Evoy’s company, Sitesell.com, has an excellent, free link exchange service, which I have found very satisfactory for gaining links to my own sites.

Once you have a few quality links to your site, that’s enough, according to Evoy. From then on, concentrate on adding more and more content to your site.

There is an important place for keywords on these new content pages. It helps to focus each page on one or two keywords (actually, it’s better to use key phrases, because these are what Web searchers typically use) sprinkle these keywords and phrases throughout your page.

You can find best keywords by using a service called Wordtracker. This is particularly useful because it saves you from simply guessing which words and phrases people are searching on, and gives you actual search terms being used – and how much competition there is for these terms.

I won’t go too much into keyword analysis here. Suffice it to say, if you follow Evoy’s advice, you’ll focus mainly on writing content-filled pages that are of genuine value to your prospective customers or clients.

As search engines see content on your site continually changing, they’ll return more often. They’ll spider new content on your pages faster and faster. This is good news and helps your search engine rankings.

The only downside of Evoy’s approach is that it does take time and commitment to keep adding content to your website. It may seem easier to pay an SEO expert.

But consider this. Even if you do achieve a good ranking in search engines through SEO, if a visitor arrives and finds mediocre content, what’s use. They’ll simply click away. For most small businesses, with limited financial resources, key to getting your website noticed in search engines is a slow, steady approach of adding more and more pages with great, relevant content for your marketplace.

Then you can forget about SEO and every other trick.

Focus on building content and everything else will take care of itself.

Chris Mole is a freelance website copywriter based near Christchurch, New Zealand. He has more than 20 years experience writing for print, radio and Web media and now specialises in writing truly persuasive sales copy for small businesses.

Now, you can edit out any unsuitable ideas and narrow them down to those with potential to make a powerful headline.

Tip 4. Create a combination headline.

Sometimes, it works best to list several benefits all in one headline. This can be really powerful if you have several benefits that are all equally important.

You first need to follow advice in Tip 1 and list as many benefits as possible of your product or service. Then string them together.

Here’s a great example I found recently on website of a web design company called 37Signals.com:

“37 Signals is an elite team of expert web design and usability specialists dedicated to simple, clear and usable customer-focused design”.

There are several benefits packed into this headline. But it works well.

Tip 5. Forget your product. Deliver dream.

When people buy things, they do so more on emotion that logic. This is a fundamental principle that salespeople use and you can employ it effectively when writing your headlines.

You need to get inside mind of your prospective customer or client and think about his or her dreams. What would they really like to achieve or accomplish? What can you offer that will help them achieve this dream?

For example, here’s a great headline from website of a company that sells toys for children … of all ages. It reads:

“We don’t stop playing because we get old. We get old because we stop playing”.

Note how it appeals to dream we all have to stay young!

Tip 6. Use testimonials from satisfied customers in your headline

Testimonials are a vital part of every small business website. They help establish your credibility faster than any other method. Sometimes, you can make a powerful headline by building it around a comment from a satisfied customer.

If you’re not already gathering testimonials, you should start doing so immediately. Look at all emails, faxes and letters you’ve had from satisfied customers and note comments of appreciation they’ve made about your product or service. Then contact them and ask if they’d mind you using these comments as a testimonial.

Here’s an example of a testimonial used in a headline for a fictional weight loss product:

“I lost 10kg in two weeks with this simple diet plan. I have more energy and feel better than I have in years. Thanks so much Miracle Diet!”

Or this one for a household cleaning product:

“I’ve tried every other bathroom cleaner in supermarket but none even comes close to shine I get with Wonder Shine!”

Now, it’s up to you to write a winning headline!

These 6 tips should provide you with lots of ideas to write an attention-getting headline for your website. As a final tip, it’s important you feel comfortable with your headline. It needs to fit with your own personality and image you want to create for your business.

You need to blow your own trumpet a little bit. So don’t be too modest. But don’t go over top with hype, either. If you don’t feel comfortable with your headline, chances are it will turn off your prospective customers.

The aim is a good, strong headline that clearly spells out benefits of your product or service. If you invest a little time, effort and imagination, you’ll be amazed at what you come up with.

And what’s more important, your new headline will almost certainly give your website sales a big boost.

Chris Mole is a freelance website copywriter based near Christchurch, New Zealand. He has more than 20 years experience writing for print, radio and Web media and now specialises in writing truly persuasive sales copy for small businesses.