The most important thing to remember about headlines is they have one main job - to get someone to start reading the copy. That's prettymuch it.
Now that can be done a few ways, depending on what brought the reader there. For a landing page, I like a headline that grabs some attention by addressing what the person came there for. For a blog, I like a more quirky / interesting headline. Whatever will get the person to read my first sentence.
People sometimes mistake this with simply "getting attention" - a headline that gets attention but doesn't entice someone to read further has generally failed. Exceptions noted for some newspaper front pages and the like.
In addition, many people give the headlines way too much power (as in thinking the headline sells anything but the copy). In general terms, nobody buys based on a headline. But they will read your pitch based on the headline. Big difference in focus.
It's sort of like a resume. Many people have this all-in-one, all-purpose resume that's written "to get them a job". I always wrote individual resumes laser-focused to one purpose: to get a phone call from the particular person/job I sent it to - nothing more. I'll leave the job-getting to me.
If you look at it as "what is my headline's job?", it becomes easier.
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