artists performing by using one single landing page.

Josh Gallant

Josh is the founder of Backstage SEO, an organic growth firm that helps SaaS companies capture demand. He’s a self-proclaimed spreadsheet nerd by day, volunteer soccer coach on weekends, and wannabe fantasy football expert every fall.

» More blog posts by Josh Gallant

Image courtesy of Fever

Here’s an ad from Kajabi that does a good job of using a single landing page to sustain clarity and excitement:

Image courtesy of Kajabi

Kajabi’s offer on the landing page matches exactly what we saw on LinkedIn.

We can get started right away without scrolling any further. We see the main offer in the ad reflected on the landing page. Even if we choose to scroll, the rest of the landing page continues to sell that offer by showing:

Success numbers proving the concept.
Different ways to diversify your revenue streams.
Stories of successful entrepreneurs and creators who used the platform.

Image courtesy of Kajabi

Side note—we call this message matching, by the way. One cool lever we’ve seen pulled time and time again is to use dynamic text replacement on your landing pages to match the messaging with where the visitor is coming from.

We know this isn’t Kajabi’s homepage on their website. Their homepage is a much more general overview of what Kajabi is. They highlight different features, frequently asked questions, and provide more navigational options.

Their website encourages visitors to explore. But notice how there are no navigational options on their 3-month offer landing page other than “Start Free Trial” a call to action. Any navigation option outside of that main offer dilutes attention and could cost you the customer.

When it comes down to it, the main difference between a landing page and a full website is focus. A full website provides lots of info and encourages exploration. A landing page targets a specific offer to drive conversions without distractions.

Can you have a landing page without a website?

Most commonly, this question comes from marketers or founders who want to know if you can build standalone landing pages without already having a full website.

The short answer:

Yes, you can build landing pages without a website.

There’s a common misconception that you need a full website that covers everything about your business in-depth. It stems from a belief that if a business isn’t easily found online with a website, it must not be legitimate. But if we chop this idea all the way down to its roots, we get to what’s actually important:

You need an online presence.

There’s no written rule that says it must be a website—complete with a boring about us page, a semi-active blog, a page for your services, an empty contact us page, and so on.

Instead, you can create landing pages that act as your online destinations. These pages can cover virtually anything as well:

Requesting a demo
Event registration
Newsletter signup
Educational resource
Single product showcase
Free trial promotion (like the Kajabi example)

Landing pages are incredibly effective for deepening a customer’s interest in your idea, your business, or your product.

The best part?

Unlike a website, landing pages aren’t complex technical beasts that require developer resources just to keep your head above water or make simple changes. You can spin up new pages quickly, change anything you want on the pages, whenever you want, and constantly test new messaging or ideas (all assuming you’re using a drag-and-drop landing page builder like Unbounce, of course).

To build a professional website, with all the bells and whistles, you’ll incur larger costs:

Domain costs: $10 – $45 per year
Hosting: $2 – $420 per month
Website builders: $0 – $2,000+ per month
Web design & development:
- Freelancers: $50 – $100 per hour
- Agencies: $500 – $50,000+ one-time
Content creation: $14 – $100 per hour
SSL certificate: $0 – $250 per year
Maintenance: $50 – $5,000+ per month
Additional functionalities: $0 – $100+ per month

Cost estimates have been sourced from Website Builder Expert, Wix, Elegant Themes, HubSpot, and Expert Market.

Can a landing page act as a website?

Absolutely.

The one-page-website has become incredibly popular lately, with businesses often creating a single landing page to act as their online presence while they build the business. It makes plenty of sense, too, because one page:

Means less upfront effort and maintenance.
Can focus squarely on the core problem you’re solving.
Keeps your call to action singular and focused.

Let’s reiterate the difference between the two to ensure we’re clear here:

You design a landing page with a specific goal in mind, such as capturing leads or promoting a product. It features focused content and a single call to action.
A website is more broad. It provides comprehensive information about a brand or individual, encouraging users to browse.

A landing page can serve as a website if it fulfills the core purpose of a website: an online presence for your brand with clear actions a potential customer can take.

This approach has grown in popularity with the rise of the creator economy, too.

Award-winning marketers Jay Acunzo and Melanie Deziel co-founded The Creator Kitchen, a paid community helping professional creators develop their craft. They don’t have a fully-fledged website with different navigational items and hundreds of sub-pages. Instead, they use one single landing page to serve as the “website” for Creator Kitchen, and this single page answers all the questions visitors would expect their website, like:

Who are they?

A membership community of professional creators dedicated to helping individuals enhance their creative skills and connect with a supportive network.

What do they offer?

Live and asynchronous coaching, masterclasses, guest interviews, and a variety of resources to help members create higher-impact content.

What sets them apart?

They emphasize personalized coaching and collaboration, ensuring members produce stronger work without relying on generic marketing gimmicks.

What are their credentials?

Founded by Jay Acunzo and Melanie Deziel, both highly experienced creators with a proven track record in storytelling and content creation.

