{"id":20990,"date":"2019-07-09T03:36:52","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T07:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/?page_id=20990"},"modified":"2024-01-17T10:02:47","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T14:02:47","slug":"quotes-on-web-headlines","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/writing-tips\/micro-content\/how-to-write-a-good-headline\/web-page-headlines\/quotes-on-web-headlines\/","title":{"rendered":"Quotes on web headlines"},"content":{"rendered":"

What writers & others say<\/h2>\n

\"Quotes

\u201cNot everyone wants to play, \u2018What\u2019s the last word in the headline?\u2019\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Andy Bechtel, associate professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill<\/h6>\n
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\u201cPart of the craft of journalism for more than a century has been to think up clever titles and headlines, and Google comes along and says, \u2018The heck with that.\u2019\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Ed Canale, vice president for strategy and new media, The Sacramento Bee<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cA lot of times I\u2019ll write something, and the online desk will rewrite it because it doesn\u2019t work. And that\u2019s because Google doesn\u2019t laugh.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Matthew Crowley, copy editor for the\u00a0Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cIf there is a choice between boring and useless, I suggest going for boring.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Steffen Fjaervik, contributing writer, Poynter Online<\/h6>\n
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\u201cYou have to get a great headline to attract attention in your blog \u2014 it’s about the lure \u2014 not the rod.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Michael Hyatt, author, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cSoftware bots are not your ordinary readers: They are blazingly fast yet numbingly literal-minded. There are no algorithms for wit, irony, humor or stylish writing. The software is a logical, sequential, left-brain reader, while humans are often right brain.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Steve Lohr, technology reporter,\u00a0The New York Times<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cSelecting the first 2 words for your page titles is probably the highest-impact ROI-boosting design decision you make in a web project. Front-loading important keywords trumps most other design considerations.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014\u00a0Jakob Nielsen, \u201cthe king of usability\u201d<\/h6>\n
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\u201cOn the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy & Mather<\/h6>\n
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\u201cIf the story is about the dangers of salmonella in tomatoes in California, by golly, the headline probably needs to have \u2018California,\u2019 \u2018bacteria\u2019 and \u2018tomatoes\u2019 in it. Maybe \u2018salmonella,\u2019 too.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Sara Dickenson Quinn, visual journalism teacher, The Poynter Institute<\/h6>\n
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\u201cDoes the pursuit of the literal take all the fun out of headline writing? Not necessarily.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Eric Ulken, assistant managing editor of digital,\u00a0The Seattle Times<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cWhen things get tough, remember \u2026 You\u2019re not writing for Google; you\u2019re writing for people, with Google in mind. Sometimes headline writers get carried away with SEO. It\u2019s counterproductive to put these goals ahead of clarity and common sense.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Eric Ulken, assistant managing editor of digital,\u00a0The Seattle Times<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cAs newspapers embrace search engine optimization, and as young journalists are taught to value Google visibility above all else, many copy editors fear that funny headlines are quickly going the way of the classified ad.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 David Wheeler, journalism teacher, Asbury University<\/h6>\n
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