Question: Should every article in my publication have a headline?
Answer: Headlines are important to readers because they help readers to navigate through your publication.
Headlines are like road signs. Imagine you are looking for an address and you are driving in an unfamiliar area. You know the name of the street that you want to find. You just don’t know exactly where that street is located. As you are driving along, you look at the signs that tell you the name of each street you pass.
If those signs are easily visible and the writing on them is large, you can drive past very fast and still catch the information on the sign. “This is Maple Street. The next street is Main Street.”
If the signs are visually lost behind trees and other obstacles, you have to slow down and take a hard look as you pass. “Is this the street I have to turn on?”
Poor road signs make you have to work much harder to get the information.
What if the streets are not marked with a sign at all? How in the world would you know where you are going?
The headlines that you create in your publication are like street signs. If the readers can see the headlines easily at a glance while they are travelling through your publication, they will know if they have found an article that they want to read.
So, yes, always use headlines for articles because it helps readers find the information that they need. Headlines, like street signs, can be brief and still be effective.
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