Guide to Literary Agents posted an article with 10 tips for your headlines to make them “click magnets.” Here are a few of our favorites below to highlight the article:

2. Don’t Mistake a Web Reader for a Newspaper Reader

“A newspaper reader is invested in the paper at (physical) hand and will take the time to enjoy a clever word-twist of a title by reading into the body of the text to back it up. A Web reader is unlikely to read past the cute-but-vague title of your piece before moving to the next item on the search page to click on that instead. A Web headline needs to act more like a label that effectively summarizes what the reader can expect.”

4. Keep headlines under 65 characters

“This is the text length that will appear in Google search results. Anything extra will be dropped. Headlines can be longer as they appear on your blog, but because Google won’t read any more than 65 characters, it’s important to get the keywords across in the first few words.”

5. Include Details of the Story

“In traditional media, a headline will often hide details of the story to pique the audience into reading further. On the Web, a headline that hides details of the story does not work, because web readers are generally either hurried or lazy or both. They want to be told what they can expect right away, otherwise they will just click on the next item on the Google search page. Bad web headline: “Senile Feline Enthusiast Dies.” Better web headline: “Dead Crazy Cat Lady of Dayton an Undercover CIA Spy.””

6. See What’s Trending

“A sure-fire hit booster method is to go to http://google.com/trends and see what the trending topics are for that day. Let’s say Tiger Woods is at the top of the list, but you want to write a consumer piece on cars. “The Car So Safe Even Tiger Woods Can Drive It,” would be an example of how you can twist that to your favor. It’s cheap but very effective.”

10. The “10 Words” Rule

“Consider this: If someone were to read your 5-10 word headline, would they know what the article is about? This is important because you’re competing with a long list of other posts promising similar information. Web headlines are often seen out-of-context, such as on Facebook pages or contrasting blog and/or media sites. They have to make sense as a stand-alone entity without accompanying copy in order for the audience to want to click on it and read further. And be concise. Search engines are not known to get fancy. “D.C. Politician Murdered,” works a lot better than “Community Shocked at Body Found in Dumpster,” but “Murdered D.C. Politician Found in Dumpster” works best.”

What other points would you add to this list? Do you think it’s more difficult to write the headline or the content?