If you accept the premise that your website now plays a vital role in determining whether or not someone will do business with you, then you have to start looking at your website for what it is at the most basic level — it is an advertisement.

So that means you have to analyze it like you would analyze an ad. What is one of the most important (if not THE most important part) of any print ad?

The headline.

And what is one of the most important parts of your website front page?

The headline.

Now think about how many websites you visit that have some variation of this headline, “Welcome to our website….”

You would never run a print ad with a headline, “Welcome to our print ad,” so there’s no reason to think that it could be effective as a headline on your website.

You have just seconds to motivate a website visitor to read further into your site and your headline is what will do that for you. Make a promise. Separate yourself from your competition. Tell them what they can get by reading further.

The headline (also known as a H1 tag to programmers) plays a role in your search engine optimization. If your key words are not in your headline, you are walking away from a simple and effective Search Engine Optimization technique. If you are veterinarian, you will get a boost from having the words “pet care,” “veterinarian,” or “animal doctor” in your headline.

If you’ve installed Google analytics, you can very simply test one headline against the other. You can set it up so that half of your visitors get Headline A and the other half get Headline B. You are going to be amazed at how much a simple headline change impacts what you get out of your website. If people read more pages and learn more about what you do, they are more likely to buy or become a prospect.

Testing headlines is the one true way to make more people feel welcome on your website.