It's A Work Of Art

The main headline can be read at a glance, even when located on a newsstand quite some distance away. It grabs attention hard. It often draws you toward rack, at least close enough to read subheadline. And, as often as not, just as millions do every day, you buy a copy to read related article.

Does creation of headline for your site matter less than that of creating one for a newspaper?

Other Headlines Matter

In putting together first page of a newspaper, major task is to pull from day's stories those most likely to interest readers. Only those with maximum appeal are selected. And headline for each is crafted with extreme care. The object is to have at least one that grabs attention of any reader. The best are used in first fold, part that shows in newsstand.

Do you have at least one subheadline that grabs attention of most visitors? Have you a couple others in first screen that loads?

Formatting

The amount of space given to text of each article on front page varies. Such decisions need to be handled with care, for space is limited. If one chooses to run too much text in a given article, another may need to be removed to an inner page, which subtracts that headline from front page.

While a web page has no fixed limit, visitors will not scroll down indefinitely. Thus formatting matters here as well. Include those elements most likely to be of interest to your target as close to top of page as possible. And each needs an attention grabbing headline.

Teasers

Newspapers generate profits from advertising. Yet you will not see an ad on front page of any major daily. Instead, all is headlines, followed by beginnings of story. Photos are used sparingly on front page, for headlines and content are generally better draw.

Further article begins with most important story elements. What is presented ends with a teaser. This is first part of a sentence, laden with emotion, that seeks to compel you to turn to an inner page. For it is on inner pages you will find ads that generate profits.

An example often used is to end with, "The officer drew his pistol, cocked it, crouched down, then ... (Cont on page 23)

The Site Parallel

1) The simplest word available is best choice.

Mark Twain often got paid by word. He once commented he preferred city over metropolis. Sure, "joke" is that he got paid for either word, and that city is quicker and easier to write. But he also knew it made his work easier to read.

2) Avoid using adverbs and adjectives.

"This is very hard to do."

"This is awfully hard to do."

"This is hard to do."

Which of above do you feel is best? I've asked a loaded question here, for "best" doesn't really apply. To strengthen your work, minimize use of qualifiers. There is simply no question here. The last form is strongest.

The point? Adverbs such as "very" and "awfully" often weaken, rather than strengthen. In previous sentence I was forced to use "often," for without it sentence is not true. That is, adverbs and adjectives do not always mess things up. But they often or usually do.

Alternatively, consider breaking flow. Then hit hard. For above, try:

"This is an awesome task."

This is a stronger claim than, "This is hard to do." Which is best depends upon way you want to make your point and who you want to make it to.

3) Keep sentences as short as possible.

Above, "This is hard to do," is also better choice, for it's shorter. Here's a sentence I wrote for another purpose. (I'll refer below to this as the, "Original.")

"Subheadings must flow from headline, revealing major benefits so that at end of page, reader has a good feel for content, even when only headlines are scanned."

It's much, much to long. 34 words. While it's not hard to read, it does slow reading because length makes it more difficult to follow. Personally, I try to hold to under 15 words, and less whenever possible. Even though it's longer (45 words), following revision is easier to read.

Revision #1: "Subheadings should flow from headline. Each should reveal a major benefit to reader. And at end of page, you want reader to have a good feel for content. This matters because most only scan headlines and subheadings."

4) Seek brevity and eliminate unnecessary words.