By Jim Hingst
Photo by cottonbro from Pexels
Writing headlines for webpages is different
than writing headlines for print media. In
this article, Jim Hingst describes copywriting techniques for writing webpage
headlines, which will attract the attention of your website visitors and entice
them to read further. By providing readers with a gateway to other webpages in
your body copy as well as delivering relevant content to satisfy their needs, you
will increase dwell time, reduce your bounce rate and grow your site traffic
and response rate.
Each
webpage should have its own headline or title, which describes the content of the page. Your
headline is the first thing that the reader sees and, in many cases, is the
only thing he reads. Descriptive headlines also help website visitors to find
answers to their search questions.
If
your copy does not capture the reader’s attention and interest, the visitor may
leave your page immediately. This affects your dwell time and bounce rate. These are two very important factors
that search engines use in ranking webpages.
Bounce rate records the percentage of visitors that leave
after viewing only a single webpage. A low percentage indicates that visitors
view multiple pages, which increases dwell time and suggests that you are
providing content that visitors value.
Dwell time is the length of time that the visitor stays on your website. In addition
to helping your
search engine rankings, longer dwell times usually generate a
higher response rate, provided that the webpage has an adequate call to action
and response mechanism.
Taking the time to write an interesting
headline attracts the visitor’s attention and entices him to read further. This
improves the site traffic and encourages return visits.
Each webpage headline should always include
a relevant keyword phrase. Keywords are the search terms that users use in looking
for answers to their questions. More
importantly, keywords tell the search engine what the topic is of the webpage. These
phrases are used in indexing or cataloging webpages.
SUGGESTION: In the HTML code for the
webpage, you can add an <h1> tag around the keyword phrase in your
headline. The <h1> tag emphasizes the topic of the webpage to search
engines. For example, here’s how to highlight the following keyword phrase
<h1>writing webpage headlines</h1>.
Keywords, of course, are not enough
in writing a successful headline. Your headline must appeal to the interests and needs of your
website visitor. It must invite him into the body of the story. Writing a headline
that will captivate the imagination of the reader will be your most difficult
challenge in developing a webpage.
Copywriting Techniques for More Effective
Headlines
Ever since the days of David Ogilvy,
father of modern advertising, copywriters have relied on a variety of techniques
to lure the attention of readers. These attention-getting practices for writing
winning headlines include:
● Asking a Question; (Example:
Do Your Vehicle Graphics Generate an Acceptable Advertising ROI?)
● Promising a Key Benefit. Promising a benefit
entices the reader to learn more, drawing him into the
article. Of
course, your content must deliver on that promise
(Example: Secret to Successfully Painting Powder Coated Metal Surfaces).
● Proposing a Unique Solution to a
Universal Problem; (Example: How to Fix Edge Peeling Vinyl Graphics).
Headlines that begin with “how to” are successful because
they suggest that you are offering solutions to your prospects’ problems. Using
a number in your headline is another effective technique to generate a favorable
result. For example, “5 Elements You Must Include in Your Vehicle Wrap Design”.
Headline
Length. Don’t worry if the webpage headline is long. As a
rule of thumb, longer headlines pull better that shorter ones. However, you should
limit your headline to 65 characters. Titles longer than that are cut off in
the Search Engine Ranking Page or SERP. The SERP is the list of
results that a search engine provides the user in response to his search.
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