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Your hero section has exactly 7 seconds to answer three questions. Most SME heroes don't even try. Here's the 3-line template we've shipped on 40+ landing pages.
- 01A visitor decides whether to stay in 7 seconds — and mostly from the hero.
- 02The hero must answer three questions in order: who, what, proof.
- 03Your hero headline should describe the customer's job, not the company.
- 04A single-CTA hero out-performs a multi-CTA hero 2:1 in every test we've run.
- 05Hero rewrites alone can lift landing page CVR by 1.5–2× — no design change needed.
What the 7 seconds actually decide
Eye-tracking data from 2024–25 consistently shows the same pattern on mobile landing pages: people look at the top of the page for ~1.5 seconds, scroll once in the next 2 seconds, and then either commit or close the tab by second 6 or 7. That's your window.
In those 7 seconds, a visitor is answering three unspoken questions: "am I in the right place?", "what can this do for me?", and "do I believe you?". Your hero section has to answer all three — or they leave. This is the same failure mode we detail in why your website leaks leads.
The three-line hero template
We use the same three-line template on every landing page and it outperforms the "clever" versions 8 times out of 10. Line 1 is the who+what. Line 2 is the specific outcome. Line 3 is the single objection-breaking line of proof.
The first line should contain your primary keyword within the first six words — this gets you the SEO win on commercial-intent terms. The second line quantifies the result in real numbers. The third line uses a number of clients or a named brand to shortcut trust.
- Line 1 — "We help [who] do [what]" with the primary keyword in the first six words
- Line 2 — a specific, numeric outcome (₹, %, days, customers)
- Line 3 — a proof anchor ("trusted by X brands" / "50+ SMEs" / a logo strip)
“A hero that describes the company is a hero that gets scrolled past. A hero that describes the customer is a hero that converts.”
The single-CTA rule (and the A/B test that proved it)
Every hero we ship has exactly one primary CTA. Secondary links go below the fold or into the nav. We've A/B tested single-CTA vs. dual-CTA heroes on 12 landing pages in the last 18 months. The single-CTA version won 11 out of 12, typically by 30–60% on click-through rate.
The reason is cognitive: every extra button adds a micro-decision, and micro-decisions stack. On mobile, where screen real estate is tight, two CTAs also force the user to read twice as much before acting. One CTA, one job. This flows directly into Layer 2 of the 5-layer revenue stack.
Questions about this topic
01How long should a hero headline be?
Under 12 words for the headline, under 20 for the subhead. If you can't compress it, you haven't yet decided what the page is for. Longer headlines convert worse on mobile.
02Should a hero section have two CTAs or one?
One primary CTA wins in almost every test. Keep secondary actions below the fold or in the nav — don't put them in the hero.
03Does the hero need an image or video?
Not required. A strong typographic hero with a single subtle background sketch or animation converts as well as a hero with a product shot. What matters is that the copy answers who/what/proof in 7 seconds.
Writes about revenue systems, SME conversion, and the unglamorous ops work that compounds.