A / B testing headlines in articles
To improve the quality of materials, online media are beginning to use purely technical methods from the field of web development, optimization, design and usability. For example, the newspaper Haffington Post recently conducted a successful A / B testing experiment. This is the standard method of web optimization when you create two versions of a web page that differ only in one element. Pages are shown to the audience in equal proportion, then the result is compared. Even Google uses this technique.
In this way, the newspaper Haffington Post tested various versions of headlines in articles on its website. They showed on the main page two variants of headings in turn and measured how many people go through each of them. After five minutes (this is enough with normal site traffic), it became clear which headline performed its function better, that is, attracted more attention to the article. He left.
This is a very effective technique. In essence, journalists can write several headings for each article, and the public will choose a better one. In this way, you can significantly improve the quality of online media content and increase site traffic without any special effort.
In a more complicated version of this technique, it is possible to calculate the popularity of various headings among different groups of users (conventionally: engineers, managers, school students), and each of them show a targeted headline that attracts maximum attention among representatives of this group. In fact, the text of the article may also differ. In the version for teenagers, it is desirable to remove the technical details, add slang and smiles. In the option for engineers to add formulas and graphs, and managers to compile the average version.
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via Niemann Journalism Studio (Havard University)
In this way, the newspaper Haffington Post tested various versions of headlines in articles on its website. They showed on the main page two variants of headings in turn and measured how many people go through each of them. After five minutes (this is enough with normal site traffic), it became clear which headline performed its function better, that is, attracted more attention to the article. He left.
This is a very effective technique. In essence, journalists can write several headings for each article, and the public will choose a better one. In this way, you can significantly improve the quality of online media content and increase site traffic without any special effort.
In a more complicated version of this technique, it is possible to calculate the popularity of various headings among different groups of users (conventionally: engineers, managers, school students), and each of them show a targeted headline that attracts maximum attention among representatives of this group. In fact, the text of the article may also differ. In the version for teenagers, it is desirable to remove the technical details, add slang and smiles. In the option for engineers to add formulas and graphs, and managers to compile the average version.
')
via Niemann Journalism Studio (Havard University)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/287624/
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