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Write digital headlines both readers and Google will love

8/30/2021
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Headline safety card illustration by Holly J. Morris/iStock.

Most long-time headline writers have methods and rituals. For print people, the temptation to turn to Rhymezone, IMDB and that idiom dictionary to generate puns and snowclones is nigh irresistible. For others, the siren song of colons, journalese and partial quotes beckons. These, too, are relics of print, where brutal character-count constraints demanded space-saving shorthand.