A ‘Real’ Headline – Does Your Home Page Have One?

Many technology business websites either don't have a headline on their Home page, or their existing headline does not get their reader’s attention! What is the purpose of your website home page? It should get a potential clients attention (with

the headline), and then engage them to want to learn more about your services. Your Home page headline is key to achieving improved lead generation results from your website. A survey of 30 Microsoft Partner sites showed 15 (half of those reviewed!) did not display what could be considered a 'Real' headline (Body text in H1 Tags) on their Home page. The headline I'm referring to is not the same as the company tag line or motto. Your motto or tag line may appear near the top of your home page by your logo, or in your header graphic. The 'Real' headline should be text which is placed at the top of the page content or wording. Of those websites which did have a headline, the words either included technical jargon (geek speak), or the words were imbedded in a graphic header area. Words included in graphics are not found in search results. The popular visuals with scrolling graphics, slideshows or flash header graphics are not recognized or compiled by search engines. You need attention getting text headlines in addition to fancy graphics. These findings lead me to believe technology business are either not intending to use their websites

for lead generation, or they do not want to engage potential customers with information about how their services can help their business. The fact is, it means these businesses are missing opportunities to generate leads from their websites. If your Home Page does not currently have a headline - Here are 3 tips on how it should be created to get attention and produce more clicks to your interior pages. 1 - Your headline should be benefit oriented. This means your headline copy should not be about your company, your services or your reputation, but ABOUT WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS.

Here is a typical technology website headline - "Microsoft Dynamics GP & CRM Solutions". You can find this same text on hundreds, if not thousands of technology business sites! Compare this to an attention getting, benefits oriented headline like - "Implement MS Dynamics GP Software and Boost Your Business Productivity 30% This Year" Yes, this is longer, but if you have provided great results for existing customers say this right up front in your Home page headline! The more specific the benefit described, the better. Make the headline

address the goal the customer wants to achieve or the problem your potential client needs solved. 2 - Your headline should contain a keyword phrase your business wants to be found for by search engines like - 'Microsoft Great Plains consultant' or 'MS Dynamics ERP implementation’. It definitely pays to do some keyword research in advance. Find out what phrases customers look for and the popular terminology they use. These phrases may be quite different than what you might expect based on your technology background and viewpoint. The keyword phrase 'SharePoint contractor' has high competition in Google and only several thousand monthly searches. The keyword phrases 'about SharePoint' and 'why SharePoint' have over 7 million searches and low competition across related websites. You are more likely to be found online using very simple keyword phrases. 3 - Optimize the rest of the Home page for the keyword phrase in the Headline. Do this by including the same phrase several times in the body text, in the link text to other pages

(possibly links to pages with more detailed technical information) or in text descriptions of page graphics. In addition, the keyword phrase should be included in the HTML page Meta Data for the Title, Description and Keywords. This will increase the opportunity for your site to show up in search results for this keyword phrase. I f you already have a text headline on your home page - Review the current wording. Can it be improved? Is it unique and benefit oriented? Is it specific? Does it get attention and engage your potential customers, and make them want to find out more about what you offer?

Is it actual text in the page content or is it part of a graphic? Double check this by looking at the HTML page source code! The headline text should appear in the source code or in an Alt Text field which describes the graphic. This makes it much easier for the search engines to understand what your website and page is about, and then display your page correctly related to a specific search criteria. Is it currently embedded in a 'Flash' header? If it is, it will not appear in most mobile browsers or

smart phones. Most Flash graphics just appears as big black or empty squares on a smart phone. To see anything on the page a person has to scroll down. People will not scroll down, will think there is something wrong with your page and click away from your website. Make certain the headline text appears at the top of the page content above the Flash component for mobile devices. For technology companies, all of this information may be preaching to the choir. But, it is amazing how many companies will not do for themselves what they would implement for their clients! Look for the next post in this series - Call to Action tips If you would like to learn more about how to create attention getting headlines for website lead generation and increased customer engagement, please give me a call at 925-271-5507 or send me an email at lane@lanesennett.com.