Headlines are the most important thing you’ll ever write. No matter how well-written your article is, it will be ignored if your headline isn’t compelling.

Make no mistake: Good headlines are hard to write. You’ve got about 2 seconds and 10 words at most to convince the potential reader to trust you with their time. Clearly, your pitch must be strong.

Let us consider an article about the recent Google Chrome EULA fiasco. A quick recap for those of you who aren’t familiar with the situation: Google’s new web browser, Chrome, shipped with a EULA that said, essentially, that by using their browser, you are giving Google the right to republish any content made with it as they see fit. Google later retracted the EULA retroactively, saying it was a mistake. We’ll ignore the last part of the story for the purpose of these exercises.

So, you’ve written an insightful, well-researched, and potentially life-changing article on the dangers of using Chrome and, with society’s best interests at heart, want to spread the word far and wide to protect them from the dangers of rights-stealing contracts. So what is your headline? What do you write to get people’s attention and drive them to your article?

The first thing you do is get the relevant keywords. I use the Google Adwords keyword tool, which has the advantages of being cheap and easy.  Of course, the savvy web writer has already consulted a keyword research tool when writing the article itself, but it never hurts to be sure.

The keywords you choose should be the first word in your headline or as close to it as you can manage.  Don’t be concerned about them sounding contrived — keywords represent what people are actually searching for. By using keywords, you’re doing the reader a favor by making relevant content easy to find.

Now let’s look at a few approaches to writing a compelling headline. None of these are the best approach: it depends on the tone of your site and the expectations of your reader.

The no-nonsense approach.

Chrome’s software license agreement gives Google republishing rights

This approach has the advantage of getting the straight facts, and keywords, across in a clear-cut manner. It has the disadvantage of being boring. Unless you have a very large, loyal audience who would read the phone book if you published it, consider this approach as little more than a starting point.

The quote approach

Chrome’s license “appalling”

This one’s nice. It allows you to say something in a news headline that you wouldn’t ordinarily get away with. Of course, if it’s an opinion piece, you wouldn’t need the quote marks.

Just to be clear, if you put a word in quotation marks in your headline, it had very well better appear in quotes in your article.

The Getting-a-rise approach

Chrome’s license is the end of the internet

Here we’ve stepped away from respectable journalistic ideals and into the realm of tabloids. Compare the number of people who read tabloids to how many read your site before you look down your nose at this one.

The question approach

How does Chrome’s license affect you?

Funny thing about question marks in headlines: They are much less respected than they are effective.  Asking a question pulls in readers because they want to know the answer, so long as the question is relevant to them.

The funny approach

Chrome’s license is Google’s Plan 9

The intentionally unfunny example above highlights the difficulty of writing a funny headline: Your friends think you’re funny. Your mom does. Anonymous strangers looking down a list of search results probably don’t.

By all means, use humor in your writing. But don’t count on everyone getting your joke, and don’t bet your traffic on them getting it, thinking it’s funny, and thinking it’s funny enough to read what else you have to say.

The number approach

5 ways Chrome’s license affects you

A number may very well be the most effective way to start a headline. Take a look at Digg’s front page, for example, and see how many numbers you see. Lists are easy to read and digest. They’re also an easy way to drive traffic.

The sex approach

Naked women explain Chrome’s license

No, you probably can’t get away with this one. I wanted to add it, however, to drive home the importance of write a compelling headline. Ask yourself this before hitting “publish”: With the plethora of pornography available on the internet, am I writing something that will distract my readers from their baser needs?

If you should decide to start a site in which naked women explain the news, understand this: You will be shameless, you will be exploitive, and you will be rich. Sad, but true.

Okay, I’ve given 6 approaches, some of which will actually work and some that are either too conservative or too risqué. How about you? If you’ve got an effective technique, leave your headline in the comments and explain why it works.

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