How to Make the Right First Impression with Your Homepage Headline

A new website user needs to know they’re at the right place, right away!

Earning a new lead is great, and for many small business owners, every site visit makes a big difference.

If your website’s home page doesn’t convey what you’re all about right away and assures the user they’re at a site relevant to their intentions, you risk that lead bouncing to your competitors.

What do you need to effectively show a user they’re at the right website?

The perfect headline.

Is your website continually converting visitors into leads?

The perfect headline might not seem like a big deal but without the right one in place, this can lead to a user instantly clicking back or visiting another website.

Your headline needs to be clear, encompass what you provide, and how you differentiate yourself from your competition.

Have you had any professional search engine optimization done? If you have, you’re ahead of the game. But if you haven’t then it’s time to brainstorm!

SEO is when you are trying to rank for terms related to what you do in Google’s search engine results. These should be intuitive terms vetted to see if they align with how users see your product or service.

Whoever provided you with keyword goals will have checked to see if those terms are searched a lot and provide you with a list.

Don’t use the terms targeting deep pages. Look at what your overall goals are to see what phrase(s) you should include. If you’re trying to rank for 1 specific phrase above all else, then ensure you include those phrases in your headline.

Without those key phrase goals, it’s up to you to assess what best describes what you provide and why a user should commit to your business.

For example, if you’re a lawyer you know where to start. You will want to make sure your headline includes that you’re a lawyer.

Now look at the specifics of what kind of law you practice and what differentiates you from the competition.

If you’re an intellectual property law firm who have been practicing for a long time, you can put together your headline fairly easily: Example & Example – Intellectual Property Law Since 1966.

Not a lawyer? Not a problem.

Another example would be a professional speaker. What makes you valuable?

If someone asked you plainly why they should hire you, what would you say?

If you’re a great morale builder and team motivator, you could try: Example Name Corporate Speaking – Energizing Businesses to Build Their Own Success.

In both examples we state what the business is and its unique selling position.

If you were a completely new user and had found either website through an organic search in Google or via an ad or social media post, you would know everything you need right away about whether or not you should proceed further into the website.

Don’t treat this lightly!

Take some time and adopt the user’s perspective when evaluating what language to use.

The golden rule is you have 3 – 5 seconds to grab your user’s attention or they’ll bounce. Websites are all about the user experience so don’t start yours with the wrong message.

Helen Lamb