1. Can you scan it and understand what should follow? (Information scent)

2. People ignore what they don’t understand.

3. Is it concise? Will it fit easily in an email subject line, a Twitter post?

4. Would you click it? Is it catchy? Spreadable? If you saw the headline at random in Google Reader/Digg/Reddit, etc., would it get your attention and compel you to click?

5. If possible, load the important keywords at the front. This is good for search engines and human reader/scanners.

6. Is it honest? People don’t like being tricked and won’t trust you again if what follows doesn’t match what was promised.

7. If too difficult to incorporate all elements at once, define immediate and long term goals. Tailor the title for viral, buzzworthiness first so you can grab the social media/click happy crowd. Rework the title later, after everything as settled, so that it’s search engine friendly for future reference and findability.

Tags: headline writing, SEO

This entry was posted on Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 3:36 pm and is filed under blogging, web design, writing. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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