Simple headlines win. Your gut will disagree.
Across 30,000+ headline tests, readers clicked simpler headlines more. Fancy words cost clicks.
You spent an hour on a headline with “orchestrate” and “synergy” in it. It sounds smart. That’s the problem: it sounds smart to you.
Researchers Hillary Shulman, David Markowitz and Todd Rogers analyzed more than 30,000 headline experiments run by The Washington Post and Upworthy. Simpler headlines, built from more common words and easier to read, got more clicks. A follow-up experiment suggested that readers skip past complex headlines to focus on the simple ones. The twist: a sample of professional writers, journalists included, didn’t show that pattern. The people who write the words read them differently from the people they’re written for.
So don’t trust your taste on this one. Swap any word you wouldn’t use in a text message for one you would. If your headline needs a second read, it already lost the first.
The example
- Instead of
- “Orchestrate frictionless revenue operations with intelligent automation”
- Try
- “Get paid on time: we chase late invoices so you don’t have to”
Before you flush
Rewrite your main headline using only words you’d text to a friend, then ask someone outside your industry which version they’d click.