Headlines and Opening Hooks

Apply ../00-blog-writing-guardrails/SKILL.md first; its hard gates (originality, accuracy, E-E-A-T, accessibility, plain language, structured data, pre-publish QA) apply to every headline and hook produced under this skill.

1. Title-length gate

• Keep the page title / title tag between roughly 40 and 60 characters; titles in this range get a measured 8.9% higher average CTR than titles outside it. [BACKLINKO-CTR-01]
• If a title must run longer to stay accurate, front-load the words that carry the meaning inside the first ~60 characters, since search engines and readers may truncate anything after. [BACKLINKO-CTR-01]

2. Sentiment and honesty gate

• Prefer a positive or neutral framing over a negative one when the underlying content supports it; positive-sentiment titles measured a 4.1% higher absolute CTR than negative ones. [BACKLINKO-CTR-01]
• Do not force positive framing onto content that is genuinely a warning, failure, or critique — a mismatched headline breaks the accuracy and originality gates it must still pass. [GOOGLE-EEAT-01]
• Never publish a headline whose implied claim ("proven," "best," "#1," a specific result) is not something the author can substantiate on request; this is the same advertising-substantiation gate applied to the first line the reader sees. [FTC-ADSUB-01]

3. Question-headline gate

• Do not default to a question-format headline as a CTR tactic; measured data shows question titles carry no meaningful CTR advantage over direct, declarative ones (15.5% vs. 16.3%, not a significant difference). [BACKLINKO-CTR-01]
• Choose a question headline only when the post's core value is genuinely answering that exact question, and answer it in the opening paragraph rather than deferring the answer to build suspense. [NNGROUP-SCANNING-01]