What writers & others say
“Not everyone wants to play, ‘What’s the last word in the headline?’”
— Andy Bechtel, associate professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill
“Part of the craft of journalism for more than a century has been to think up clever titles and headlines, and Google comes along and says, ‘The heck with that.’”
— Ed Canale, vice president for strategy and new media, The Sacramento Bee
“A lot of times I’ll write something, and the online desk will rewrite it because it doesn’t work. And that’s because Google doesn’t laugh.”
— Matthew Crowley, copy editor for the Las Vegas Review-Journal
“If there is a choice between boring and useless, I suggest going for boring.”
— Steffen Fjaervik, contributing writer, Poynter Online
“You have to get a great headline to attract attention in your blog — it’s about the lure — not the rod.”
— Michael Hyatt, author, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World
“Software bots are not your ordinary readers: They are blazingly fast yet numbingly literal-minded. There are no algorithms for wit, irony, humor or stylish writing. The software is a logical, sequential, left-brain reader, while humans are often right brain.”
— Steve Lohr, technology reporter, The New York Times
“Selecting the first 2 words for your page titles is probably the highest-impact ROI-boosting design decision you make in a web project. Front-loading important keywords trumps most other design considerations.”
— Jakob Nielsen, “the king of usability”
“On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”
— David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy & Mather
“If the story is about the dangers of salmonella in tomatoes in California, by golly, the headline probably needs to have ‘California,’ ‘bacteria’ and ‘tomatoes’ in it. Maybe ‘salmonella,’ too.”
— Sara Dickenson Quinn, visual journalism teacher, The Poynter Institute
“Does the pursuit of the literal take all the fun out of headline writing? Not necessarily.”
— Eric Ulken, assistant managing editor of digital, The Seattle Times
“When things get tough, remember … You’re not writing for Google; you’re writing for people, with Google in mind. Sometimes headline writers get carried away with SEO. It’s counterproductive to put these goals ahead of clarity and common sense.”
— Eric Ulken, assistant managing editor of digital, The Seattle Times
“As newspapers embrace search engine optimization, and as young journalists are taught to value Google visibility above all else, many copy editors fear that funny headlines are quickly going the way of the classified ad.”
— David Wheeler, journalism teacher, Asbury University
Lift Ideas Off the Page
Some 60% of your audience members aren’t reading your copy, according to estimates by professors at the University of Missouri.
If so, bring Ann in to present Catch Your Readers — a one- to two-day persuasive-writing course — to your team.There, they’ll learn how to reach “readers” who spend only two minutes — or even just 10 seconds — with their piece … a simple test to run on their copy to make sure they’re reaching flippers and skimmers … and how to craft the piece of copy that 95% of people read — but that 95% of communicators drop.