The most common hierarchy failure is burying the value prop. Pages that lead with company news, founder vision, or category positioning ("We're the future of marketing intelligence") and only reach the actual value claim 800 pixels down lose the visitor before the claim lands.
Strong hierarchy moves the most-disqualifying signal up. If the product is only for fintech CFOs at Series B+, that should be in the hero subhead, not buried in the body. The visitor who isn't in that ICP should know in 5 seconds and leave; the visitor who is should know in 5 seconds and stay.
The diagnostic test: cover everything below the fold with your hand. Can you tell what the product is, who it's for, why to believe it, and what to do? If not, the hierarchy is broken.
How Lytms scores it
Lytms scores the Message dimension across multiple modules: above-fold value prop, subhead-supports-headline, proof-density-above-fold. A page with weak hierarchy scores low across all three — pulling the value prop into the hero and adding one specific proof signal lifts the dim score immediately.
See also
See messaging hierarchy on your own page.
One URL. About 2 minutes.