Whether you’ve recently begun to explore the possibilities of online marketing, or you’ve been surfing the waves of the web for some time now, you’ll know that headlines are important. Expert copywriters everywhere extol the virtue of an incredible title – designed to intrigue and enrapture your reader. Yet, some individuals still forget one of the most powerful tools they have for formatting their content – subheadings.
Subheadings are the signs that help to provide a sense of direction to your page, breaking up heavy pieces of text into digestible chunks that your reader can savour and enjoy. Through the power of subheadings, readers can skim through white papers in search for answers to pressing questions, learn more about the paragraphs they’re about to read, and develop answers to the all-important question: “What’s in it for me?”
The Pillars of Prose
Let’s face it, we’re all guilty of skimming every now and again. In fact, when presented with a huge block of text, most people would rather skim through it than read the content in detail. It’s (usually) nothing personal against the writer, but many of us don’t have the attention span we once did, and going through every word in a huge body of text doesn’t seem worth our time. Instead, we seek out important phrases, words, and concepts that relate to our needs.
Subheadings split your article into valuable sections, so that your readers can track down exactly what they need at any given time. In other words, subheadings make your writing more efficient.
Bite-Sized Content
People should enjoy reading your content. If everyone who visits your website feels daunted by the huge blocks of text on each page, then they’re not going to have a relaxed and interesting experience. Subheadings allow readers to know instantly what they’re going to read about, and absorb that information in digestible chunks.
In fact, most readers will simply ignore articles that haven’t been properly organised into readable sections. The frequently-spotted comment “TL; DR” exists for a reason.
In SEO, search-engine spiders will quickly seek out many of the words you use within your subheadings, so try to implement as many short-tail, and long-tail keywords as possible.
Subheadings with SEO
Subheadings are concise and direct, and frequently contain important key words without the need for excessive verbiage. In SEO, search-engine spiders will quickly seek out many of the words you use within your subheadings, so try to implement as many short-tail, and long-tail keywords as possible. What’s more, in your HTML coding, make sure that you specify headings and subheadings using the correct codes, such as h2 elements. Don’t simply rely on a “bold” font to do the work for you.
Practicing the Power of Subheadings
So how can you use subheadings yourself?
The answer is that it’s up to you. Depending on the tone of your article, the content you’re writing about, and the audience you’re writing for, different subheadings will prompt different reactions. Some people use questions as subheadings, which can be powerful if your readers are looking for specific answers, for example:
“Do you know how to utilise super subheadings?”
On the other hand, a brief statement that sums up what the paragraph is about can also be effective, as long as it gives the reader the general idea without giving too much away. After all, you do want them to read it.
Finally, read through the subheadings you choose separately when you’re finished writing to see if they’re putting across your key messages. If they do, you’re already on the right track.
