Do you recognise the importance of writing headlines for internet marketing? A headline can make or break your website and also perform a variety of SEO functions. Let’s take a closer look at the value of an effective headline and tips on how to write one.
The Importance Of Headlines
Headlines are important to both search engine spiders and human visitors.
In terms of search engines the headline text, denoted by a bigger font size, is given greater importance than other text on the page for search engine indexing purposes. The words in the headline are those grabbed by search engines and placed at the forefront of the short descriptor on the results page.
The headline on a blog post becomes part of its permalink address (and if you don’t already use this type of linking structure, you should for the sake of your seo). This is another way search engines find content relevant to searches.
Consider also, that viral marketing via social bookmarking and pinging services use the headline of your blog post for display.
For human visitors, the headline functions as a virtual calling card. It immediately lets visitors know what type of content to expect and pulls them in, encouraging them to read further. When they find your web page through a search, they often only see the headline along with a short line of text; obviously the headline could encourage them to click through to your URL or move on.
Writing Effective Headlines
Obviously, it is necessary to include appropriate keywords when writing headlines for your web pages and blog posts. But take into consideration several factors that influence how effective they will be.
First, the order of the keywords and how they are presented are very important. Consider the difference between these two headlines: “Vancouver, Canada Chosen to Host the Winter Olympics Next Year” or “2010 Winter Olympics Going to Vancouver Canada”. Most people will not perform a search on “the winter Olympics” so get rid of the headline. Chances are that most internet users are more interested in the actual Olympics than information on the location itself so by moving the topic of interest to the front of the headline, it utilises better SEO. The comma in between Vancouver and Canada can also be a problem so eliminate punctuation marks in the title if possible.
Another thing to consider is the amount of keywords in the headline. Using the example above, the first option contains a lot of words but actually has less SEO value. The second headline includes the year, the event, and the location – and all in fewer words.
Even if your article or web page is not covering such a widely searched topic, try to incorporate popular subject matter into your headlines. This is a great way to get further mileage out of the content. For instance, if you sell sporting goods on your site, consider writing a blog post that ties in the products you sell with an Olympic sports event. Few people search for something like “winter weight woollen socks” but many people would be interested to know how Olympic athletes gear up for their events.
Writing headlines is a very important aspect of internet marketing and search engine optimisation. Optimising subheadings can also help make your articles scannable to both search engine and people, too. Take the time to write headlines that are both engaging and utilise important keywords and you’ll maximise the traffic potential for articles.
About Sean Rasmussen
It is sometimes difficult to both have a interesting, attention grabbing headline and also have it in such a form to aid in SEO efforts. Something controversial will always pull in a reader, but does that not have a negative impact on SEO – even if the headline contains keywords?
Hi Cemil
I agree that it can be difficult and is something that cannot always be done. As far as negative SEO goes, I don’t see why a controversial headline would have the slightest negative effect on SEO…as long as your are targeting your keyphrase, what’s the difference?
Regards – Sean
I agree Sean
The controversy could actually help
Balancing the needs of the search engines, versus the human reader is always a challenge – in the headline and in the whole web page! Just got to be creative and practise is the best way. Also, pay attention to the headlines that great IM’ers use on their sites.
Permalink and viral marketing. I don’t know that my poor brain can actually accommodate much more information before I put some of it into practice.
There seems to be no end to what we need to know to live in this world of internet marketing. I know that you, Sean, seem to absorb it all easily, but honestly it is a huge undertaking for us mere mortals.
I agree that headlines in any form of public consumption are of the utmost importance.
Personally I have the feeling that experience and trial and error are going to be the best teachers. We all know the importance of them and the need for them to attract attention, but finding a personal way of doing this that isn’t just recycling things that we have seen seems to me an enormous task.
However, having said that off I go to accomplish this enormous task.
Thanks for your help.
Hi Sean,
More copywriting. I think I’m getting how important this skill is to the success of my site. I’m really going to work on writing headlines that get results.
I guess the trick is to be able to use my keywords in my attention grabbing headlines.
I too have found that balancing SEO and making the key phrase attractive to the reader a tricky task at times. I am a fan of using question or quotation marks in an attempt to lure a reader in but am now wandering is this type of punctuation ok to use in terms of SEO?
Hi Sean,
This article has given me ideas for writing a blog. Also hopefully for creating attention grabbing headlines.
I’m becoming more aware on how to take advantage of current news topics or events and happenings. I can do this by relating the news topics etcetera, to my niche product through writing a blog. Also through using good SEO techniques to drive traffic to find my niche product.
Hi Sean
There are so many “important’ aspects of internet marketing that it is difficult to rate them. They all seem equally demanding for being first in line.
A check list is a must and one I am now putting one (very long one) together as I read all these articles.
Writing headlines that get results speaks for itself. I just need to get the copy writing skills which I am now manifesting a great course for next year. It is number one on my list.