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Lesson 7 - Headlines

Headlines for Associated Content and other writing sites need to be keyword rich and to-the-point. Do not mess around or write vague title to your articles, because they will not be attractive to visitors, and then you will be at the mercy of the Content Managers who will promptly rename your article. Trust me, this is not always a good thing. They often will not “get the point” with your articles and you will likely end up with a bland and boring, and often incorrect, headline.

So what should a good headline look like? My experience has been that the best headlines are designed to speak to the two kinds of internet browsers: the scanners and the browsers.

To appeal to the scanner, you need to give them the information up front and right away. The scanner is going to search quickly down the line of articles to find what they’re looking for,. Start with a broad term that describes the general topic of your article. For instance, if I wrote about heart attacks, I would start with that exact term: “Heart Attacks”. Now, you simply add a hyphen. Once you have that, you blurb about your article. “Heart Attacks – The Cause of Heart Attacks” is a much better headline than “The Causes of Heart Attacks” because the visitor to the AC site is going to look for an article about Heart Attacks and see an article about The Causes… They scan information, so you need to present it as blatantly as possible.

The browser is the reader who isn’t sure of what they’re looking for…if they’re looking for anything at all. To grab this kind of reader’s attention, you use the headline to ask a provocative question, especially one that puts a little doubt or fear in their mind. Doing this entices the reader to click on your article and take a look. A short time ago, AC held a contest where writers could submit stories called “My Biggest Secret”. That is the kind of title that prompts readers to go in and take a look.

Combine these two tactics to create the best headlines. “Heart Attacks – What are you Doing to Decrease your Risk?” Now that’s a title. The scanner just found what they’re looking for, while the browser is sitting there wondering “What am I doing to decrease my risk?” and they’re just a little worried about it. Now both types of readers are interested and willing to read your article.

If you use Article Architect to craft your articles, you'll notice that they also have a very forumlaic approach to defining headlines, and it can help you get an idea of the kinds of headlines that make readers want to visit your site and find your articles.

 

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