A/B Testing Idea #2: Make your headlines sound super cool.

A/B Testing Idea #2: Make your headlines sound super cool.

Hello everyone,

We're back with our second post in the CRO testing idea series. If you missed the first post, please check it out here: "Place irresistible and clear CTAs." In today's post, we'll look at how to effectively A/B test your headline content.


 
Some people say "you only get one chance to make a first impression" while others contend that it only takes seven seconds to make an impression about someone or something. Well, the same concept applies to your website.

A good first impression on your website is crucial for making visitors trust in your products/services and keeping them tied to your business forever. Creating this first impression depends on many factors like structure, colors, spacing, symmetry, amount of text, and fonts. But, of everything else, a good headline plays a major role in the success of your website.  

Your headline is the first thing that readers see as soon as they land on your site; it holds the power to make or break a deal at first visit. Even if your content is truly unique and innovative, a weak headline can ruin its chances of being super successful in terms of conversions. So how do you create a strong headline that drives more traffic and clicks on your website?

Here are a few aspects to consider as you A/B test your site's headline content:

Communicate your brand's purpose
Often we just assume that the visitors fully understand everything about our website and its product offerings. However, that’s not always the case, especially for new visitors. With hundreds of websites selling products/services online, it's important to make sure that the primary headline on your homepage tells visitors what your website has to offer and how it aligns with their expectations—all in a few short seconds. Tweaking and testing headline copy that clearly communicates your brand's purpose and differentiates yourself from the competitors can encourage your visitors to take the desired action without another thought.
 
Example:
Say you own a website testing and analytics software solution that offers a set of tools to grow an online business. Take a look below at the old and new versions of the same headline message. Notice that while the first tells people what the product is, the second tells people what the product will actually help them do.



Extra tip: The easiest way to determine if your brand message is clear to your visitors is by assuming your audience knows nothing about the business you're running.

Try different headlines for different set of target audiences
Each website caters to a specific type of audience. So understanding which audience group you cater to, where they come from, what their interests are, and what information they are hoping to find on your site is another major parameter to consider before starting to test your headline content. Testing and optimizing your headline copy based on a particular set of audience segments like demographics (such as location, gender, age, etc), personal interests, and past engagements with your site can help you deliver personalized content for each category of visitors, which is more likely to generate conversions. 

Example: 
Say you run an ecommerce business and want to A/B test your headline copy with enticing offers for returning visitors to see which one convinces them to fulfill your conversion goals.
 

Extra tip:
  • You can target your A/B test in PageSense using a variety of audience segments such as visitor type, device used, JS variable, day of the week, and more to learn which version grabs your audience's attention immediately and performs best for each segment.
  • To know your target audience better, you can set up polls on your website using PageSense and learn your visitor’s business (or personal) needs and how your product can help achieve them. Later, you can use this feedback to test and optimize your website content. 
Match your headline with your ad copy
When a visitor clicks on an ad, it's of the utmost importance to match the message on that ad to the headline content on your post-click landing page. If your headline doesn't match the offers and features that you promised in your ad copy, you're wasting all your marketing investment and conversion opportunities. A/B testing your headline by incorporating relevant keywords that resonate with your ad copy can help you reassure people that they've come to the right place. It can also later persuade them to take the desired action on your site more quickly. Further, this type of testing is more likely to generate increased clickthrough rates, conversions, and revenue for your website.  
 
Example:
Say you're running a Facebook Ad for older travelers, and the post-click landing page shows the most relevant tourist packages, flights, and hotel stays based on their interests. Now compare the old and new headline messages below to see which version of the message sounds better.



Include stats and numbers
Numbers in your headlines are a great way to grab attention by spontaneously triggering curiosity in your targeted audience. When you use symbols like %, $, or digits instead of words to express percentages, dollars, or numbers in your headlines, it creates specificity around the duration, size, value, etc. of what you're offering customers, which is more attractive than a generic offering. This is a powerful psychological tactic that spotlights your headlines and immediately hooks the reader's interest, which results in more traffic.

Example:
Consider the pricing page of your website and see how adding a number to the headline can increase reader engagement.


Follow the problem-solving methodology
Solving your customers' problem is the easiest and fastest way to reach their heart. Crafting a headline that addresses an issue and provides a cutting-edge solution to solve the problem can make optimizing your website easier. Intriguing your readers like this can make them look for more information on the rest of your site. Further, when done well, it can build a solid emotional bond between you and your customer for a longer term.

