✍️ 5 headline tweaks to keep website visitors reading

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Links mentioned:

• AprilRayCreative.com
• PRO CON 2026 Behind the Scenes
• Web Designer Pro Mastermind

Transcript

Why Sharing Conference Takeaways Wins Clients

Josh Hall 0:01

So, one of my favorite things here of late is since hosting our second annual Web Designer Pro in-person conference, ProCon 2026, is seeing how confident members have been in their marketing, social media, newsletters, et cetera. One thing that we did after ProCon is I recommended that all attendees take something that they learned from the conference, whether it be from one of the talks at the workshop that we did, or by way of just talking with members there in person via meetups or our hangouts or just a casual chat at the bar with a fellow pro in their marketing. Take something that you learned from there and share it with your clients. And that's exactly what one of our founding members of Web Designer Pro did, who was at ProCon 2026, April Ray, who sent out an incredible newsletter based off of some tips that she picked up on one of the talks from a session this year about headlines, uh, which was given by our resident copy and SEO guru Michelle Bourbonniere. So April shared this in her newsletter, which I'm subscribed to, and has given me permission to share it with you here. So that's what we're going to do in this one. This is based off of my recent newsletter that I just kicked out. That will be linked below. Guys, if you have not signed up for my newsletter, it's completely free. You'll get access to every goodie that I put out there. So if you want to know what's going on, what the latest piece of content is, the latest podcast, and the newsletters that I kick out, go below to click the link, or you can go to joshhall.co slash newsletter. But again, I wanted to share this because this is a great example. And this applies to anyone, like all of you, no matter whether it's a networking group, a workshop you go to, a conference. There is so much power in going to a conference, learning and absorbing, and then sharing it. The worst thing you can do is go to a conference or a workshop and just learn and then just not share it because it's a way to get clients. Share this in your newsletters. Members at ProCon have months of content. If somebody's like, I don't know what to post on social media or newsletter. Procon members have months of content with everything that we talked about. So share what you know with your clients and get some more clients, and you can thank me later. So got full permission from April to share this. I do want to give a quick shout out to SiteGround. The link will be below because they have been a sponsor for ProCon 2026 and they are this week's newsletter sponsor. And this particular sponsor piece is all about Code Rick AI, which is a brand new vibe coding tool that SiteGround has specifically come out with. So I'm going to link below to this particular entry here for Code Rick, which I would definitely recommend checking out. One thing I love about SiteGround on a personal note is that they are innovating maybe faster than any other host I know. And they are very, very much taking a like grounded AI approach with their AI studio, which I talked about recently, and with this new Code Rick AI tool. So go check it out. The link will be below with all the details. Um, but yeah, it's they're up to some really, really cool stuff. I've been using Siteground since 2015. I just freaking love SiteGround, and the team is awesome. Big thanks to them for sponsoring ProCon 2026 recently and for being the sponsor for this week's newsletter. So go check that out. Link below. All right, here is the newsletter from April about headline tips. And this is what she said. Recently I got back from ProCon 2026, a web designer conference in Columbus, Ohio, hosted by Web Designer Pro, a networking group I've been part of for more than five years. It was an absolute blast to see and talk to so many web designer colleagues in person. And my wife, by the way, April and my wife just what they were two Ps in a pod. And she said that April said she had so much fun that she actually lost her voice and she still sounds squeaky days later. In fact, I can attest to this because April, we did awards for ProCon 2026 attendees this year, kind of like Dundee style awards. Everyone got Amazon gift cards who won an award. And April won our most blown voice award this year. So way to go, April. Anyway, April says, collateral damage, I suppose, but there were so many great conversations and ideas shared. One of my favorite sessions was the opening workshop by my friend and colleague, Michelle Bourbonier, on website headlines. Headlines are one of those things I've always known were important, and I can usually tell when I read a good one, but this workshop helped me put words as to why a headline works and how to fix the ones that don't. So today I'm going to share a simple checklist that you can do to review your headlines on your own website. First, what is a headline? A headline is the title placed at the top of