Headline Testing
Definition
A/B testing different headlines to determine which one drives the most engagement or conversions.
Example Use Case
A news website tests two versions of a headline to see which generates more clicks.
Headlines do most of the work of earning a click, which makes them one of the highest-leverage things to test. A single test can be run quickly, costs nothing but traffic, and produces a result that applies to every future page in the same format.
The productive approach is to test different angles rather than different wordings. Swapping synonyms tells you little; contrasting a benefit-led headline against a curiosity-led or problem-led one reveals what the audience actually responds to, and that insight transfers to other pages.
Results should be judged on the metric that matters for the page, not on clicks alone. A headline that lifts click-through but attracts readers who bounce immediately has cost you more than it earned. Volume is the usual constraint: comparing two headlines requires enough impressions to distinguish a real difference from ordinary variation.