Example:
Take a look at the image below to see how implementing the problem and solution technique in your fitness website can make your headline sound more interesting.


 
Test with power words and sentiments
Sometimes the right audience is just one word away. Using forceful positive or negative power words in your headlines has the potential to kindle your customers' emotions and inspire action on your website in no time. Also, these words can guarantee more clicks and make your headlines stand out from the rest. You can test your headlines depending on two groups of power words:  
  • Negative headlines: This type of headline tends to intrigue your customers by setting a stage to avoid a miserable situation. It includes words like never, stop, worst, avoid, or do not.
  • Positive headlines: This type of headline tries to build a relationship with feel good emotions. It includes words like best, always, fastest, easiest, most, greatest, largest, funniest, hottest, strongest, biggest, and ever.
Example:
Take a look at the image below to see how the choice of words can invoke a positive feeling as you read the headline.



Test the font and appearance of your headline
The presentation (color, fonts, and layout) of your headline copy has a huge impact on the performance of your site. Below are a few points to consider while testing the appearance of your headline:
  • Use title case. Avoid writing your headlines in all caps as it can reduce the readability of your text.  
  • Choose a font style and size that matches your website's personality. The most popular font style is sans-serif and font size is 20 - 36 pixels.
  • Apply colors that contrast (while complimenting) your website's background well and focus on the legibility of your content.
  • Align your headline perfectly with your body content for a bigger impact. Centered headlines are most powerful visually, while left-centered are more conservative and formal. 
Example:
Say you own an online food delivery website, and you want to test the color and font of your homepage headline for better clickthrough rates. Take a look at the before and after images of the headline below. Which one you think will attract more eyeballs? 

 
Try out the two-part strategy
Don't forget your supporting cast! Successful headlines act in two parts. Including a persuasive subheadline copy below your headline can be another winning strategy to pull your customers deeper into your website. You can test different versions of your subheadings to see which best suits your visitors, such as explaining a bit more about your product or services, emphasizing your product benefits, or encouraging visitors to click the CTA button placed on your site.

Example:
Take a look at the main headline and the subheading of a customer support software website as shown below. In this case, your subheadline re-affirms how your software helps your customers and adds emphasis about different product features.

 
Test the headline length and SEO compatibility
Test your headline for the right length, SEO keywords, and sentiments. Keeping a headline no longer than six words will help readers easily process your text and attain the goal of your website. Using free headline analyzer tools such as Coschedule or Sharethrough can help you effortlessly understand your website's performance. They analyze important factors (like searchable keywords, word balance, and sentiments) and assign a percentage score based on how good your headline is. They'll help you identify the factors you need to improve for more productive headlines.

Example:
Let's say you own an online pet supply store and you want to test the headline of your homepage to attract more visitor traffic. The screenshots below show the performance of both the old and new versions of the headline in terms of length.



Bonus tips:
  • Create a sense of urgency in your headline with words like "today," "now," and "last-minute offer."
  • Use comparison phrases like "versus" to reinforce the benefits and features of your products/services.
  • Research your competitor's headlines to add more value and optimize your headlines better.  
We hope you found this article useful. What is your favorite headline tester? Have you had any success with headline A/B testing? Do share with us in the comments box below.

Happy testing. Happy converting!

Thank you.

    • Recent Topics

    • Error: "Invalid Element warehouse_id" when sending order to Zoho

      i'm getting the error "Invalid Element warehouse_id" when trying to send an order to Zoho via API. Has anyone faced this issue before? How can I fix it?

    • No way to sell individual and case units smoothly in Zoho

      Currently, Zoho Inventory handles inventory primarily at the case level, which can be challenging for businesses that frequently need to break down cases into individual units for retail sales or smaller shipments. Although Zoho Inventory currently supports

    • How to handle multiple languages (Resume parser, Job opening, job board, career site) ?

      We are looking to bring Zoho Recruit to a market that needs to support 2 languages. The first thing we need to make sure is that the Candidate be flag with the language they speak. This is easy enough make a custom field that as the desire languages.

    • Shipping Labels

      Hi, Can we generate Packing Labels for manual shipping same as the format as Airway Bill in zoho books or inventory?

    • Unit Measurement Sign,

      Dear Zoho Support Team, I hope you are doing well. We recently purchased Zoho Inventory based on recommendations of your team that “it would be a great fit for our Shopify operations”. However, we are currently facing several urgent issues that require

    • Leadchain into a custom module

      Hello ZOHO Community ! is it possible to put the leads collected by leadchain into a custom module instaed of leads module ? Best wishes Niels

    • Urgent: How to Bulk Upload Images in Zoho Inventory? Any Workarounds?

