It amazes me how few websites actually use the powerfull thing called a headline. What's the headline, exactly? It's a sentence that is about 5 to 12 words long in very large font on your index page (sometimes referred to as a home page).

When you put a headline on your page (place it at the top of your page body), it will always be the first or second thing your visitors will read. Remember that the average person stays at a website for 5 seconds before they have decided if they want to stay or leave? That one fact is the reason the headline is so important! We have to catch that visitor's attention in 5 seconds! A headline is always read. That's your chance to get the visitor to stay! We need to convince people to stay at your website with 5 to 12 words and about 4 seconds.

So how can we convince people with that few of words and that little of time??? Well... if you don't, they will leave. So lets look at how we can do that.

Attention:

First and formost, the headline needs to get their attention. What's the point of having a headline if they don't see it? Make it very visible! It must grab their attention!
Interest:

Don't bore them to death!!! It has to be interesting to them.
Curiosity:

After reading your headline, people should feel curios about what the body of your copy says. If they don't want to know, they won't find out. Make them want to know what you have to say.
Editorial style:
 

Avoid making your headline look like an advertisement at all costs! No one wants to read another advertisement! A good way to make sure your headline doesn't look like an ad is to make it look like an editorial. Say you have a website selling a book on SEO, A good headline for your page would be, "How will you catch your visitors? You have 5 seconds to do it, study shows..."
Ending:

There are two endings that you can put onto your headline that will greatly help. One is the question mark. Making your headline a question can be very powerfull to raise curiosity. Take this for example, "Are all your visitors bouncing?" Another one is the three dots. That will also raise curiosity. Take these two headlines for example, "20 marketing techniques revealed, how you can succeed..." and, "Your visitors aren't staying, find out why..."

As an interesting side note, the words how, free, and you are very powerfull words in a headline. Use the word free with care though, you don't want to look like a scam!

Well, that's it for today! I hope this helps keep visitors at your website longer (just apply it and it will)!

Joey