Given how many new pieces of content — such as blog articles, infographics and so forth — are published on the internet every day, it’s no wonder that plenty of us will pay only fleeting attention to an online headline before deciding whether to click through to the content proper.
For this reason, it can prove imperative for you to be meticulous when crafting a headline. How can you better your chances of ensuring that someone opts to view your brand’s content over another’s?
Remember how heavily the odds are stacked against you
For starting and maintaining websites, many individuals and companies use WordPress.com, where 70 million online posts are published each month.
On the plus side, that’s a strong endorsement of this popular platform’s reliability. We at Webahead Internet can even build you a WordPress.com website you would be able to easily add to as and when necessary.
However, given that about 90% of online content does not garner any traffic via Google, it’s crucial not to underestimate what a positive difference a well-written headline can make.
Avoiding resorting to ‘clickbait’
The word ‘clickbait’ is often used for headlines that turn out to be misleading about the content they are supposed to represent. A classic example of clickbait is the notorious ‘you won’t believe what happened next’ headline (in fact, you have probably often believed what happened next).
Though you obviously want to draw attention with your headlines, being overly sensational with them can damage trust — and consequently, in the long run, your brand reputation.
Insert strategically chosen keywords, but only subtly
You can’t entirely disregard SEO concerns when putting together a headline — as, otherwise, it might never feature prominently enough in Google search results to even be noticed by many members of your target audience.
At the same time, though, going overboard with keywords in a headline can leave it looking spammy — and risk it getting penalised by Google.
For example, a headline like “A beginner-friendly guide to planting flowers” can actually work better SEO-wise than “A beginner-friendly guide to planting roses, tulips, poppies and other flowers”.
Keep the spelling, punctuation and grammar immaculate
This might initially seem like obvious advice, but it bears repeating — because typos can still too easily slip through the proofreader’s net and into published headlines, potentially blighting a professional image you could have previously worked hard to foster.
Remember that a headline could literally be someone’s earliest introduction to your brand. If that person sees apparently careless errors — like misplaced apostrophes or improper capitalisation — in the headline, they could suspect that the rest of the content’s quality is similarly not up to scratch.
This helps to explain why, if you wouldn’t consider yourself a particularly experienced or adept writer, you could benefit hugely from asking digital copywriters from Webahead Internet to produce your headlines — and, for that matter, the rest of the textual content attached to them.
To enquire about what we could do for you, please reach out to us by phoning 01325 582112 or emailing info@webaheadinternetltd.co.uk.
