A headline should let somebody predict what they will get and still make them want it. Specificity does both, which is why it outperforms curiosity gaps that get the click and lose the reader on arrival.

The two jobs

Describe the page, so somebody scanning results can tell whether it answers their question.

Give a reason to open it, so they choose yours rather than the five others.

Those pull against each other only if you think interest comes from withholding. It usually comes from specificity, which serves both jobs at once.

Why the curiosity gap fails here

Headlines that hide the subject work for publishers whose revenue is the click. They do not work for a business whose revenue is the enquiry.

A vague headline attracts people who wanted something else, who leave immediately, and who form a mildly negative impression of the business on the way out.

Worse, it repels the person you wanted. Somebody searching for a specific answer scans for a headline that names it, and a clever one that does not is skipped in favour of a plain one that does.

For a small business site, being chosen by the right person matters more than being clicked by anybody.

What specificity does

The mechanism worth understanding.

A general headline promises something the reader has seen before. A specific one implies information they have not, which is a genuine reason to open it and one you can actually honour.

The difference between how to maintain your roof and what happens when a roof vent seal fails is that the second names a thing. It is narrower, it attracts fewer people, and the people it attracts are the ones who needed it.

The patterns that work

The second is the one businesses resist most, on the theory that stating the answer removes the reason to read. It does the opposite: somebody who agrees with the conclusion reads to find out why, and somebody who disagrees reads to argue.

The patterns to avoid

This one thing, and every variant of it.

You will not believe, which promises something no business page delivers.

The ultimate guide, which claims completeness nobody verifies and everybody discounts.

Everything you need to know, for the same reason.

A question with an obvious yes, which reads as a sales device.

These are not merely tired. They actively signal a low-value page, because the reader has encountered them attached to low-value pages repeatedly.

The search result constraint

A practical limit that shapes the writing.

Titles are truncated in search results, so the important words need to come first. A headline whose meaning depends on the last three words will be cut before it makes sense.

The other constraint is that the same headline frequently serves as the page heading, the search title, and the link text elsewhere. Writing something that works in all three positions is more useful than optimising for one.

Where the search title and the on-page heading can differ, a slightly more descriptive search title and a slightly more human heading is a reasonable arrangement.

Writing it last

The practical technique that improves headlines most.

Write the page, then read it and ask what it actually says. The headline is a description of the finished thing rather than a promise made before writing.

Headlines written first tend to be aspirational, and the page then fails to deliver what the headline claimed, which is where accidental overpromising comes from.

Writing three and choosing one is also worth the two minutes, since the first is almost always the most generic.

The test

Read the headline as somebody who does not know your business and ask two things.

Can they predict what the page contains. And having read the page, would they feel the headline was accurate.

If the answer to the first is no, it is too vague. If the answer to the second is no, it overpromised, and that is the more damaging failure because the reader arrived and was disappointed rather than never arriving at all.

Where a page is being shown in results and not clicked, the headline is the thing to rewrite before the page, which is one of the findings a content audit produces, as covered in finding the pages that have gone stale.

Frequently asked questions

What are the two jobs of a headline?

Describing the page so somebody can tell whether it answers their question, and giving a reason to open it. Specificity does both at once.

Why does clickbait fail for a business?

It attracts people who wanted something else and repels the person you wanted, who scans for a headline naming their specific question and skips the clever one.

What makes a headline interesting without withholding?

Naming something specific. A narrow headline implies information the reader has not seen and attracts fewer people, all of whom needed it.

Should the headline give away the conclusion?

Usually yes. Somebody who agrees reads to find out why, and somebody who disagrees reads to argue. Hinting that a conclusion exists is weaker than stating it.

What patterns should be avoided?

This one thing, you will not believe, the ultimate guide, everything you need to know, and questions with an obvious yes. They signal a low-value page.

When should the headline be written?

Last. Write the page, read it, and describe what it actually says. Headlines written first tend to be aspirational, and the page then fails to deliver them.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Pages showing in search results and not getting clicked?

We rewrite the titles first, which is cheaper than rewriting the pages and frequently the actual problem.

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