How to write your homepage headline

The large headline at the top of your homepage is the first sentence visitors read, and often the only one. On a phone, it fills almost the whole screen. In a few words, it must tell people they are in the right place: what you do, for whom, and where.

Well written, it makes people stay. Vague, it sends away someone who was looking for exactly what you offer.

A few seconds to make people stay

The first ten seconds are when people leave a page the most. Jakob Nielsen drew a simple rule from it: to keep visitors, make them understand what you bring them within those ten seconds (Nielsen Norman Group, 2011, based on Microsoft Research data).

In that time, nobody reads everything. Five eye-tracking studies run over thirteen years, with more than 500 participants, confirm it: people skim a page diagonally, catching headings and the start of lines (Nielsen Norman Group, 2020). In a list, the eye often keeps only the first two words of each item (Nielsen Norman Group, 2009).

And this glance most often happens on a phone: 91% of French people own one (Crédoc for Arcep, 2026).

What the headline must say

A good homepage headline answers three questions, in this order:

What do you do? The trade, in everyday words: “plumber”, “bakery”, “physiotherapist”.
For whom? Individuals, businesses, athletes, couples getting married.
Where? For a shop or a craftsperson, the town or the neighborhood is part of the answer.

The Nielsen Norman Group advises treating the homepage as an elevator pitch, and never assuming visitors already know your brand (2024). So your name is only enough if it already says your trade. “Maison Duval” says nothing; “Maison Duval, sourdough bakery” says it all.

If there is room left, add what sets you apart: a specialty, a lead time, an area, a way of working. Just one thing, the truest.

Clarity before the slogan

“Your comfort, our passion”, “Excellence every day”, “Know-how at your service”: these sentences could appear on any website. They don’t say your trade.

Jakob Nielsen offers two tests that eliminate them at once (Nielsen Norman Group, 2001):

The competitor test. Would your headline fit just as well on your closest competitor’s site? If so, it doesn’t set you apart.
The opposite test. Would anyone write the opposite? Nobody advertises “mediocre service”. A sentence whose opposite is absurd teaches the reader nothing.

The advice on writing headings points the same way: a heading must make sense out of context, bring useful information, avoid fashionable phrases and needless words, and put the important words first (Nielsen Norman Group, 2015).

Before, after: examples by trade

Trade	Before	After
Bakery	The taste of sharing	Sourdough bread and homemade pastries, in Nantes
Plumber	Your comfort, our passion	Plumber in Toulouse: leaks, water heaters, emergency call-outs
Physiotherapist	Take care of yourself	Sports physiotherapy and rehabilitation, in Lyon 3rd
Photographer	Capturing the moment	Wedding photographer in Brittany, all day long
Restaurant	A unique experience	Market cuisine and growers’ wines, in Avignon
Lawyer	Listening above all	Employment lawyer for employees, in Lille

In each “after” version, the first words already say the trade. Only write a promise you keep: an advertised “emergency call-out” calls for someone who picks up.

The subheading and the button do the rest

The headline can’t carry everything. Aim for one line on a phone, two at most, and hand the rest to two neighbors:

The subheading, a sentence under the headline, gives the detail: the service area, the opening hours, a proof point (“since 1998”, “covered by national health insurance”).
The button, just below, offers the action: “Book a table”, “Call the workshop”. It has its own article: the call-to-action button.

The headline, the subheading and the button must fit together on the phone’s first screen, without scrolling.

The headline and Google

Google writes the blue title it shows in its results itself. To choose it, it reads the page’s title tag, but also the main visible heading, the subheadings and the highlighted text (Google Search Central, 2025). So a clear homepage headline helps it present your page.

The words that make a visitor understand you, “plumber”, “Toulouse”, are also the ones they type into the search engine. Write them naturally, once, without piling them up. The title tag and the description that appear in Google are written separately: see title and meta description.

Checking in five minutes

The two-word test. Hide everything but the first two words of the headline. Do they say your trade?
The competitor test. Replace your name with a competitor’s. If the headline still holds, start again.
The opposite test. Write the opposite of your headline. If it is absurd, your headline is empty.
The phone test. Open the page on your phone. Can the headline and the button be seen without scrolling?
The stranger test. Show the page for five seconds to someone who doesn’t know you, then ask them what you do and where. The Nielsen Norman Group recommends this outside view (2001).

In the 29webs studio, the page copy is written by an AI from your trade, and the headline is edited in one sentence: “make the title shorter”, “add the town”. Each edit can be undone: try several versions, and keep the one that passes the five tests.

In short: your homepage headline says what you do, for whom and where, with the customer’s words and the trade in the first two words. A slogan that would suit your competitors keeps nobody.