      We are currently onboarding 5,000+ items from Shopify into Zoho Inventory, but we’re struggling with the lack of a bulk image upload feature. Right now, we have to manually upload and assign images one by one, which is extremely time-consuming and inefficient.

    • Can I automatically update COGS and Inventory account when creating an item?

      I have been trying to get Zoho to update the other two fields when I update one (Sales Account, COGS account, and Inventory Account). I know this seems like not a huge time saver, but I am all about efficiency and being an independent taproom, I create

    • I'm looking for a Microsoft List alternative in Zoho One to manage large lists of repetitive tasks

      I've used Microsoft Lists to manage lots of tasks that need to be completed several times for different users. We started with a large spreadsheet and then discovered lists, which worked pretty well. I was wondering if there is a similar products in Zoho,

    • Zoholics Europe and UK Awards 2025: Honouring our loyal customers!

      We're excited to announce that at this year's Zoholics events across Europe, we're holding customer awards for the first time ever! This is your chance to shout about the amazing things you've created, connected, or achieved with Bigin! And if you win,

    • Fillable template with dynamic tables?

      Is there a way to build a fillable template so that users can add rows to a table? To describe what I'm trying to accomplish the table has 3 sections; a header row, some number of rows with custom information, and a summary row with totals. I can't figure

    • How to store API keys in zoho?

      Hi everyone, I'm currently building an integration using Zoho Flow and I need to securely store several API keys that will be used to make external service calls from my flows. I would not like to hardcode the values in the code of custom function. What's

    • Zoho RPA is now available in your Zoho One bundle!

      Hello All! Of late, it's been quite a stint of new app integrations in Zoho One. This announcement pertains to the addition of another Zoho application, the most sought-after Zoho RPA - Robotic Process Automation, to the bundle. What is Zoho RPA? Zoho

    • is there an easy way to embed a zoho analytics report into a widget (or inside the "account" page) of Zoho CRM

      Hi, I have built a report that is specific to an account in Zoho CRM but I would like this to be built into the Zoho CRM front-end. I have looked at the widget concept but it seems quite complicated (see attached screenshot but I need to filter this view

    • Bigin iOS app update - Introducing Card Scanner and initiating WhatsApp conversations using pre-approved templates.

      Hello everyone! In the latest iOS (v1.11.3) version of the Bigin app, we have introduced the following features: Card Scanner Initiating WhatsApp conversations. Card Scanner: Our new Card Scanner feature extracts contact information from business cards.

    • Introducing card scanner in Bigin Android app

      Hello everyone! We are excited to introduce the card scanner feature on the latest Android version(1.7.26) of the Bigin app as well. Card scanner extracts contact information from business cards and allows you to save them as contacts in Bigin. You can

    • Full RTL and Hebrew Translation Support for Zoho Creator User Portal (Including All System Pages, Templates, and MFA Screens)

      Dear Zoho Creator Team, We kindly request comprehensive support for right-to-left (RTL) languages, particularly Hebrew, across the entire Zoho Creator user portal. This includes system-generated pages, templates, and multi-factor authentication (MFA)

    • ZUG real estate virtual meetup 2025: Sign documents, collect payments, and automate workflows with Zoho Sign

      Hi there! Are you in real estate and looking for a secure, compliant way to manage all your paperwork? In such a fast-paced industry, timing, compliance, and client trust are everything. Handling paperwork has always been a challenge, whether you're finalizing

    • OCR (Optical Character Recognition), automatisation des PDF et autres améliorations de Zoho RPA

      Zoho RPA est une plateforme d'automatisation des processus robotiques conçue pour accélérer et simplifier vos workflows. Elle permet de connecter facilement vos applications cloud à vos systèmes existants, même ceux qui ne disposent pas d’API, afin d’automatiser

    • 📞 Call + 💬 WhatsApp + 📲 SMS in Zoho CRM – All in One Place!

