1. Clarity and Conciseness:

A great headline communicates the essence of your content succinctly. It should offer a clear idea of what readers can expect without being cryptic. Avoid ambiguity and strive for a balance between intrigue and information.

2. Emotional Appeal:

Emotions drive action. Whether it’s curiosity, urgency, joy, or fear, tapping into your audience’s emotions through your headline can significantly increase engagement. Triggering emotions creates a connection that compels readers to explore further.

3. Use of Power Words:

Certain words have a magnetic effect on readers. Words like “ultimate,” “essential,” “effective,” or “unveiled” add weight to your headlines, making them more irresistible. However, use these sparingly and genuinely to maintain credibility.

4. Incorporating Keywords:

Integrating relevant keywords into your headline not only improves searchability but also signals to readers that your content aligns with their interests. Aim for a balance between SEO optimization and natural language flow.

5. A/B Testing and Iteration:

Experimentation is key to headline success. Conduct A/B tests with different headline variations to gauge their impact. Analyze metrics like click-through rates to understand what resonates best with your audience. Learn from these insights and refine your future headlines accordingly.

Conclusion:

Crafting compelling headlines is an ongoing process that involves understanding your audience, using the right language, and being creative. It’s your chance to captivate readers and draw them into your content. By mastering this art, you pave the way for increased engagement and a stronger connection with your audience.

All the functionality, including menus, links and forms should work using a keyboard only. This is essential for all assistive technology to work properly. The only way to test this, at the moment, is manually. The best time to test this is during development.

How to keyboard test:

Tab through your pages, links and forms to do the following tests:

• Confirm that all links can be reached and activated via keyboard, including any in dropdown submenus.
• Confirm that all links get a visible focus indicator (e.g., a border highlight).
• Confirm that all visually hidden links (e.g. skip links) become visible when in focus.
• Confirm that all form input fields and buttons can be accessed and used via keyboard.
• Confirm that all interactions, buttons, and other controls can be triggered via keyboard — any action you can complete with a mouse must also be performable via keyboard.
• Confirm that focus doesn’t move in unexpected ways around the page.
• Confirm that using shift+tab to move backwards works as well.

Resources

• The Make WordPress Accessibility Handbook
  • Test for web accessibility
• Keyboard Accessibility by WebAIM
• Workshop keyboard accessibility
• Theme review accessibility-ready requirements: Keyboard Navigation

Non-square images can provide some unique styling issues.

This post tests a vertical featured image.

Non-square images can provide some unique styling issues.

This post tests a horizontal featured image.

Right after this sentence should be a “continue reading” button of some sort on list pages of themes that show full content. It won’t show on single pages or on themes showing excerpts.

And this content is after the more tag. (which should be the anchor link for when the button is clicked)

Be sure to test the formatting of the auto-generated excerpt, to ensure that it doesn’t create any layout problems. Also, ensure that any filters applied to the excerpt, such as excerpt_length and excerpt_more, display properly.