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.
About the author: S. Rosendahl is a Technical Executive Writer for Website Source, Inc. http://www.websitesource.com. Her established writing skills coupled with experience in the website hosting industry have provided internet professionals with marketing, product and service ideas for many years.
AP - Attorney General Michael Mukasey was hospitalized but conscious and alert early Friday after collapsing during a late-night speech to a conservative legal group.
AP - President-elect Barack Obama plans to nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state after Thanksgiving, a new milestone for the former first lady and a convergence of two political forces who fought hard for the presidency.
AP - With no end in sight to economic bad news, President George W. Bush is about to ensure that millions of laid-off workers won't see their unemployment checks disappear as the year-end holidays approach.
AP - European and Asian stock markets rebounded Friday as expectations of a recovery on Wall Street prompted investors to scoop up battered financial and energy shares.
AP - Lawmakers are poised to close a loophole that led to troubled teens being abandoned at Nebraska hospitals, but they aren't stopping there. Instead, they're vowing to make sure families can get help in a crisis.
AP - The CIA withheld information from the White House, Justice Department and Congress about the 2001 shooting down of a plane over Peru carrying an American missionary family, part of a yearslong cover-up of lethal violations in U.S. drug-interdiction procedures, according to a classified internal CIA report.
AP - Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers know exactly how to beat the Cincinnati Bengals — with or without Chad Ocho Cinco.
Reuters - Euro zone demand is plunging and price pressures vanishing, business surveys showed on Friday, while central bankers weighed the bleak prospect of deflation.
Reuters - Retired Marine Gen. James Jones emerged as a leading contender for White House national security adviser as President-elect Barack Obama worked on Thursday to assemble his foreign policy team.
Reuters - George W. Bush makes his last scheduled trip abroad as U.S. president on Friday, heading to an Asia-Pacific summit where he will seek support for global financial reform and hold talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program.
Reuters - Followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched Friday against a pact letting U.S. forces stay in Iraq until 2011, toppling an effigy of President George W. Bush where U.S. troops once tore down a statue of Saddam Hussein.
Reuters - Citigroup Inc lost more than one-quarter of its market value on growing worries over whether it has enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential losses and despite new support from its largest individual investor.
Reuters - Verizon Wireless said on Thursday that some employees had gained unauthorized access and viewed a personal cell phone account held by President-elect Barack Obama that is now inactive.
Reuters - U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey was "conscious, conversant and alert" at a local Washington hospital after collapsing while delivering a national security speech at a hotel, the U.S. Justice Department said late on Thursday.
Reuters - The U.S. Navy and operators of a Saudi oil supertanker hijacked by Somali pirates could not confirm on Friday reports that the hijackers had demanded a $25 million ransom.
AFP - The use of nuclear weapons will grow increasingly likely by 2025, according to a bleak US intelligence report that warns that US global dominance is likely to weaken over the next two decades.
AFP - Thousands of Shiite followers of the firebrand anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr gathered in Baghdad Friday to protest a security accord that would allow US troops to remain in Iraq until 2011.
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