Crafting Effective Headlines

Headline writing is an art form in itself. It’s your first opportunity to reel a reader in. Miss the mark and you’re unlikely to have an engaged audience… but craft a rich, resonating headline, with the right key phrase (s) and you’ll have drawn the reader deeper into your work, passing the first “engagement test”.

Targeted keywords are specific phrases that you think your potential readers might use in a search engine hoping to find your article. These might be singular “keywords‟ but are more often related to short “keyphrases”. (You can find all the information you need on how to pick a powerful keyword or keyphrase here). Remember one important thing, though – don’t give it all away in the headline.

Adding onto tips provided in 3.5, here are some more suggestions that you can use to make your headlines more powerful:

• Make a bold statement (by using figures, statistics or a powerful quote)
• Use simple but powerful language (don’t get bogged down by highbrow English)
• Wordplay, alliteration and humour (if the story allows for it, try and play with words in the headline. Everyone loves a good pun). Target a topical keyword with high search volume and relevance
• Be inspirational (especially with feel-good, uplifting stories)
• “The best‟ and “the worst‟ (readers are attracted to two extremes – just make sure you back it up with context early on in the body)
• Numbered listicle (“Here are five reasons why list articles work‟)
• Go beyond the breaking news (as detailed in section 3.5)
• Looking at a subject and adding a “how” or “why” angle to your headline is effective… if used sparingly. Ideally, you want to do no more than one “how or why” a day.
• Feel free to workshop ideas in the Slack channel. Some of our punchiest headlines have  been through collective feedback

The ideal length

The ideal length of a headline varies but it must be no shorter than 50 characters and no longer than  70 characters. Always try for the shortest (but not too short), clearest and uncomplicated headline. Remember, the “SEO title” line under Yoast should also show up green regarding the length but if it doesn’t, you have to edit either the headline (because it pulls into the SEO title field) or the SEO title field itself. Avoid long headlines, unless you are following a preformatted style for something like a preview or movie release, etc. Hyperbole in headlines is permissible when using “millennial speak”. But, avoid it as far as possible. Try to use your target keyword as the first word in your headline.

Headlines dos and don’ts

• Never use periods/full stops
• Do not repeat words in your headline (this includes prepositions, determiners etc)
• The first letter of the word following a colon should be capitalised: Like this
• Avoid hyperbole and hysteria. Words like “outcry”, “shock”, “shocking”, “disgusting”, and “panic” should be avoided where possible but if necessary then don’t be afraid to use them.

Use[photos],[videos],[photos], at the end of your headline, or where space allows, prefix the headline with Watch: Listen: Read: In Pictures: Look: Speak to the reader, not at them (use words like, “you” and “your”) Don’t be afraid to be declarative by using words like: EXPOSED, BUSTED, but like exclamation marks (!), use them sparingly. Two or three prefixes, featuring the keyword at the start – not all the time, but frequently Puns/wordplay where appropriate X vs Y, alliteration, rhymes – can work in a headline, make them more attractive 

A few practical examples of story choices and headline writing can be found below: