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YahooEverybody knows that “how to” articles are compelling, especially if they speak to a specific audience. Another effective style of headline writing is to ask a question in the headline.
You only have a few seconds to command the attention of your reader. In those few seconds, your big goal is to get them to read what you have to say and follow through to make a purchase, sign up for a mailing list or maybe just read your entire article.
In reality, your success will depend on accomplishing your goal in steps. And the first step is writing a headline as a web page title that invites a click from the search engines, then gets the reader to read the first sentence, then the second sentence, the next paragraph and so on...moving down the page.
The search engines creates a unique problem for copywriters. As discussed in the article Organic Search Engine Traffic, web pages need to be formatted for search engine spiders, but they also have to speak to a human being; one with wants, needs, emotions, problems and frustrations.
The number one formatting issue for web copy is that your headline should always be the page title in the title tag of the web page. So, Headline = Page Title Tag. This can somewhat limit the creativity and length of a headline, but by using your imagination, you can always work around the web page formatting issue.
The last step in this article gives you the tip for testing your headline’s ability to attract more clicks from the SERPs.
Find out the benefits wanted by the specific group you want to attract. People gravitate to benefits more than features. A person looking for a stainless steel refrigerator really wants home decor. A person shopping for a half-inch drill really wants a half-inch hole.
Find out which keywords people use in their search queries. Go to the Wordtracker free keyword tool to find out what search queries people are using to seek out the benefits content of your web page. Look for two, three and four word keyword strings instead of single words.
Write your headline using your keyword research findings. Using your targeted keywords, write your headline. Remember to keep your headline total character (including spaces) length 67 characters or less.
Call 1 (800)... to find out more. In a nutshell, if you've written a headline that will stand out from the other results displayed for the search query, this is how you can test it. It's a pretty simple test. If your headline would compel the reader to call an "800" number to find out more, you probably have a good headline.
If you feel that the headline wouldn't get you to call an "800" number to find out more, then re-word it until it does.
This is just one of many tips for writing effective headlines. The bottom line is not just to rank on the first page in the search engines, but also to get people to click through to your web pages and stay there for a while to read them.
