The default headline says nothing
The most common headline on the internet is a category noun wrapped in superlatives — innovative solutions, powerful platform, seamless experience. It survives review because nobody can object to it, and it fails with buyers for the same reason: it makes no claim they could disagree with.
Test 1: could a competitor use it?
Put your closest competitor’s logo above your headline. If it still reads as true, the headline belongs to the category rather than to you, and it is doing no work. This test kills most first drafts in about ten seconds.
Test 2: does it say something falsifiable?
A claim a reasonable person could dispute is a claim worth reading. “Sites the algorithms recommend” invites the question “do they?” — which is exactly the engagement you want, because the rest of the page exists to answer it. Unfalsifiable warmth invites nothing.
If nobody could argue with your headline, nobody has any reason to keep reading it.
Test 3: is it about them or about you?
Headlines describing your company’s qualities perform worse than headlines describing the buyer’s outcome. The reader is not evaluating whether you are impressive; they are evaluating whether their problem is about to be solved. Lead with the change they get.
Test 4: does the subhead earn it?
A strong headline creates a debt that the next sentence has to pay — how, specifically, and for whom. A vague subhead under a bold headline reads as bluster, which is worse than a modest claim honestly supported.
Treat them as one unit and write them together. Headlines approved in isolation are why so many pages open with a promise and immediately deflate.
Say it out loud before you ship it
Read the headline as if answering a stranger who asked what you do. Anything you would feel silly saying aloud is language that survived a committee rather than a conversation, and buyers hear the difference immediately.