Headlines are the first thing a reader sees. It’s the moment they decide whether to read, share or skip a story. The feature headline has to arrest their attention and make them want to click. If it doesn’t, they’ll never get the full picture.
Headline writing has a lot of rules and best practices, and it has to work differently in different contexts. A great headline for a print article may be completely different from what’s needed to drive engagement on social media or in search results. A single story might have many different headlines, adapted for each place.
One example: NPR’s most popular headlines are often short and simple, with key words positioned near the front. This gives them perfect keyphrase prominence while leveraging human psychology. They also communicate a benefit to the reader – something they’ll gain from reading the post. It can be hard to convey all of that in a single line, but we try:
It’s important for feature headlines to capture emotion and pique curiosity. Using interesting adjectives, providing enough information to pique interest and, of course, a sense of urgency are all key factors. And we always strive to use a voice that sounds natural and conversational, even for the wonkiest of policy stories.