What Words Are You Using?

The fifth deadly mistake of home page design is poor use of copy and copy optimization techniques. A big component of this is using strong, compelling headlines.

Remember, when someone lands on your home page, one of the first things they’ll read is your main headline. If you’re using that brief moment unwisely, you could loose that visitor before they know what you have to offer.

Your headline often determines if a visitor stays to read some more, or just moves on to another website.

So, your headline needs to present a benefit that your website visitor is looking for. There are numerous headline formulas you can use:

• Who Else Wants …. some amazing benefit.
• The Secret to/of …. something that has been eluding your target market.
• How to … get or do something your target market desires
• Increase Your …. something they want to increase …. within … a short period of time.
• Warning: …. do this and you’ll get amazing results, or don’t do this and you’ll get awful results

But the key is to know the benefit your target market will gain from working with you and communicate that benefit if your headlines … using words your target market understands and finds compelling.

You can learn more about headlines from these resources:

• 10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work and Warning: Use These 5 Surefire Headline Formulas at Your Own Risk”, both from CopyBlogger.com
• 10 headline formulas that work like magic, from Copywriting.com
• 5 Sure-Fire Social Media Headline Formulas That Work, from Pronet Advertising
• 10 Winning Headline Formulas …, by Daniel Levis

Want to know what all five deadly mistakes are? Grab a copy of my new book, Home Sweet Home Page: The 5 Deadly Mistakes Authors, Speakers and Coaches Make with Their Website’s Home Page and How To Fix Them! at www.homesweethomepagebook.com. Stop by the website between March 15 and 19, 2010, to join the launch and housewarming party, and download a plethora of free gifts!