Text online

Words still dominate

• Stories
• Headlines and text blocks
• Email newsletters
• Twitter and Facebook

Text drives

Search Engine Optimization

SEO headlines

Keywords

• Common words and phrases that describe the subject of your story: “earthquake,” “city council election,” “starting lineup,” “benefit concert.”

Proper names

• Search terms tend to contain proper names. Names of people, places, companies and organizations are all common search queries, either by themselves or with other keywords. Including commonly used names in your headline will help you match such queries.

Full personal names

• Users searching for information on a person are more likely to use both first and last names in their searches, but print headlines have traditionally only used last names. An SEO-friendly headline will use both names. (Columnists names also might be searched)

Unique information

• What is it about your story that people might be looking for that other websites don’t have?