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Somewhere right now a plumber is paying good money for a website whose biggest, boldest line says “Welcome to Our Website.” Thanks. I know. I typed the address in. I’m standing in it.
That headline is the first thing every visitor reads, and most small business sites spend it on a polite hello. Here’s why that costs you, and what to put there instead.
The short version
It should say what you do, who you do it for and where you do it. That’s it. “Roof repair and replacement in Palm Coast” beats “Welcome to [Your Name Here] Roofing” every single day, because the first one answers the question the visitor showed up with.
Think about how people land on your site. They searched something, tapped a link, or got sent there by a friend. Either way they arrived with a question in their head, usually “can these people fix my thing?” Your headline is your one shot to say “yes, this thing, right here.” A greeting doesn’t answer anything. It’s the website version of a guy opening the door and just smiling at you.
The test I use is simple. Cover up the logo and read only the headline. If a stranger can’t tell whether you sell roofs, cupcakes or tax advice, the headline isn’t doing its job.
Not long. Research summarized by the Nielsen Norman Group found the first 10 seconds of a page visit are when people decide whether to stay, and they’re still very likely to bail over the next 20. Only after about 30 seconds does the urge to leave settle down.
So you’re working with a window shorter than a microwave burrito. And people don’t read in that window, they scan. They’ll hit the biggest text on the screen, maybe the button under it, and make a call. If the biggest text is “Welcome,” you just burned your best real estate on a doormat.
This is also why I’m not a fan of homepage sliders. Five rotating headlines means four of them never get seen, and the one that does is usually “Welcome.”
Because it’s safe, and because the template came that way. Somebody installs a theme, the demo headline says “Welcome to Our Company,” they swap in the business name and call it a day. Five years later it’s still there, right next to the 2021 copyright in the footer.
The other culprit is the slogan. “Excellence in every detail.” “Where quality meets service.” “Building dreams since 1998.” I see these all the time, and I get it, they feel professional. But I could stick any of them on a dentist, a dog groomer or a demolition company and nobody would notice. If your headline fits every business in town, it’s not about your business.
(To be fair, I’ve written a few half-assed taglines myself in my day. Everybody has a “Solutions for tomorrow” somewhere in their past.)
Yes, more than people think. The main headline on your homepage is one of the strongest signals about what the page is about, and “Welcome” is about nothing.
Google, ChatGPT and the other AI tools are trying to figure out one thing: what is this business, and who should it be recommended to? When your headline plainly says “Family dentist in Flagler Beach taking new patients,” you’ve handed them the answer on a plate. When it says “Your smile is our passion,” they have to dig through the rest of the page and guess. Robots are smart now, but they’re not mind readers, and they’ve got a million other sites that made it easier.
It’s the same reason your page title and meta description should match what you actually do. Say it plainly in the places that count, and say it the same way everywhere.
Here’s the formula I use when I’m building a site, and it’s dead simple: the thing you do, plus who or where, plus one detail that makes you the obvious pick.
Notice none of those are clever. Clever is fine for the second line. The first line has one job: tell me I’m in the right place. Then put a short subhead under it with the proof, like years in business, a review score, or “licensed and insured,” and then one button. Not four buttons. One. Call, book or get a quote, whichever one actually makes you money.
And write it for a phone first. Most of your visitors are on one, and a headline that looks great on a 27 inch monitor turns into a seven line tower on a phone. If it doesn’t fit comfortably on a small screen, it’s too long. Cut words, not font size.
If your homepage has other signs it’s getting old, the headline is usually the cheapest, fastest fix of the bunch. Ten minutes of honest thinking, zero dollars in software.
Short enough to read in one glance, usually 4 to 10 words. If you need more, put the extra detail in a subhead right below it instead of cramming it all into the big line.
Usually no. Your logo already shows the name. Use the headline to say what you do and where, unless your name already says it, like “Palm Coast Pool Repair.”
Sure, as long as the funny line still says what you do. “Bookkeeping for contractors who hate bookkeeping” is a little cheeky and still crystal clear. A pun that makes people guess what you sell is just a pain in the ass for everybody.
Go pull up your own homepage on your phone right now and read the biggest line out loud. If it’s a greeting or a slogan that could belong to anybody, that’s damn good news, honestly, because it’s the easiest win on your whole site. If you’d rather have me rewrite it along with everything else that’s quietly costing you calls, take a look at what I do or start a project and tell me what your business actually does. I promise the headline won’t say “Welcome.”
