In: Categories » Internet » Web design and development » The importance of headlines when building web sites
|
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.
|
legal disclaimer
1) Our website is not responsible for the information contained by this article as well for any and all copyright infringements by authors and writers. E-articles is a free information resource. If you suspect this article for any copyright infringements, please read the Terms of service and contact us to investigate the problem.
2) The E-articles directory team is not responsible for inaccuracies, falsehoods, or any other types of misinformation this tutorial may contain and will not be liable for any loss or damage suffered by a user through the user's reliance on the information gained here. Please read the Terms of service
Useful tools and features
related articles
If you have any of these on your website or you have built websites for other people that include some of these ‘No-No’s’ then don’t feel too bad. We all make mistakes and it’s only my opinion right? 1. Flash In The Pan Pan being a slang term for toilet – as that’s where it belongs. Okay, maybe not all use of Flash but certainly Flash introduction pages. What a nightmare they are – ever visited a site where you positively revelled in the fact you got to...
2. How To Quickly And Easily Protect Your Adsense Account From Accidental Clicks
Not a day goes by without somebody complaining that they’ve been shutdown by Adsense because of “click fraud”. Scary isn’t it? Your kids or family members accidentally “stumble” on your website as they’re browsing the net (using the home computer)… and proceed to click on YOUR ads. You accidentally click on your ads yourself while you’re “checking” your site in your browser. Now, I’m sure that some people have accidentally ...
3. What Should I Do For a Successful Business Website
There are just four cornerstone foundations you need to perfect to make your website a success. These foundations need to be central to your way of thinking about your website from now on. Whenever you make a single change to your website, whenever you have an idea about your website, whenever you think about your website in any way you need to think about the four cornerstone foundations – so here they are… Volumes The volume of people you attract to your website is crucial to your websit...
4. The 7 Deadly Sins Of Web Design
Sin 1 - Starfield backgrounds You know the sort – zillions of tiny white pixels glinting back at you from behind the text. Beautiful. Not! In a galaxy far, far away, in a time long, long ago people thought this was cool. It’s not. It sucks and people who use it should be shot. Sin 2 - Anything that moves. Okay, that’s maybe a little bit harsh – let me zero in on something more specific - animated cursors. I know 12 year-old kids that think they’re crap. Wise up an...
There are three markup languages. These include Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), and the combination of the two, Extensible Hypertext Markup Language, (XHTML). HTML HTML is the primary format used on the World Wide Web. HTML can display Web pages with a wide range of colors, shapes, and objects. Although not a true programming language, HTML has increased in power over the years. HTML is actually a loosely defined subset of XML. However, whereas XML is a strict languag...
6. Wireless Markup languages ~ Overview ~ WAP WML WMLScript
The most common standard of data transfer and presentation for a handheld device involves the combination of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) with Wireless Markup Language (WML). Although WAP can be used with other forms of presentation, its coders primarily designed it to be used with WML. WAP Because of the small size of PCS devices, and because they operate with much less bandwidth or speed, than the rest of the Internet, a special protocol was necessary to redefine how they handle data transmission. This protoc...
7. How To Configure Apache or IIS Web Server to Work with WML ~ Openwave SDK
It could be a useful exercise for you to create your own WML program and test it on a live Web server. This requires the following two items: Access to a Web server (IIS or Apache both work well) A development tool to test the programming For the development tool, we recommend that you download and use the latest version of Openwave's SDK, which is freely available to developers at http://www.openwave.com. Once you install this program, you simply need to specify where the files ...
8. Developing a Commerce Site
Developing a commerce site is similar to developing an application, and a structured approach is recommended. This article discusses a development methodology for the commerce site. An approach with the following stages is recommended here: Scope Prototype Design Implementation Testing Deployment Scope The Scope stage involves the following activities: ...
9. Detailed Information about How to Create and Design an E Commerce Web Site
Your business may be small—but the Internet lets you think big. Whatever product or service your business offers, the Internet levels the playing field and lets you compete with bigger businesses, reaching customers around the world who can conveniently buy from you 24 hours a day. The Elements of E-Commerce In the competitive world of the Web, however, growing your business and increasing your profits online requires some careful planning. For every successful e-commerce business, there are doz...










