Quick Fix Friday: Add Subheadings Patients Actually Scan
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You may think your writing is insightful and captivating, but if it’s not getting the attention it deserves, maybe you need to jazz up your subheadings—or add them if they’re missing. Here’s how to craft eye-catching subheadings that make your article more reader-friendly.
The Problem
If your piece is at least 150 words, you need subheadings. Without them, your content will be tedious—even painful—for more readers to get through. And that’s assuming they don’t quit reading and go elsewhere.
Going online means being inundated with content. Most online readers are inundated with content, so your website should provide information they can process quickly. Without “road signs” like subheadings to help readers skim, your content will lose them within about 30 seconds.
The Quick Fix
It pays to use well-placed, well-written subheadings to guide readers as they skim and to make your content more meaningful. Subheadings that appear at appropriate intervals in your text make it easier on the eyes. When written well, they can also be quite informative, giving a clue to the section’s main point.
Consider a subheading like “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.” Although we don’t have the whole article to provide this context, we know that a more specific subheading, such as “How Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Helps Manage Anxiety,” is better because it tells readers exactly what information they'll find in that section.
Here are excellent examples of blogs that have well-crafted and well-placed subheadings:
· What Is L-Theanine? Potential Benefits, Risks and What the Science Says (Cleveland Clinic)
· Alcohol and Older Adults (Johns Hopkins Medicine)
· How Sports Cardiologists Offer All Athletes Gold-Medal Heart Care (MedStar Health)
· What Is Medical Weight Loss — And Is It Right for You? (Progressive Primary Care)
I bring up these examples because they use subheadings that
· Pose a question a patient would ask
· Make it easy for readers to summarize the article just by looking at the H2 and H3 tags
· Let readers jump to the information they want
· Break complex information down into smaller sections
Why It Matters
Many readers want actionable information quickly and will usually skim an article rather than read the whole thing to get what they need. Scouring through paragraph after paragraph will prompt them to give up and move on to another website. Whether it’s a short attention span or limited time, your readers will appreciate compelling, descriptive subheadings that make skimming your article quick and easy.
Another way to break up large blocks of text is to use bullet points when appropriate. A good rule of thumb is to use no more than two paragraphs between subheadings or bullet lists.
Small wording tweaks to subheadings or other parts of an article can make your website far more trustworthy and easier to read. If you need a second set of eyes on your healthcare blogs, website copy, compliance content, or patient education materials, I can help you create content that’s skimmable, engaging, and search-optimized without sacrificing credibility.