Comments on: The Importance of Good Headlines for RSS http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/01/22/the-importance-of-good-headlines-for-rss/ Blog Tips to Help You Make Money Blogging - ProBlogger Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:25:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Halvard Halvorsen http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/01/22/the-importance-of-good-headlines-for-rss/comment-page-1/#comment-299 Halvard Halvorsen Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/01/22/the-importance-of-good-headlines-for-rss/#comment-299 ... Of course I show the first few sentences in my RSS feeds also (not that everyone chooses to view them) so your opening line is also vitally important to getting people to read on ... I don't think you should. If I choose to read content based on the headline I do NOT want to read a summary or a few sentences (description tag). A summary is only needed for long articles, a "read more" is one click too many: I have already CHOSEN to read the article (please do not put up a description as well). I would go as far as saying that descriptions should be banned (except for long articles (>1000 words) or for multimedia posts). Found this article through google: your piece comes up first if you search on "good headlines rss", my comes up fourth (case in point, good headlines give a good google rating). … Of course I show the first few sentences in my RSS feeds also (not that everyone chooses to view them) so your opening line is also vitally important to getting people to read on …

I don’t think you should.

If I choose to read content based on the headline
I do NOT want to read a summary or a few sentences (description tag). A summary is only needed for long articles, a “read more” is one click too many: I have already CHOSEN to read the article
(please do not put up a description as well).

I would go as far as saying that descriptions should be banned (except for long articles (>1000 words) or for multimedia posts).

Found this article through google: your piece comes up first if you search on “good headlines rss”, my comes up fourth (case in point, good headlines give a good google rating).

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