To get web users to click through to your story, it's essential to use a captivating headline. It is also very important that you write a headline that will help your articles be found in search engines. The most effective headlines are short and to the point and explain what the reader can expect from the article.

When writing a headline use descriptive phrases and give as much detail as possible using very few words. Keep the most important words (such as nouns) at the start of the headline. Your headline should be a clear summary of your article in 65 characters or fewer.

Best practices for web friendly headlines:

• Use proper nouns, especially ones that readers will be familiar with
• Use acronyms or abbreviations when referring to organizations and countries
• Avoid using punctuation unless grammatically necessary
• Be direct and literal, and keep it short at no more than 65 characters (spaces count as characters)
• Focus on search terms and keywords

Things that should appear first in the headline include:

• Names of people or places
• Titles given to events or entities (like names of teams, political parties, movies, or TV shows)
• Detailed descriptive phrases
• Acronyms or abbreviations (without periods)

Things that should appear later in the headline:

• Dates
• Generalizations
• Qualifications (unconfirmed reports, claims responsibility, thought to be the cause, said Mr. Jones)

Things that should not appear in headlines at all:

• Vague phrases such as breaking news, exclusive story or current event
• Any words in all capital letters; acronyms are the only time that all capital letters should be used
• Excess punctuation or punctuation used for stylized reasons, there is no need to use quotation marks unless you are actually quoting something that was said by someone

If you want your article to get some extra attention from search engines be sure to include descriptive words from your headline in the body of your article, particularly within the first few sentences. Bold or italicize these words when they appear in your text.

When you find a related article on NowPublic or elsewhere on the web link to it in your article using descriptive phrases. Avoid creating links in your story using vague phrases like "click here" or "this story." The words you choose when linking back should clearly describe the destination article.