evo ’11 takeaway :: writing a good headline

In exchange for a conference pass, I did live blogging in some of the sessions at evo ’11.  Let me just say that writing the highlights, taking photos, tweeting, and facebooking during a session and having the post finished and saved in a draft, ready to be published, by the end of a session, left my head spinning.  I’ve had to refer to my posts a few times to remember what I thought were the highlights. 

I was very excited to attend the Growing Your Blog session led by BabyCenter.  When they reiterated what I heard in the SEO session on writing a good headline, I knew it was important and something I should be practicing.  Here are some pointers they gave for writing a good headline…

• Be clear, not clever.

• Keep it short and tight (5-7 words).

• Use strong keywords and trending terms.

• Force the click.

• Use numbers but not too large (not beyond 10).

• Ask a question.

• Promise something.

I thought it was interesting that they’ve found that they keyword “review” gets twice as many hits as “reviews.”  They also said that “giveaway” in the headline rather than “free” generates more hits as well. 

They said that sometimes they will spend hours writing a headline.  I don’t have that kind of time to spend, but I have enjoyed practicing creativity in the headline, something I haven’t paid as much attention to in the past.  To read all my notes on the Growing Your Blog session, click here.