I've been doing quite a few website reviews for members in Momentum Club recently.

One of the mistakes I see being made a lot is that the website doesn't immediately make the right impression on visitors.

A great way of thinking about visitors to your site is to see them as peeking through the doorway (your home page) and darting their head from left to right to quickly see if it's worth coming through the door and stepping fully in to your site.

Once they've stepped through, you've got 'em. They'll explore your site, they can find your great resources.

But nothing happens until they make that decision to mentally step through the door.

Whether they do that or not depends on that first impression. Whether they think it's going to be worth their while staying.

They're essentially asking the question “will I get what I want here?”

That's why the headline of your website is so important.

Your headline is the big, bold text that's the first thing they see when they come to your site.

To get the right headline you need to understand what it is your ideal clients are looking for when they come to your site.

In my case, I focus my site at people looking for information to help them with marketing and sales. My goal is to get them to sign up for my regular emails so I can build credibility and trust over time.

So my headline (depending on what I'm testing right now) is some variant of “Get access to my very best client winning shortcuts” next to a giant button to sign up.

Clear. Simple.

No need for fancy slogans or clever straplines.

For most businesses, your ideal clients will probably be coming to your site looking to see if you can help them, and to see whether they should speak to you or one of their competitors.

So your headline needs to speak to that. The simplest format is just to say what you do and who you do it with.

Not the technical details of what you do, but the problems you solve or the results you help your clients achieve.

“Teambuilding and leadership development for the creative industries”.

“Sales growth for technology startups”.

“Clear advice to help you get your next senior role”.

All these tell your visitors exactly what they'll get from you and the site.

They're not going to instantly whip out their wallet and hire you based on those headlines. That's not the point.

The goal of your headline is to tell your ideal clients they're in the right place.

Persuading them to give you a call is the next step. The rest of your site does that. But the first, most important step is to get them to mentally commit to staying on your site.

What does your headline say?