your website page or section. The goal of a headline is to capture the website's visitors' attentions, uh, attention, and encourage them to read and keep scrolling. So here we go. Five ingredients of a strong website headline. Number one, it matches expectations. This sounds obvious, but I can't tell you how many times I land on a website and wonder, am I in the right place? Your headline should quickly confirm that visitors found what they were looking for. For example, if someone lands on a tax professional's website, they should immediately know they're in the right place. A bad example is one here, and again, I recommend clicking below to the newsletter entry so you can see this because she actually provided images on this. But one that's almost there is proactive strategies for six-figure coaches and consultants. Stronger version, proactive tax strategies for six-figure coaches and consultants. So added tax strategies, not just proactive strategies. One word, huge difference. That one word tax makes the headline much more clear and reassuring. Number two, it grabs attention. Clear doesn't have to mean boring. A good headline can use rhythm, punctuation, sensory words, uncommon phrasing, rhymes, alterations to make someone pause for a second longer. An okay version of this example was unlocking wellness one step at a time. Stronger version, unlocking wellness one bite at a time. That small change gives headlines more personality and makes it feel more specific to the ground, uh to the brand. Number three, it's clear before it's clever. Clever headlines are great as long as people still know what you're talking about. If your headline feels a little vague, one easy fix is to add eyebrow text. Small line of text above the main headline that gives some context. For example, this one's potentially confusing on its own. Get the knowledge you need to grow a business you love. A clearer with eyebrow text example, tax dome automation plus practice management. Get the knowledge you need to know to grow a business you love. Now the visitor understands what kind of knowledge we're talking about before they mean the real or before they read the main headline. Love that one, by the way. Number four out of five, it's concise. There's a lot you can say about your business, but it doesn't all need to go in your headline. A headline should be easy to read as a glance, at a glance, excuse me, if I could read today or ever. If a website visitor needs more explanation, they can go in the supporting text underneath. So this is an example of too much for one headline. CPA backed bookkeeping and accounting services supporting individuals and businesses across all industries, so you can focus on what matters most. By the way, if you can't read a headline in one breath, that's too long. That's my take on this. More scannable version, smart tax strategies for individuals and businesses. Ah short headlines are often stronger because they give the page more breathing room. Good one there. Number five, the final one. It highlights a benefit. Your headline should not just say what you do, it should give people a reason to care. What problem are you helping them with? What outcome are you creating? What relief, clarity, confidence, or convenience are you offering? An okay version of this? Welcome to Henley's Mini Storage. The much stronger version of this, immediate storage solutions for when life happens. The second line tells the visitor what they get, quickly helping uh during a stressful or transition moment. Now, challenge for you, my dear listener. Check your own website. And this is a challenge from April for her clients. And she told her clients, look at the first big headline on your homepage or anyone on her email list, by the way, just leaves as well, and ask, does it match expectations by telling the visitor that they're in the right place? Does it grab their attention by give them or giving them a reason to keep reading? Is it clear and is it concise? And finally, does it highlight a benefit so people immediately know why they should stay? If the answer is no, these quick fixes could massively improve your website, encouraging website visitors to continue to engage and read your site rather than leave and convert and make more money. So that is the recent newsletter from April where she took what she learned from ProCon from Michelle Bourbonier's presentation on headlights, which will be repurposed and replayed in Web Designer Pro once I get it back. I'm still waiting to get all the final assets back from ProCon. So Web Designer Pro members, I will let you know as soon as I get the replays back. Those will be available for all members of Web Designer Pro, even if you weren't there. But a huge uh just like not pat on the back, but just round of applause and cheers to April for doing this. April is an action taker. She is a great example of the type of person who is a web designer pro and is just such a good example of one of our incredible members. So good on April. Big thanks to April for allowing me to share this with you here on the podcast and on the pot the uh newsletter. That is below. I'd really