BBC-Style Headlines May Be Right For Small Businesses

As far as headlines are concerned, the BBC does things best, according to usability expert Jakob Nielsen.  And small business owners who blog a lot (or even just advertise from time to time) may do well to study the news organization and imitate its style of writing.

There is, of course, a difference between a swine flu pandemic and a Fourth of July sale, so be sure to think about whether what we’re about to discuss would work for your company.  Also, we’ve got to note that a lot of other approaches to headline-writing – using humor and/or colorful adjectives, for example – have been successful in certain applications.

Still, Nielsen concluded that the BBC is at least in part a huge success because its headlines are "short," "rich in information," "front-loaded with the most important keywords," "understandable out of context," and "predictable" (meaning not promising too much).

Nielsen wrote, "The average headline consumed a mere 5 words and 34 characters. The amount of meaning they squeezed into this brief space is incredible: every word works hard for its living."

So after you examine potential negatives like not being able to pack in a huge number of keywords, consider applying the BBC’s approach to headline creation to whatever pieces of writing your small business generates.