Aim of headlines

The simple aim of a headline is to get people to read the rest of your content. If it doesn't do that, then the effort you have put into the rest of your copy could be wasted. Headlines are important and the more experience you get in writing you will learn what type of headlines work best.

Length of headlines

How long should your headline be. An accepted length is between 5 and 10 words (though some writer say 7 should be the maximum). Write your headline and then remove any words that are unnecessary and are not contributing to the headline being compelling.

Headlines should match the content

One thing you don't want to do is annoy your reader by having a really good headline that has aroused their curiosity and then produce content that doesn't seem to be related. Always make sure that headline and content are talking about the same thing.

Don't make wild promises

Okay we've all seen those crazy headlines that say things like 'How to make $10,000 dollars in the next 15 days" - but if you want to be trusted I advise you not to go down this route. There's nothing wrong in using a promise style headline but don't over promise and don't try and cheat your readers.