      We’re excited to introduce HelloSend, a powerful communication extension for Zoho CRM that brings SMS, WhatsApp, and Voice Calling directly into your CRM workspace. Whether you're in sales, support, or service delivery, HelloSend helps you connect with

    • Automation#24: Auto-Update custom field from Accounts to Tickets

      Hello Everyone! Welcome back to the Community Learning Series! This episode dives into how Zylker Techfix streamlines account-related ticket references. Previously, employees had to manually check account details to retrieve specific customer information,

    • Product Updates in Zoho Workplace applications | May 2025

      Hello Workplace Community, Let’s take a look at the new features and enhancements that went live across all Workplace applications this May. Zoho Mail Increased Preset Limit for Reminder and Snooze Options Preset limits for the Reminder and Snooze options

    • Outlook 365 ('classic') won't connect to Zoho email

      New computer, fresh install of Office desktop. On the old computer Outlook was working fine with Zoho, retrieving/sending mail, etc. On the new one I can't connect the accounts in Outlook--Outlook just keeps popping up the box asking for a password. All

    • login email

      Never logged into email says last log in never loged into

    • Installment plans

      Hi I am looking for a way to allow my customer to make equal monthly payments. For instance if I create an invoice for customer Y for $1000 I want to allow them to make equal monthly payments for the next 6 months. I need those payments to be auto charged

    • Search Mail with URL parameters

      Is it possible to search Zoho Mail by passing URL params like we can in Gmail? eg. mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/from:(jane@doe.com)

    • Need Help Fetching Latest Conversion Rate by Date

      Hi Team, I’m currently working on building a Balance Sheet in Zoho Analytics across different entities, with a common base currency of USD. I receive USD conversion values on a daily basis, and my requirement is to always capture the most recent available

    • Enhance Zoho One Conditional Assignment to Fully Reassign App Settings When Changing Departments

      Hi Zoho Team, We’d like to submit a feature request regarding the current behavior of Zoho One’s conditional assignment logic when moving a user between departments. 🔧 Current Limitation As it stands, Zoho One’s conditional assignment does not remove

    • Category to Alert

      Hi I am looking for help on how to solve an issue. We use the Category field for all items. We also use Composite Items. We would like to create an email alert when a Sales Order is created, however it would need to look at the Item to identify the category

    • Validation Rule (Date)

      Hi There,  Can any anyone help me with the validation rule? I'm trying to fire a rule whereby the End Date cannot be before Start Date.  Any takers?  Manoj Nair

    • Beyond Email: #3 Organize effortlessly with Bookmarks

      With her team’s details now neatly saved under Contacts, Sarah is feeling more settled in Zoho Mail. As she begins exploring her new workspace, she remembers the collection of useful links she has saved on her browser—project trackers, client portals,

    • Notification based on created/updated sales order that contain certain line items.

      Hi, I am finding the workflows within Books somewhat difficult to setup, so I am thinking that a custom function may be the best way to go about this. I want to be able to send a notification to a team member that any sales order that has been created

    • Drawings in forms

      I do a lot of drawings during my consultations and I’d like to add  body maps or stencils that I can draw on in different colours and add explanations etc. I need to be able to erase mistakes etc. Ideally in a form that I can prepopulate with client details and a few questions/ client signature and then save as a form. is this currently possible? if not, is it in the pipeline? thanks, Dennis

    • How can I populate dropdown data with information from another source or app?

      I want to maintain a list of items in another app (say in excel or another database) and sync those as items in a drop down menu, instead of copy pasting to import. Is this kind of a feature available?

    • Workplace - Zoholics Europe Customer Awards

      Dear Zoho Mail Community! 📣 We're excited to announce that at this year's Zoholics events across Europe, we're holding customer awards for the first time ever! Workplace - Zoholics Europe Customer Awards This is your chance to shout about the amazing

    • Zoholics Europe Customer Awards

      Dear Zoho Workplace Community! 📣 We're excited to announce that at this year's Zoholics events across Europe, we're holding customer awards for the first time ever! Workplace - Zoholics Europe Customer Awards This is your chance to shout about the amazing

    • Change Default Currency in Zoho Reports

      Is it possible to default all currency fields in my Reports and Tables to my local currency without having to reformat them every time?

    • [Webinar] Deluge Learning Series - Master Conditional & Operational Logic in Zoho Deluge

      We’re excited to bring you the next session in our Deluge Learning Series—a focused one-hour webinar where you’ll level up your skills in conditional and operational logic using Deluge scripting. From writing clean if-else conditions to implementing powerful

    • UPI QR Code in Invoices

      Hi, It would be easier to make payment, if UPI Qr code is generated by Zoho Books and shown in the invoice itself.  This will promote digital payments and also makes it easier for customers to pay. It would be even helpful, if QR code contains the invoice

    • WebDAV support

      I need WebDAV support so that I can upload/download (and modify) documents from my local file system. Is anything planned in his direction?

    • Next Page