How can you get involved?

Interested individuals can join by selecting a membership plan, with options for standard and VIP membership tiers.

While Creator Kitchen satisfies all the requirements of a website, it’s formatted as a landing page. The only actions you can take are signing in if you’re already a member, filling out a quick form to join their waitlist, or contacting support. That’s it.

They go deep in the problem and how they solve it.

And there are multiple CTAs (all related to the same offer) throughout the page.

This is the approach many creators, marketers, and entrepreneurs take when promoting new service-based businesses, online courses, physical products, or more online. You don’t need a full website to prove your credibility—you just need a well-structured landing page that effectively communicates your offer, your expertise, and why now is the perfect time for customers to buy in.

Do I need web hosting for a landing page?

Yes, to publish your combo of enticing design with your irresistible offer, a landing page needs to live on a server. This handy-dandy connection is provided by web hosting services like GoDaddy, Hostinger, etc. Most website builders these days like Webflow, Wix, and others also offer hosting services.

To spare you the technical details, without web hosting, your landing pages won’t actually live anywhere on the internet. If they don’t live anywhere, no one can find them or see what’s on them. They don’t actually exist.

If you build your landing pages on Unbounce, this is all handled for you. You can create unlimited landing pages without needing to stress about hosting logistics, bandwidth, or any other over-most-of-our-heads technical jargon. Just considered it handled.

Does a landing page need a domain?

Any webpage that is live and accessible online requires a domain.

A domain name is like a physical address for your website or landing page. It makes it easy for users to find you without memorizing complex IP addresses. These are all domain names:

unbounce.com
facebook.com
warbyparker.com
chewy.com

As you visit different landing pages or sections of each website, the domain name (typically) remains the same, while the rest of the URL changes.

Go ahead, click on all six of those URLs.

When you create a landing page in Unbounce, a domain name is generated for you if you haven’t already set up a custom domain. This lets you publish your landing pages without needing to mess around with the technical side if you don’t want to.

For example, if you create a landing page on Unbounce for your company Puppy Bowties, it’ll show up as puppybowties.ubpages.com if you don’t have your own custom domain. We use the “ubpages.com” domain to host your landing page for you.

If you do already have a website and/or domain you want to connect to your Unbounce account, it’s super easy to do. Check out this quick guide on how to connect your domain to Unbounce.

One cool thing you can do with Unbounce is use subdomains to run individual campaigns without involving IT. This means you can create and manage landing pages separately from your root domain—all while presenting a uniform domain to consumers.

Now while you most definitely can use the generated-for-you version that lives on a ubpages.com domain, there are undeniable benefits of having a custom domain.

Sticking with the puppy example. Using puppybowties.com instead of puppybowties.ubpages.com can make your business look more professional. It helps customers remember you and builds trust with your audience.

PS: Shoutout to The Foggy Dog if you actually want to buy some puppy bowties. Aren’t they just adorable?

How to create a landing page without a website

The process for building landing pages without a website is actually pretty straightforward. We can boil it down to three steps:

Choose a landing page builder platform.
Create your landing page using their editor.
Publish using a default or custom domain.

And that’s truly all there is to it. As we’ve covered already, if you’re using Unbounce the third step here is as simple as choosing what you want your unique ubpages.com subdomain to be (i.e. puppybowties) or connecting your own domain.

Here’s the Coles Notes version to save you the click:

Go to domains: Log in to Unbounce and navigate to the “Domains” section.
Add domain: Click “Add a Domain” and choose the ubpages.com option.
Enter subdomain: Type in your desired subdomain (e.g., yourname.ubpages.com).
Verify: Follow any verification steps if prompted.
Use your domain: Once verified, you can use this custom domain for your landing pages.

In terms of how to actually build the page, we’ve published TONS of in-depth articles on how to build landing pages over the years. Rather than re-inventing the wheel here, in this section we’ve rounded up the best of the best for you to bookmark for later.

Recommended reading:

Don’t miss out on the latest industry trends, best practices, and insider tips for your marketing campaigns

How a landing page can be successful without a website

The decision to either build a landing page or a website comes down to the goal you want to achieve. If you want to move fast and make sales, a landing page is the way to go.

But, if you think it’s more important to create a digital home where visitors can learn about your story, your thoughts, and your products or services, then it’s better to consider investing in a website.

Whichever way you choose to go, know that you’re not stuck there.

You can always use a landing page to guide the build of a website. You can also use a website to host a landing page. It’s just that one of them converts 30% higher than the other.

To start publishing landing pages today (and by today we genuinely mean today—not in 4-6 weeks which is actually probably 4-6 months if you work with an agency to build out an entire website first)…

Sign up for a free 14-day trial with Unbounce.

Unlimited landing pages, A/B testing for every single element, 100s of templates to start from, AI-backed copywriting and traffic optimization features—there’s really no reason not to spin up a trial and take the Unbounce platform for a test drive.

See you on the inside!

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How to create a landing page without a website

What is the difference between a landing page and a full website?