11) Headlining and Sub-Headlining Effective Content Pieces (OUTDATED)
Article titles (headlines), as well as subheadlines, are one of the first things a reader reads.
In this discussion, we will understand effective strategies to write headline titles as well as subheadlines to these titles.
Some general tips include:
-
Avoid long article titles: try to fit the title within 62 characters or limit it to 5-7 words.
-
Consider using “What”, “Why”, “How”, or “When” as these are catchy and add to curiosity.
-
Use Numbers - numbers ensure the availability of organized information, and are generally liked: using Odd Numbers in the title has helped in terms of SEO. Remember to write the number itself (5 instead of five).
-
To add specificity, consider using “the” before the number.
-
Provide an answer to why people should click and read your content: words like “tips”, “strategies”, “facts”, “reasons” all help provide a rationale.
-
Include the word “Guide” where applicable.
-
Consider using emotional adjectives that describe the topic. For example, “essential”, “free” etc.
-
Consider outlining Negative aspects - spin this to meet mental health content goals. For example, The 5 Essential Things You Did Not Know About Depression.
-
Use common words to ensure people understand and grasp the topic while finding the title simple
-
Consider using a “Things I Wish I Had Known” approach to content if applicable.
How to test your headline as being unique:
Copy and paste your headline with quotation marks into the Google search bar. (e.g. “The 5 Essential Things You Did Not Know About Depression”) - if the results come back as “no results found”, your headline is unique!
Helpful Resource: Useful Title Capitalization Tool
Note: The bottom line to success in terms of marketing and content is to ensure that your content body reflects the great headline/title. It might be worth considering to write final titles after the content body.
Subheadlines: Effective subheadlines summarize the content body while also linking it to the title.
Activity
Using the knowledge attained through this discussion, propose a new article title as well as a subheadline for this published article at 7 Cups.
Reply to at least one other student’s response and share your feedback with them
(Edited by @SoulfullyAButterfly: 12/2/2021 to clarify "subheadline" instead of subheading)
-
This post is brought to you by the Content Development and Marketing Program, find out more information about the program here
@SoulfullyAButterfly
Title - 6 Ways to Raise Your Christmas Cheer
Subtitle - Tips to move through feelings of loneliness during the holidays.
@gentleFox20
Innovative title! I really liked it :) It incorporates the title word limit and the subtitle states the content too.
@SoulfullyAButterfly
Title: Strategies to deal with loneliness during holidays
Subheadline: 6 ways to cope up with feeling alone as the holiday period approaches during the pandemic
@SoulfullyAButterfly The title of that article could be "From Dreary to Vibrancy"
subhead lines-:
Token of Appreciation
Bonding with friends and family
Virtual meet ups
Helping Hand
Experimentation
Let yourself heal
@yourbuddy30
I like the format of your title but I think finding another word for dreary would make it more eye-catching as many people may not immediately understand it.
I think you may have confused the subheading with paragraph titles. What you suggested would be great paragraph ideas!
@yourbuddy30 I love your title! And kudos to you for coming up with not just 1 subheading but 6, wow! My favorite one would have to be token of appreciation. :)
@SoulfullyAButterfly
Heading:
Home Alone: coping with loneliness during the holidays (2022)
Subheading:
We may be socially distanced but there are ways of staying emotionally connected,
@guidamaximo
I liked your headline, as it made use of familiar pop culture which can make the article more eye-catching. It was concise and made clear what the article was going to be about. While your subheading was good, I think it was a bit long and moved further towards covid-19 than the title did, so I thought some better homogeneity between the two might work better.
Heading
Ideas For Coping With Holiday Loneliness
Subheading
How to feel less alone this holiday season
@empatheticpie
I like how to-the-point your article title and subtitle are!
How to Combat Loneliness this Holiday Season
6 suggestions to prevent loneliness from consuming you during the holidays
@InvaderStitch this sounds great! Grabs my attention :)
I really liked how you took a bold approach with wording. Combat is a word I personally would shy away from because I feel like it may trigger some people with PTSD, but with that, it also means my writing may be weaker in some ways.
@SoulfullyAButterfly
5 effective strategies for reducing loneliness during the holidays
@amybrit10
easy to read and catches my attention
great job :)
Coping with Loneliness During the Holidays
6 effective ways to deal with loneliness over the holidays
@Vivikun9
Really like this! It wasn’t a huge change but really effective. For a suggestion: I ran the title through the analyzer, and its readability score was low. I was surprised by this. I wonder what would help this, maybe try reworking it from the main content idea of ‘coping’. But I’m also at a loss here.
Either way it's straightforward and inclusive of the content. Great job!
@broadfemmelovelive
Ah I see what you mean. I will try a new headline :3 thank you for the feedback
@Vivikun9
New headline:
The Winter Blues: Handling Loneliness on Hoilday
@Vivikun9
Love the new title. How did it fare on the analyser?
@broadfemmelovelive
It's like in the middle ground.
@SoulfullyAButterfly
I found this Discussion Activity 11 left undone, thank goodness for my double-checking!
Coping with Loneliness During the Holidays (original)
Change to:
Holidays: How Best to Cope with Loneliness:
A guide to finding some normalcy during the pandemic.
Explanation: I played with a few things here. Eventually landing on the above title I think it encompasses all the discussed factors. And the subtitle has a further explanatory nature feel with a hint of what to expect in the article. I received a 69 overall score on the headline analyzer and an SEO of 64. Mostly I'm proud of the 84 on the Sentimental score. I think that is acceptable. I would read it.
@broadfemmelovelive
@richuyulin
I like how your title and subheadline are connected to each other and capture the gist of the content. I like how you have used emotional adjectives- boost and reflected that the content is providing "strategies" for something. I also like how your subheadline emphasizes that the content is about COVID-19.