Crafting Great Titles
Nightjar's help centre has an article called "Staying in the Loop". It is the setup guide for alerts. When people search for "set up alerts", it appears far down the results, and the few who see it do not click, because the title promises nothing they recognise. A good page with a bad title is a page nobody reads.
The rule
A title is a promise: specific, in the reader's words, and kept.
Titles appear in search results, browser tabs, sidebars and links, often with nothing else around them. Each page type has a pattern that works:
| Page type | Pattern | Nightjar example |
|---|---|---|
| Task (how-to) | Start with a verb | "Set up SMS alerts" |
| Concept | Noun phrase, or "How X works" | "How incidents open" |
| Troubleshooting | The symptom, as readers experience it | "Alerts are not arriving" |
| Reference | The exact name of the thing | "Monitors API" |
Beyond the pattern:
- Use the reader's words. Take them from support tickets, search terms and the product's own labels.
- Put the key words first. Long titles get cut off in search results and tabs; about 60 characters is a common rule of thumb.
- Be specific and unique. Six pages called "Getting started" help nobody choose.
- Keep the promise. "Set up alerts in two minutes" must really take about two minutes.
Blog and marketing titles may spark more curiosity than docs titles, but the same rule holds: they must promise something the post actually delivers.
The shortcut
Two checks: "Would a reader type or say this?" and "Does the page deliver exactly this?"
What does the page do?
It walks readers through setting up email, SMS and Slack alerts. That is a task, so the title starts with a verb.
The trap is cleverness: puns, vague labels and grand promises such as "Everything you need to know about monitors". They are fun to write and hard to find.
Drills
Answer fast — trust the rule.
Which is the best title for a task page about pausing monitors?
Which is the best title for a page explaining how Nightjar decides a site is down?
Which is the best title for a troubleshooting page?
A post is titled "Set up uptime monitoring in 60 seconds", but most readers need five minutes. What is wrong?
Remember
- A title is a promise: specific, in the reader's words, and kept.
- Shortcut: would a reader type it, and does the page deliver exactly it?
- Trap: clever, vague or inflated titles that nobody searches for.