How to write search engine-friendly Web headlines

Web headlines (unlike print headlines, for example in newspapers and magazines) aren't just written for people: they are written for search engines too.

The headline is the single most significant piece of information for a search engine trying to decide what a story is about - so a well written headline can dramatically increase the number of people that will find the story.

It's an important element of search engine optimisation - or SEO as it is usually called.

From my experience working on consumer and business magazines, I recommend that you:

By proper nouns I mean nouns that have an initial capital letter: names of companies, organisations, people, countries and so on. If the story is about company A buying company B, try to get the names of both companies in to the Web headline. That means that people will find your story whether they are searching for information on company A, on company B, or both at once.

Here's a headline from the Daily Mail website that follows this advice:

"Doctor Who? Unknown actor Matt Smith, 26, announced as David Tennant's replacement" is a little wordy for my liking (and a triple-decker), but it does include the name of the TV show in question (Doctor Who), the name of the actor being replaced, the name of his replacement, and the two reasons why this is surprising (his youth and obscurity).

The BBC News headline for the same story is, in my opinion, less effective from a search point of view. It doesn't even include the full name of the show:

This is especially important if understanding of the pun is required for the headline to make sense. For example, the great print headline 'Celebrity Big Blubber' (which is a play on 'Celebrity Big Brother', a popular reality TV show) wouldn't work on the Web:

People searching for stories about whales, or more specifically about a whale in the Thames, probably wouldn't use any of the words in this headline. Something along the lines of 'Whale in River Thames' would be more effective as a Web headline - again, at least from a search point of view.

One consequence of all this is that Web headlines, even good ones, tend to be rather dry. That's OK - as long as they make sense. Of course, if you can include some humour without losing those proper nouns, then great. The Daily Mail manages this with the start of its 'Doctor Who?' headline.

It really is a balancing act - as a headline writer, you want your headlines to be pithy, amusing and memorable; the Web encourages you to make them wordy, prosaic and even formulaic.

The minimum you should aim for is accuracy. Generally in the media, Web headlines receive fewer reads than print headlines before being published. For example, in my workplace, a print headline will often be suggested by a writer, tweaked by a sub editor (a copy editor to any Americans reading this!), read by two proofreaders, and corrected (if necessary) by another sub. Then it might be seen on a second proof or even a final PDF (along with the rest of the spread, of course).

A Web headline, in contrast, will be suggested by a writer, tweaked by a sub, and possibly then seen by one of the web team. That's it. Partly this is because we want to get the Web story up as quickly as possible, and partly because we know the headline can be amended after the story has gone live (not possible with a print story, of course). There's also less revenue - and dare I say it less importance - attached to online than print, at least at the moment.

But an inaccurate Web headline can lose readers and have legal implications just like an inaccurate print headline. That's why web headlines should always be written by editorial staff rather than SEO/technical staff.