How to write titles
Use an informational style; avoid a teasing or cute style
Last modified: 6/1/98
Learn from newspapers: Three styles of titles
•   Informational: "The King is Dead" (Best style for business writing)
•   Teasing: "Will it snow tonight?"
•   Cute: "Sox Socked"

Newspapers title their stories in a way that makes it easy to determine their content. Writing headlines is a skill, and there are different styles depending upon the goals of the writer. If the goal is to impart information, a headline can give the "bottom line" of the story, e.g., "The King is Dead". If the goal is to entice the reader into reading a story, the headline can give a question without the promised answer, e.g., "Will it snow tonight?" or "How to lose weight with no dieting!". Finally, if the goal is to amuse the reader who may already know the outcome of the story, a cute headline may be used, e.g., "Sox Socked".

Business Examples: Conveying information is usually the goal
With web pages, the idea of a title can be used in a similar way. The title can be used at the top of the page to give information, or it can be used at the link site to let the reader know (or not know) what they will get when they click. Just as with newspapers, the author needs to think through the goals of the title.

In most business writing, conveying information is the goal, so informational is recommended:

Informational -- the type to use for business writing
•   "Acquisition is recommended"
•   "Project delay due to spec change"
•   "Adjust the volume control"

Teasing style titles can make business documents harder to read, since you have to read on, or follow a link, to find out what the title is labeling:

Tease
•   "Should we do the acquisition?"
•   "Project status"
•   "How to fix it"

The cute style can be used if the reader is known to know the subject well enough to appreciate the humor without getting in the way of being a good label. Otherwise, the cute style is a variation on a tease that forces the reader to read further to understand the joke -- not good for efficient document skimming.

Cute
•   "Buying spree!"
•   "Spec change strikes again"
•   "Are we loud enough?"

Check the title after writing
After writing the page, go back to the title (if it was written first) and check that it clearly conveys the sense of what it is labeling.

Titles are for section heads and links, too
Titles can be used on pages, and sections of pages, like in this page. The title should sum up what the section covers. This helps skimming immensely. They also make good link text, helping the reader know what they will get when they follow a link.

The design of the page and how it is read will determine whether you use a short title, or a longer summary. Titles can be scanned quickly with the eye. Summaries take more thinking.

Short titles work well
Try to keep the titles short, for example, as two to seven word phrases. Think like a headline writer for a serious newspaper with articles one column wide.

Lots of examples on this site
This site is filled with many other examples of titles.

See also: "How to write summaries".