What’s the Best Press Release Headline Length?

This just in: “Readers” actually don’t do much reading.

Indeed, just 19% of participants in a Harris Interactive poll read news word-by-word. Many more skim mostly headlines (34%) or skim the article (25%).

Bottom line: 81% don’t actually read online news.

To get the word out in an online news release, then, you need to hook them with your headline. 

People get most of the information in a news story from the headline. And a catchy headline, according to Harris Interactive, tops the list of elements that convince skimmers to read (54%).

Communicate to skimmers and scanners — and draw them in — with headlines. Don’t expect to reach them with paragraphs.

So how do you write a great news release headline? Step one: Keep it short. How short?

1. Don’t let your head get cut off by Google.

Best practice: Keep release headlines to 55 characters or fewer.

Why: Google’s search results display only the first 63 characters of your headline. Longer, and your headline will be truncated on search engine results pages. To avoid getting your head cut off on Google, keep headlines to 65 characters or fewer.

2. Don’t let your head get cut off by social.

How will your headline look when it shows up on Facebook, Twitter and other social sharing sites?

Best practice: To avoid getting your head cut off on social media, aim for 55 characters or less.

3. Don’t let your head get cut off by mobile.

Mobile apps and websites often truncate long headlines. To avoid getting your head cut off on mobile apps, follow the Associated Press’s guideline: Keep your headline to 40 characters or less.

4. Don’t get your head cut off by humans.

You have only a few seconds to reach mobile audiences before they swipe left or leave for another site. They want to scan at a glance, not study for a minute.

Plus, long headlines get lost below the fold or take up too much valuable real estate on mobile screens.

Best practice: To avoid getting your head cut off, keep your web head to 8 words or fewer, according to research by The American Press Institute.

But online, shorter is better. My personal preference is headlines of 6 words or less, or about 30 characters.

Head count

How are we doing? According to an analysis by Schwartz MSL of more than 11,000 releases issued over BusinessWire wire service in a 31-day period:

• The average press release headline weighs in at 120 characters.
• Some 79% of releases have headlines longer than 65 characters.
• 2% of releases have headlines longer than 300 characters.
• The longest headline was 2,141 characters long. That’s a story, not a headline!

Hey, all those extra words aren’t worth losing your head over. So when writing for today’s audiences, write headlines to go. Keep your head short.

But not too short. Google “prefers” headlines of at least 5 words. The shortest headline in Schwartz’s review: 18 characters. That’s not enough room for long-tail keywords or phrases — or to satisfy Google. 

Write better news release headlines

Would you like to learn more techniques for reaching flippers and skimmers with news releases? If so, join PRSA and Ann Wylie at our writing workshops and Mini Master Classes. You’ll learn to get the word out with media relations pieces.