Be concise and write a strong headline
Writers—especially newbies—sometimes create verbose copy. That’s fine, but once you’ve finished your first draft, go through it and reduce the verbiage.
Let's look at two example passages I might write for our fictional article about marathon running:
To stay in shape, you need to run at least three days a week. The other two days, focus on keeping your body moving through stretching.
To stay in shape, run at least three days a week. On two days instead, focus on stretching to stay flexible.
In these examples, we have a keyword-heavy passage (number one) and a more concise first (number two). I've edited 33 words to 22.
How? I mostly removed unnecessary phrases. “For the purpose of” becomes just “To”. I didn’t have to say “minimum” and “at least” because they mean the same thing. I removed unnecessary words and rephrased to make the second sentence clearer.
This is never more true than when you’re crafting your headline. A headline that’s too long or wordy will either employment database confuse or irritate your readers. They may not even understand what you’re trying to tell them.
Urgency is our next pick in this list of helpful headline writing tips. It’s like waving a magic wand in front of an audience. When done right, urgency leaves readers no choice but to click.
These clickbait headlines can take many forms, such as the following:
You can start a new business in 2 weeks or less. Here's how.
Learn the fastest way to safely lose baby weight
Sharing my best [topic] secrets. Limited time only.
This works best with an article that can help your reader achieve something faster. You offer shortcuts, solutions, or better strategies.
In the last example, I'm teasing a revelation. People who don't click right now won't learn my secret.