Your Site: The Most Important Feature

In her book Web Copy That Sells, Maria Veloso explains why a web site's headline is its most important feature. She explains that a good headline can make a site. She also explains that if the headline doesn't move people, the site won't perform. If you want to dramatically improve your site in minutes, rewrite your headline. Here are four reasons why you should:

1. Five times as many people read your headline as read your body copy. If the headline doesn't sell your product, you've just wasted 90 percent of your effort (from David Ogilvy author of Confessions of an Advertising Man).

2. Advertising copywriters develop as many as 50 alternative headlines for a single ad. They critique, modify, and test until they find one that works. That's how important the headline is to the success of the product.

3. 75 percent of the buying decisions are made on the headline alone. You should take the subject of the headline more seriously than any other aspect of web copy (from John Caples author of Tested Advertising Methods).

4. A good headline is as much as 17 times more effective than a so-so headline. Changing a single word can dramatically improve the site's response.

Rewriting your headline is easy. Keep changing it until you find something that works. Try different variations - dozens if necessary. Be bold. The goal is to stop people in their tracks. Don't be safe. A compelling headline (that makes people want to read on) is an essential element of a successful web site.

Once you find those magic words, keep them forever!