Headings are one of the basic areas for SEO, but they are also one of those areas that can be hard to get right. Much of the success of your site rests on the quality of your headings.

Headings are one of those areas where the experience of a professional copywriter comes in handy, particularly when you want to take your site’s search engine optimisation into account. You can discuss your site content needs with us at SEO Consult Australia.

One of the trickiest things about headings is, strangely enough, the need for variety. There are formulas that work, but if you keep applying them your site’s users will soon grow bored. This is where a professional writer comes in handy. There are a few rules that apply across the board with headings, however, and it helps to make use of them if you’re drafting your own. Here’s the easy guide to headings.

Good headings as easy as 1-2-3

1. Choose the right format. The general advice for SEO headings is to keep them short, around five words. If you always write five-word headings, however, your pages will begin to look the same. A better piece of advice is to keep your headings between three and ten words, without too many long words. Short, punchy words have better effect than polysyllabic words, particularly if the heading ends up being on the lengthy side.
2. Come in with a punch. Think about what happens when a friend tells you a joke. If they come in with an opening that’s punchy, you’re engaged. If, however, they’re the type of person that rambles on at the beginning of their joke, you tend to lose interest. That interest never really comes back, no matter how funny the joke turns out to be. The same thing applies to your headings. Internet users have an infamously short attention span. The first couple of words are the most important.
3. Have a coherent point. One of the major faults of most headings on the net is that they are unclear. They might be only five words long, but it’s hard to understand what the article could possibly be about. When internet users don’t immediately grasp the point, they tend to move on. They have plenty of other options available to them in the SERPs.

This doesn’t mean that headings can’t be funny or mysterious. Even a funny title has an obvious point. If you want to entertain and entice your reader, your meaning should still be very clear.

…And an extra point:

4. Don’t forget your subheadings. When it comes to search engine optimization, your subheadings are almost as important as your headings. If you spend half an hour crafting the perfect heading for your next article, it’s important to spend at least fifteen minutes on your subheadings.

A well-written set of subheadings can be the key point that gets your site’s users to read the full article. When users scan the page, they’re looking for clues as to whether the content suits their needs.