Are you lucky enough to be the first page of Google but not getting visitors? Are people visiting your site and immediately leaving again? Is your website made up of page upon page of text with no relief in sight?
Bad headlines, headings and titles could seriously damage your SEO and customer conversation rates. Commonly held wisdom goes, that you should spend half your time on your content and the same amount of time again coming up with your headlines. For too many many the headings on a page are an afterthought or even worse non-existent.
My top 5 reasons why headings are so important
1. You have less than 10 seconds to grab your visitor’s attention
If your headings are not good why would anyone read further? How will they know they are in the right place? A quick scan is often all any visitor will do before they move on. Don’t hide your exciting developments in paragraphs of text that are never read. Make it clear that this page answers the question they are searching for.
2. Headlines are sign post for your reader
Once you have the attention of your visitors subsequent headings will make your content easy to scan. Creating heading for each of your main points will also keep you disciplined. I usually write no more than two paragraphs of text without a heading. Remember, most people only read 20% of any page. Good headings improve the odds of anyone reading beyond the first paragraph.
3. They appear in search results
To be exact the content from your title meta tag will appear as the first title line in search results. Many content management systems use the page heading to populate the title tag. Think very carefully about what type of visitors you are trying to attract. You might not want to use the hyperbole of a Sun journalist, but your headlines should be carefully crafted for maximum impact. Eye catching headlines create far more mouse clicks and visitors to your website.
4. Headings are important to keyword ranking in Google
If your headings include some of your target keywords you will gain extra points in Google compared with keywords in straight text. However, don’t sacrifice readability and good writing to keyword stuffing and search engine ranking. Keyword optimisation might get someone to your site but it won’t convert them into a customer.
5. Too much text with no headings is difficult to read
Have you ever looked down a long piece of text, with no headings and found your eyes going unfocused? I will say it again people only read 20% of your content! Well-structured content is easier to read. If you make your visitor uncomfortable they will stop reading.
Headings are like sign posts to water in the desert, If all a visitor can see is a desert of same size text they will go look for those sign posts somewhere else. Don’t lose customers to your competition, start rewriting your website now!
