Extra! Extra! Carefully crafted headlines grab attention
Written By Jen Harte
posted on February 18, 2008
From the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the sinking of the Titanic, the world’s most famous events have reached the populace through newspaper headlines. With their catchy wording and short simple prose, carefully crafted lines of text have captured attention for generations. And in the past, aided by the staccato voices of newspaper boys standing in the streets shouting, “extra! extra!,” headlines have sold the news.
These devices serve a similar purpose today. But in cyberspace it’s not about selling. The goal is to grab attention. Web designers and copywriters craft these bolded strings of text to gain visitors, retain visitors, and funnel them deeper into a site.
When a visitor first arrives on your site, they are looking for information. Whether they have arrived through a search engine or by typing in your direct address, you have less than one second to demonstrate your relevance and retain the visitor. Headlines can help you to efficiently state why your site fills their needs before they click off and move on.
Some suggestions for writing a headline:
- Be creative
- State a fact
- Use a quote
- Use a testimonial
- Give a command
- Ask a question
- Announce news
Use simple text
Once you have captured your visitor, you have to continuously make a case to keep them. Carefully chosen text can allow you to sell your product or service. But it’s important to remember that most visitors spend more time scanning and clicking than reading, so use simple language that is easy to read. If your site is text-heavy, consider cutting your language or using carefully placed headlines to guide your reader through the text and lead them to sections of importance. A professional designer can work with a copywriter to craft a flow to the site using creative language and design.
Make information easy to find
Increasing, the web has become a resource of first resort. Web users hop online to quickly find answers to a variety of questions. Most people will not pour over content to find an answer when they can click away and look somewhere else. Designers and copywriters must keep this in mind when creating and choosing text to highlight. Targeted text can direct your viewers to the areas of your site that is most likely to hold their answer. It is also important to note, that people read slower online, by almost 25 percent. To avoid frustrating your readers, choose language that is easy to digest.
Use Simple Directives
With any site, the most important goal is the call to action. Every business wants visitors to leave with a plan to act. Headlines can remind visitors what to do before they leave. Never underestimate the power of a simple directive like “buy now.”