Headlines: What People Don’t Want To See

There is so much information floating out there today that it does not make sense for people to spend time on what does not interest them. Good content isn’t useful if no one’s reading it; headlines are the first thing people see, and one which captivates will lead readers into the body text so that they can find out more. Writing killer headlines doesn’t come overnight, so let’s start by avoiding the mistakes.

1. Long and Lengthy

People are likely to gloss over what gets boring, and it shouldn’t happen right from the start. Short and sweet titles get to the point and let the reader know what’s in it for them. Keeping headlines to a maximum of 100 characters also mean that keywords don’t get truncated by search engines, and are Twitter-friendly for sharing.

2. Technical Jargon

Google Trends: https://www.google.com/trends/

Unless you’re writing for insiders of the trade, headlines should be easily understood by the lay people to get them invested. Look up the thesaurus or the web for some help if you need help finding the right words. Also, it’s a bonus if the buzzwords are tied in with what is trending on the search engines right now.

3. Low Self-Esteem

Envision your article as the cover story, and write a correspondingly newsworthy headline. Writing a title for that filler item hidden in a corner of the page will only relegate it to where it belongs.

Crafting the next viral headline requires practice. You can put your headlines to the test with online headline analysers such as the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer (http://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer). While it isn’t foolproof, headline analysers offer a way to check how well a headline will resonate with the public while you continue the search for your secret success formula.