Your article headlines will make or break your business
Most people with an online presence will have to regularly deal
with the issue of coming up with an appropriate headline. The
problem is that most people do not take it seriously enough.
Many do not realize that the headline is so important that no
matter how good the content is, it will never get read if the
headline does not beckon surfers to it. The
power of a headline
In the offline world of the tabloid press, one headline can
sell a few hundred copies while another in the same publication,
can sell several million copies. Online headlines are even more
important as quite often somebody will not have an opportunity
to leaf through, like they do in a print publication. Quite
often, even a summary will not be available and all the
prospective reader has to go on, is the headline.
Most of us forget that we are motivated to read almost
everything that we read online through the headline. Open any
news page and you will only click on the headlines that you find
interesting. Even on a page of search engine results, you will
tend to go for a lower ranked page with a better headline.
What this clearly means is that every little tiny headline that
you place on every small piece of content is important and will
have an impact on how often that item gets read. Ultimately
every little headline will contribute towards the success or
failure of your site.
And what makes things even more difficult is the fact that you
will be competing with many other excellent headlines online,
most of them the work of professional copy writers working for
leading websites. Come up with your headline
when the content is done
The most effective way of writing good headlines is to come up
with your headline only when you have finished reading the
content. Not only is it easier to come up with a much better
headline when the content is done, but you also be able to come
up with different headlines covering different aspects of the
article. You can then decide which is the most attractive aspect
of the article to base your headline on.
This has become a harder decision to make in recent times
because you have to consider other aspects like keywords with
search engines in mind and balance this with the most
captivating headline that will result in most people clicking on
it to read the contents. Spend more time on the
headline and come up with various options
Professional copywriters usually spend much more time on the
headline than they do writing they content. It is important to
come up with several headlines before you settle on your final
choice. It is a good idea to regularly test different headlines
for the same articles and see which one attracts the most hits