What’s Really The Best Headline Length?
Headline length: A reliable way to boost your traffic.
Click To TweetGet the Most Out of Your Headline Research
You’re in for a treat! CoSchedule has recently launched the perfect tool for crafting your next headline. Introducing the Headline Studio, where you can write better headlines that are guaranteed to boost your traffic! If you like our original Headline Analyzer — a no-cost tool that gives you honest feedback about your headline ideas — then you’re sure to love our Headline Analyzer Studio. The studio brings you millions of all-new, actionable suggestions that tell you EXACTLY how to improve your headlines. Here are some of the specifics: You can...- Analyze headlines 10x faster with an all-new, time-saving algorithm.
- Gain 5x more feedback with advanced analysis from thousands of data points.
- Outperform the competition by making changes that boost your headline score.
- Optimize headlines on any site where you write them with a handy browser extension.
Download Your Headline Optimization Toolkit Today
In addition to the references above, take a glance at the free headline kit we’ve composed for you. It’s full of great kick-starters to get your headline ideas off the ground and ensure you’re making the most out of your headline brainstorming. In this bundle, you’ll find...- 100+ headline templates from Copy Hackers, Copyblogger, Michael Hyatt, Crazy Egg, and CoSchedule.
- A list of attention-grabbing words that are perfect for writing diverse headlines that drive traffic, shares, and search results.
- A headline infographic full of relevant headline data — like average click-through rates and how to use positive/negative headlines — that is sure to bring you the best results to get connected with your audience.
I Want My Headline to Do Well in Organic Search
When you’re doing an ordinary search on a search engine, like Google, what are the links you’re most likely to click? Exactly — ones that contain keywords from your organic search. In this case, we would be more focused on title tags and meta descriptions (SEO) because these things are what appear on the search engine result pages (SERPs). If this pertains to you, make sure you customize your title tag and meta description to match popular keyword searches. If your headline is the star of the show during an organic search, then you need to tread a bit more carefully. While there isn’t exactly a limit for how many characters you are able to include in your title tag or displayed headline, you should keep in mind that Google only displays the first 50–60 characters.Keep in mind that Google only displays the first 50–60 characters of your title tag.
Click To TweetI Want My Headline to Do Well on Social Media
What about your headlines in context with social media? As you can probably imagine, the best way to measure the success of a headline through social media is to gauge the amount of shares and click-throughs. However, share rates come to a grinding halt when the headline no longer piques the interest of the people it’s being shared with. Instead of creating headlines that can fit into a title tag, like with search engines, you want to create headlines that invoke curiosity and get people to click.- Long, rambling — bordering on bizarre — headlines. I know, I just told you to stick to a 50–60 character limit before, but hear me out. Lots of headlines nowadays almost tell their own story. It’s okay to make a social media headline lengthy, if you’re piling on the perks, call-outs, and helpful specifics.
- Emotional headlines. Sometimes it’s not what’s IN the article that matters, but the emotion that radiates from it. CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer Studio can help you measure your emotion words within your headline.
- Headlines with sparse keywords. Use less keywords, more emotion.
- Headlines with less context. If your target hasn’t read the article yet, your goal is to bait them with the headline. The less they know, the more they can learn through your content… when they click.
- Shocking, emotional, or questionable headlines. When your readers are left with a big question mark, they click to find the answer.
I Want My Headline to Drive Email Opens and Clicks
Customizing your headline length/content for your social media works very similarly to customizing it for your email. However, with email, you are usually focusing more on what is going in the email subject line. Email subject line length preference really depends on your own, personal preference. The reason your subject lines are more difficult for finding the perfect length is because results vary from marketing team to marketing team. For example, MailChimp has found a variety of data on long, short, and somewhere-in-between headlines, so they don’t believe length is a crucial factor. On the other hand, we did our own research, and found that email subject lines with around 50 characters got the best results. What does this mean? Trial-and-error. Try one method, if it works, that’s great. If it doesn’t, well, try another method. Simply put, there may not be a solid answer, and you may just have to play around with your subject lines every time. The subject-line world is your oyster! Before you get out there and go crazy on your subject lines, keep in mind that open rates and click-through rates are not the same thing.When it comes to email, open rates and click-through rates are NOT the same thing.
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