How to create a landing page without a website

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

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.

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.

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.

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:

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

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

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:

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

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

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.

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.

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?

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

1. Choose a landing page builder platform.
2. Create your landing page using their editor.
3. 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.