Headlines that read well in a timeline

A headline in a timeline has a hard job. It sits in a column of other headlines, next to names and dates and excerpts, and a reader’s eye passes over it in well under a second. It has to say, in that glance, what the post is and why this reader might want it. It does not get a second chance.

Headlines are not decoration added at the end. They are part of the writing, and they reward the same care as the sentences under them. Here is how we approach them for posts that will be read in a feed.

How people read a timeline

Watch yourself scroll any feed and you will notice a pattern. You do not read headlines; you sample them. The eye catches the first few words, maybe a name it recognises, maybe a word that matches something it cares about, and moves on unless something snags.

That has a few practical consequences:

• The first words do most of the work. If the subject appears at the end of a long headline, many readers never reach it.
• Familiar words beat clever ones. A reader scanning for “editing” will stop at “editing”, not at a pun about scissors.
• The headline is read alongside the excerpt. The two should work as a pair, not repeat each other.

Feed readers work the same way. Anyone following your /feed.xml in a reader sees a list of titles, often without any image, so the headline has to carry the post on its own.

Say what the post is

The plainest test of a headline is whether a reader could guess the content from it. “Some thoughts on writing” fails; so does “This changed everything”. “Why I stopped outlining short posts” passes: you know the subject, the angle and roughly what you will get.

A few shapes that tend to work in a feed:

• The claim: “Most drafts end one paragraph too late.”
• The how-to: “How to cut a post by a third without losing the point.”
• The question you answer: “Should a short post have a headline at all?”
• The specific case: “What I learned posting every weekday for a month.”

None of these is clever. All of them are clear, and clear headlines get read by the people who want what the post offers. That is the audience you are after.

Put the useful words first

Since the start of a headline gets the most attention, put the words that carry meaning there. Compare:

• “A few things I have been learning lately about writing better openings”
• “Better openings: three things I changed”

The second one has the topic in its first two words. A reader who cares about openings sees it immediately; one who does not can move on without feeling tricked.

Cut words that only clear their throat: “a few thoughts on”, “some notes about”, “just wanted to say”. They add length and push the subject further right. If you need them to set a tone, consider whether the excerpt could do that instead.

Promise only what the post delivers

A headline is a small promise. Readers who click and find the promise kept will trust your next headline; readers who feel tricked will scroll past your name next time. On a timeline, where people see the same writers again and again, that trust compounds in both directions.

So:

• If the post has three tips, do not call it “everything you need to know”.
• If it is your opinion, do not dress it as settled fact. “Why I think…” is honest and often more inviting.
• If the post is about a narrow case, say so. “Editing dialogue in short fiction” is better than “Editing” for the people who need it.
• Avoid withheld-information hooks (“you won’t believe what happened next”). They get attention once and cost credibility after.

For the longer tradition behind this, the Wikipedia article on headlines is a reasonable overview of how newspapers have handled the same problem.

Length, case and punctuation

There is no magic length, but in a feed shorter usually reads faster. A useful target is a headline you can take in without moving your eyes much: roughly six to twelve words. If it runs longer, see whether a clause belongs in the excerpt.

A few smaller choices:

• Pick one case style and keep it. Sentence case (“How to write a headline”) or title case (“How to Write a Headline”) both work. Mixing them across your page looks untidy in a list.
• Go easy on punctuation. One colon can split topic from angle nicely. Exclamation marks rarely help.
• Skip all-caps. It reads as shouting and is harder to scan.
• Use numbers as digits when they matter (“3 ways”, “10 minutes”). Digits stand out in a column of words.

Test it before you post

Three quick checks we use:

1. The list test. Write your headline in a list with the titles of your last five posts. Does it stand out for the right reason? Does it repeat a pattern too often?
2. The cover-up test. Hide the post and read only the headline and excerpt. Could a stranger tell what they would get?
3. The two-version test. Write a plain version and a lively version. Often the best headline is the plain one with one vivid word borrowed from the other.

Then check the excerpt. It should add something the headline does not say: who the post is for, the angle, the payoff. If it just repeats the headline in longer words, rewrite it.

Headlines are easier when the post has one clear point, which is the subject of writing a short post that stands on its own. For what appears in your feed and on your page, see the features page.