From the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the sinking of the Titanic, the world's most famous events reach the populace through newspaper headlines. Using their catchy wording and short simple prose, carefully crafted lines of text have captured attention for generations. And previously, aided by the staccato voices of newspaper boys standing in the streets shouting, "extra! extra!," headlines have sold the news.
These units serve an identical purpose today. But in cyberspace it's not about selling. The target is to grab attention newspaper headlines. Site designers and copywriters craft these bolded strings of text to get visitors, retain visitors, and funnel them deeper in to a site.
When a visitor first arrives on your site, they are searching for information. Whether they have arrived through a internet search engine or by typing in your direct address, you have less than one second to demonstrate your relevance and retain the visitor. Headlines can allow you to efficiently state why your site fills their needs before they click off and move on.
Some ideas for writing a headline:
- Be creative
- State a fact
- Work with a quote
- Work with a testimonial
- Provide a command
- Ask a concern
- Announce news
Use simple text
Once you have captured your visitor, you have to continuously make a case to help keep them. Carefully chosen text can enable you to sell your product or service. But it's important to keep in mind that many visitors take more time scanning and clicking than reading, so use simple language that's easy to read. If your site is text-heavy, consider cutting your language or using carefully placed headlines to guide your reader through the writing and lead them to chapters of importance. An expert designer can work with a copywriter to craft a circulation to the website using creative language and design.
Make information easy to find
Increasing, the web has become a resource of first resort. Web users hop online to quickly find answers to many different questions. Many people won't pour over content to find a solution when they could click away and look somewhere else. Designers and copywriters must keep this in mind when creating and choosing text to highlight. Targeted text can direct your viewers to the aspects of your site that's probably to hold their answer. It can be important to note, that people read slower online, by almost 25 percent. In order to avoid frustrating your readers, choose language that's easy to digest.
