HEAD/DECK

1. Head: ‘who, what, where’ 5-7 words long

Always write in the present tense

Try to use active words when you can (e.g. subject + verb + object)

If applicable use numbers. Heds normally get more SERPs (search engine results pages) with numbers. 10, 5, 15 and 7 are the most popular for clicks in that order

Spell out acronyms or abbreviations

STYLE: Capitalise first letter of the title as well as all nouns and verbs

Example:

⁠

⁠

WHY DOESN’T THIS WORK?

• It’s very short. Heds should be snappy but not at the cost of clarity

• Doesn’t say WHO or WHAT the article is about? The first mention of the who the profile is, is in the second line of the dek

• Because hierarchy still exists. In the world at large and in world of SEO. The first ‘keyword’ you mention will be deemed the most important

WHAT WOULD AN EASY FIX?

Adding in name to hed

—→ Michael Clark: The Artist’s Dancer

2. Deck: ‘when and how’ 16 to 22 words long

Summarise the contents of the article with enough information to give a clear idea of the topic

STYLE: Use normal sentence case and should not have full stops at the end

Example:

⁠

⁠

WHY DOESN’T THIS WORK?

This doesn’t go into any detail about the actual piece.

It’s very short. 16 to 22 words or one to two sentences is the correct length

Most people when they search on google ask questions, this examples give no answers, and just creates more questions

WHAT WOULD AN EASY FIX?

Summarising what the article is actually doing

—→ Carmen Winant explores the German theorist’s…

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