What kind of titles generate longer reading times? When readers have seen a title and have decided to read the story, it is because they want to know more. They have been hooked and are curious to learn more. Upon reading an article title, readers are often left with a question referring to the topic such as “Who? What? How? Why?” etc.
Your article titles leave readers with a question or two. However, with this, titles yield readers to be left with different types of questions, affecting the time that readers spend on said articles. Have a look at our infographic below with data cultivated by Linkpulse, the leading provider of real-time content analysis, to learn more about what types of article titles attract readers to potentially stay longer on your page. Why does this matter? Recently, we presented an infographic on how news sites are a great platform that attract a high focus and trust-valued outlook on content from users when consuming media.
How much time does your audience take in reading your article?
Notice below that the subject of each title provokes the make-it-or-break-it decision on how long a reader will stay on the article page after clicking. Titles that call for a simple one-to-three-word answer – i.e. “He is the boss” – answers the “Who is the boss?” question from readers with quick info such as “John Doe is the boss.” These are the worst title variations because the answers are easy to find with a quick click, glance, and prompt departure from the article. These aren’t very effective in attracting lingering and long reading times; readers are left to click on the article, however fail to stay and entirely read.
What types of titles yield a longer reading time?
Some titles require readers to know some context to find information for their questions. This limits readers to only skim through the article. Thus, they quickly encounter the answers based on its surrounding context for roughly 10-15 seconds. However, titles that raise more in-depth questions that cannot simply be answered in five or fewer words lead readers to stay on longer. With this, readers want to find out more beyond the subject in the title to better understand what’s going on. For example, more complex questions such as “Why?” and “How?” are left. Read the infographic below to see the different title variations and its effects.
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