Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Your headlines suck. Here are a few ways to keep your headlines fresh and compelling, and to catch your readers' attention. And none of them involve SEO and Google bots.

Sometimes it’s just better to get back to the basics and do headlines the way journalists are taught. I don’t mean the Buzzfeed-style headlines either — “The Five Absolute Worst Headlines of 2013,” “You Won’t Believe What These Journalists Are Wearing,” “Seven Lies We Tell Our Parents About Being Buzzfeed Headline Writers.” I mean informative, interesting headlines that make people want to read your articles and posts....

No matter what kind of a website you have, the one thing that is always true is that your headlines are really important. Headlines affect things like user engagement, readability, conversions, SEO, social sharing, and even click-throughs.

80% of people will read a headline, but only 20% of people will read the article. Whether or not you snag that extra 80% depends on the magnetism of your headline.A really good headline can spike your traffic by 500%....