Headings and Titles

Most people start their search for information with a search engine; but if they can't find your page, they won't read your content.

To help users find our content, we have to use their vocabulary and keywords, starting with the page title, summary, and first paragraph.

Find the right keywords

To compare different versions of headings to see which will be more effective, use search tools like Google Trends. What you’re calling the subject of your page might not be what your users are calling it. With Google Trends, you can input two or more different words or phrases and see over time how often people have searched for them. Generally, it’s best to use whichever phrase is used more often in your heading.

For example, the phrase extractive industries is part of the name of the U.S. EITI site, but extractive industries isn’t a familiar term for many users (and there aren’t many searches for that term). To make content more findable, the site includes familiar terms like natural resources, fossil fuels, and renewable energy whenever possible.

A Google Trend search shows that natural resources and fossil fuels are both more popular search terms. The page about natural resource production in the U.S. is a great example of how those terms can be included in headers.

Optimize the content

Once you know the most popular keywords, you can incorporate them judiciously in:

• Titles;
• Headings;
• Introductions and summaries;
• Chapter and section titles; and
• Metadata descriptions.

Also, check out information on heading capitalization.