3 Critical Errors of Church Blog Headline Writing
April 20th, 2008 Categories: Christian Blogging Tips
Recent research has indicated that it’s more important than ever to write good, quality headlines. Users utilize an “F” shaped reading pattern to look at your blog, usually reading the headline, reading the first line of text in the body, and scanning down the left side of your site.
We want you to be able to write headlines that are going to do the job of grabbing the reader and engaging them in your content. With that in mind, we’ve noticed a few common errors that Church blogs commonly have in their headlines:
1. Not Putting the Good Info Up Front: Research indicates that readers are much less likely to read the third word on a particular line than they are the first and second words. What does that mean to you? It means that you need to put the biggest bang in your headline in the first two words. Take, for instance, the title of this article: 3 Critical Errors of Church Headline Writing. The first two words (or numbers) really make an attempt at engaging the reader by utilizing an emotional word “Critical.” This is a good rule of thumb for creating attention-grabbing Church Blog headlines.
2. Too Much Info: I see a lot of headlines around that look like this: “Why Go To Church Every Day and Do Nothing When You Can Be Actively Involved In The Congregation?” That’s probably a decently written, relatively compelling article….but nobody cares because you chased them away with a bogus headline. Instead, try this: “Three Reasons To Get Plugged In Today.” You get the idea.
3. Too Little Info: It’s not quite as frequent as the last headline infraction, but I’ve seen it enough to be concerned. People will write headlines such as “Jesus Rules.” That’s certainly the truth, but it’s hardly descriptive of the content of the blog post. Remember point one, and if you’re going to write a two word headline, you had better make sure it packs a punch.
Now, get out there and start writing some good headlines. We’re the church. We should be doing everything better.
We Build Blogs
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