Name what it is
A reader should be able to place you in a category without guessing. Clever before clear costs you the people who were about to understand.
Copy
How to write a homepage headline
The test is simple: put a competitor's name on your headline. If it still reads correctly, it is not a headline — it is decoration. Here is how to write one that fails that test.
What you get: your FixSift score and your highest-priority findings, with the evidence behind each one. See what FixSift checks.
Run your free scan
Enter your address and FixSift returns your score and your highest-priority findings. It is the same scanner the homepage runs — there is no separate engine behind this page.
How to tell which one applies
This page reads the FixSift scan through one lens: writing the one line that decides whether the rest of the page is read. The scanner is the same one the homepage uses — what changes is which findings are brought to the front.
Name who it is for
Specific audiences make more people convert, not fewer, because recognition is what makes the reader keep going.
Say what changes
The outcome is more persuasive than the mechanism, as long as it is concrete rather than aspirational.
Apply the swap test
If a competitor could use the line unchanged, rewrite it. This single test removes most weak headlines.
Let the sub-headline do the rest
The headline does not have to carry everything. One supporting line handles the qualification and the detail.
Why this matters
The headline gets a disproportionate share of attention and almost none of the editing time, because it is written early and then defended.
It is also the line most likely to be written for internal approval rather than for a stranger, which is how abstractions get in.
Rewriting it is the cheapest meaningful change available on most sites, and it is the change FixSift recommends first more often than any other.
What this looks like in practice
Before: "Solutions that drive growth"
Passes no test. No category, no audience, no outcome, and usable by any company in any sector.
After: "Bookkeeping for UK construction firms, filed on time"
Category, audience and outcome in nine words. A competitor could not use it unchanged.
Sub-headline doing the qualifying
"Fixed monthly fee, CIS returns included, most clients switch in a week" carries the detail the headline should not.
What usually goes wrong
Writing for the board
Headlines approved by people who already understand the business tend to assume the thing the visitor lacks.
Leading with the mechanism
How it works is interesting after the reader knows why they should care.
Chasing a keyword
A headline stuffed for search reads badly to the person who found it, which is who has to act.
Changing the headline and nothing else
If the page below still contradicts it, the clarity is lost in the second screen.
How FixSift works
- 01
Enter your website
No account, no installation, no card.
- 02
FixSift reads the page
Messaging, conversion, trust and clarity.
- 03
Fix what matters first
A score and your highest-priority findings.
Every page on this site runs the same scanner and the same analysis. There is no separate engine behind any of them — what changes is which findings are explained first.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a homepage headline be?
Short enough to read at a glance, long enough to be specific. Concreteness matters far more than word count, and a specific twelve-word line beats a vague five-word one.
Should the headline include my keyword?
If it fits naturally, yes. If including it makes the line worse for a human reader, the line is more valuable than the keyword.
Can FixSift write my headline?
The free scan tells you whether your current one works and why. The paid rewrite product drafts alternatives for the main sections of your homepage, which you can edit before using.
How do I know if the new one is better?
Rescan and compare. FixSift shows the messaging score and the specific findings before and after.
Related pages
Scan my website
One address, one scan, one prioritised list. Free, and you keep the link to your result.