According to a Study, There’s a Good Chance You’ll Click This Headline Because It’s 97 Characters

When it comes to writing and editing, my mantra has always been “less, but better.” That also applies to titles. Think of the editor slicing words off the computer screen, trying to chisel out the perfect headline that’s clear and entertaining. Print titles still manage to pull this off, which is probably why I get so much enjoyment out of our brainstorming sessions for The Contently Quarterly. A study from Polar, a branded content technology company, found that headlines with 90 to 99 characters had the best click-through rate: .43 percent. Even as people like me feel fatigued by these types of headlines, they’re clearly working. Per CoSchedule, Facebook headlines of 40 characters perform best. On Twitter, it’s between 71 and 100 characters. For now, finding an ideal character length really depends on where you’re posting the content. It’s not uncommon for one article to get dozens of “headlines” if you add up all of the email subject lines and pithy descriptions posted on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. To find out more about the latest headline trends and insights, click here to download Polar’s full whitepaper.