In: Categories » Internet » Web design and development » The importance of headlines when building web sites
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Since as many as 80% of visitors will never finish even the headline on a page, it's clear we need to put our best effort into creating them. And the headline on our home page is the one that matters most. Here's why. We can never be sure of the page upon which a visitor may land. This may not matter as much on your site as it does on some, but it holds true to some degree on all sites. Most of the listing returned by search engines do not point to a home page. So if a surfer clicks such a listing, they land on the page to which the listing points. Next Stop, The Home Page The articles on STAT related to site building or promotion are submitted to the search engines as soon as they have been uploaded. A lot of traffic at STAT comes from these submissions. While my statistics are not good enough to prove the following, here's what appears to be happening. A Good Headline Matters One of the early headlines on the home page at STAT was, "Newbie-Friendly Site Stuff." (Compliments of Dr. Michel Fortin, SuccessDoctor.Com - Mike for sure has a flair with words!) Since there is a lot of good information and pointers to free resources on the site, this is descriptive of site content. That services are also offered that must be paid for does not come as an overwhelming shock. In short, this headline does not mislead a visitor as to the site content or purpose. An Aside: The same thing happens if the listing clicked at a search engine site does not lead to the implied or promised content. Since listings are usually generated from the title and description tags on the page, they need to accurately describe the content in addition to compelling a click. Free Stuff And Freebie Seekers Visitors who read beyond the headline, scan subheadings. They will remain on the site only if they find one of interest. The right most column on STAT was headed with "Free Stuff." Options available proved popular. And they generated lots of email from people looking for further explanation or suggestions about where to find more of the same. There is no question about it. Free stuff does draw visitors. But while I respect the needs of freebie seekers, what I really want to do on my site is sell my services. Targeting With The Headline After much pondering, I changed the headline from: Newbie-Friendly Site Stuff to: Affordable Newbie-Friendly Support I also moved "Free Stuff" in the right most column down below the first fold. In the new headline, the first word is, "Affordable." No visitor who is freebie hunting is mislead for an instant. The number of visitors clicking off into cyberspace from the home page increased dramatically. Why is this good? It is not profitable to waste time, energy, resources, or bandwidth with those seeking a free ride. With this small change, the quantity of email dropped drastically. And the quality of questions asked increased markedly. More important, the people writing were, in the main, far closer to being prospects. Drive Them Off! The need for a narrowly defined niche and targeted traffic is accepted by most webmasters. There may also be a need to drive non-targeted traffic off your site as soon as possible. And you may be able to do so simply, as with a change in the headline on your home page.
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