recommend clicking that and checking this out because you can check it out without even giving me an email. If you're not on my email list, you can look at it live, see this, like you can actually see these examples, and of course, go to joshhall.co slash newsletter to sign up for my newsletter so you get these. Um, last thing I wanted to mention again, I can't overstate how freaking awesome Web Designer Pro members are. They are action takers, they learn, apply, and go. And April is such a good example of this. It's why she has a six-figure business working less than 25 hours a week. And as a founding member of Pro, it's been an honor to see how far she's gone in her journey so far. And this is just the beginning. So so proud of April. Such a good example of a pro member. If you want to surround yourself with me and April and Michelle and incredible members, we we're usually hovering around the two to 250 mark between the community and coaching tier. So it is a small but mighty, lean and mean community. Well, there's actually nothing mean about it, but we are lean. So WebdesignerPro.com is where to go. Jump in because the people here are freaking awesome. It's a built-in support system. It is a built-in network for you. You can get coaching with me, and it will help you no matter where you are in your web design journey, whether you're a builder, a grower, or a scaler, whether you're interested in making your first 10K or whether you're getting this six figures at 100K, or we've got members doing several hundred thousands in revenue and more. It is incredible the variation and variety we have in pro. And somehow we make it work. Somehow everyone supports each other. And even the folks who are at a half million dollars are learning from the people who are in the first year of their business. It is freaking incredible. And if you're not in there, you're missing out. I'm just gonna say it like it is. You're missing out, you're missing a lot of revenue, you're missing a lot of growth, you're missing a lot of fun, you're missing a lot of inspiration. If you love this podcast, you are gonna have a hundred X the amount of fun and results when you jump into my community. Webdesignerpro.com is where to go. Coming up next week, we are doing our first ever greatest hits podcast episode. And I'm gonna be repurposing, bringing back to life my conversation with Amy Porterfield from a few years ago, which is more important than ever in 2026. It's about longevity and also not believing what you think is specially key if you are in a down season in your business. But check out the episode next week coming up with Amy Porterfield, uh, which was from a few years ago. And in case you missed it, uh a couple episodes back, talked about a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at ProCon 2026. If you're curious about that, especially after this one. This week on the podcast, uh, I talked to James Barnard, where he interviewed me about scaling a freelance web design biz. That is a conversation that we had in his community, designers. And then you may or may not have seen that I just launched something new in Web Designer Pro, the Web Designer Pro Mastermind. Applications, my friend, you've got to get it in by Sunday, this Sunday. So we've got five out of 12 spots filled already. Applications are coming in. I'm reviewing them today and tomorrow. So we'll be doing a little bit of a rare, a little bit of rare work on uh a weekend, but the mastermind is closing. It will not reopen until the fall. That is if only we have spots available. So the mastermind is specifically for those of you who are at a six and multi-six figure level and want more personalized high-level coaching with me and a very tight-knit group of absolute rock stars who are established in their web design businesses. We have options for everybody at all stages in Web Designer Pro. This is finally the offer for folks at the high tier who want high-level coaching. And it has been incredible. One of our members just reported back that she said she's learned so much and she is feeling so much clarity, and it's only been one weekend. That is the and we're she's dealing at a very high level in business. The leverage that you have in your business at a high level is wild. We just you just need to know the right strategy and what to what to pour a little gas on the fire for. So check that out. That link is below as well, or you can go to webdesignerpro.com/slash mastermind to apply, but you gotta do that by Sunday. Applications are there's no pressure and no risk when you do an application. You're not signing up for anything right away. It's just applying and we can go from there. But I'm so excited to finally have this top-end offer, a new floor in Web Designer Pro, if you will. All right, my friends. Hope you enjoyed this one. Big thanks to April. Another big thanks to SiteGround for sponsoring this one. Check out that link below to check out CodeRec AI for some more details and to see what SiteGround's up to because they're freaking awesome. All right, friends, have a great weekend, and I will see you next week on the podcast with Amy Porterfield.