Open ten AI-generated articles right now and scan the subheadings. You'll see the same patterns repeating:
"Key Considerations for Implementation"
"Benefits of a Strategic Approach"
"Understanding the Core Framework"
"Exploring the Main Challenges"
"Overview of Best Practices"
All of them - sound grammatically but completely empty.
A reader scanning those subheadings learns nothing about what's inside each section. There's no reason to stop and read.
AI has seen thousands of subheadings but it has no lived experience, and no point of view. That's why AI generated subheadings don't deliver insights.
What makes human subheadings different? I have a newsletter issue about it, if you want to check it out.
Or simply compare these:
AI: Benefits of Measuring Content Performance
Human: If you can't show results, they'll find someone who can
AI: Challenges in Cross-Team Collaboration
Human: Fewer clashes between designers and developers on "how much time it takes" vs "how awful it looks"
AI: Key Considerations for Your Security Requirements
Human: How to define security requirements so you don’t get into trouble
The human versions visualize a specific scene, speak the reader's language, and make a claim worth stopping for.
There is one problem with writing human subheadings. You actually need to know what you’re talking about. AI subheadings are so convenient because you outsource thinking to AI and don’t need to do the hard job of finding the insights. But that approach leads you to bad subheadings - a problem that can cost you readers and customers.
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I wrote a book for content writers called From Reads To Leads. You should check it out to learn what rules you need to follow to write content that converts readers into leads.
I noticed it long before ChatGPT existed.
A few years ago, I was looking for a yoga teacher training course. I found one near my town.
The website was full of information—and the long wall of text that this information was pressed into looked impenetrable. I read it word for word and still didn’t get a clear idea of what the course offered.
Of course, I could have just called and had my questions answered, but I preferred to continue browsing. After a few hours, I came across another school a bit farther away but with a website that was way cleaner and much more readable.
The content was broken down into large blocks with information about the dates and times of lectures, the price, the course program, how to enroll, the certification you could achieve, and other details.
All my questions were answered and I felt convinced this was the course I needed to take. My buying decision was first and foremost influenced by how easy it was to consume the content on the school’s website. Everything else was secondary.
The subheadings made most of that difference.
Most readers don't read your articles from start to finish. They scan. They're looking for the part that's relevant to them, and subheadings are the map they use to find it.
Think of subheadings as doors that open to rooms of text. If they don't signal what's inside, readers won't bother opening them.
Good subheadings do three things:
Bad subheadings are invisible at best and confusing at worst.
Below are the most common mistakes writers make when writing subheadings, and how to fix each one.
Vague subheadings are usually a sign that the writer wasn't sure what they wanted to say. The subheading becomes a placeholder, not a chapter of the story that unfolds with every section.
For example, a section in an article about mobile app security testing called “Security Requirements” doesn't tell the reader anything. Requirements for what? Set by whom? What will I learn here?
Before writing a subheading, answer three questions:
With those answers, “Security Requirements” becomes “How to Define Security Requirements so You Don’t Get into Trouble.”
But the best subheadings go further than description. They deliver an insight on their own. Look at how we structured the H2s for a Stfalcon article on supply chain risks:
“Disconnected systems block visibility → integration brings it back”
“Poor experience drives customers away → seamless UX keeps them loyal”
“Your investment might not pay off → automate what’s costing you the most”
Each one names a specific pain, then signals what the section will do about it. A reader scanning those subheadings already understands the argument before reading a single paragraph. That’s the difference between a subheading that describes a topic and one that earns its place on the page.
With these subheadings, the reader knows what to expect and whether it's worth their time.
A subheading that makes the reader pause to figure out what you mean has already failed. You have one job: help them understand what they're about to read.
In an article about types of nutrition apps, a section called “Burning Men” might feel clever. To the reader, it's just confusing. Call it “Apps for Counting Calories” and save the creative energy for the writing itself.
Clarity and creativity aren't opposites, but when they conflict, clarity wins every time.
Subheadings that don't follow a pattern make content harder to process. The reader's brain has to reset with every section instead of building rhythm.
Here's what inconsistent subheadings look like:
Headline: Five Tips for the Smartest Development Ever
Subheading 1: The lack of clear goals is why your project might get off track
Subheading 2: Deal with over-engineering
Subheading 3: Stop reinventing the wheel
Subheading 4: Why DevOps is what you need
These subheadings aren’t consistent; they don’t create a rhythm that makes it easy to perceive the information. Let’s see how we can fix them:
Subheading 1: Set clear goals
Subheading 2: Avoid over-engineering
Subheading 3: Stop reinventing the wheel
Subheading 4: Use DevOps
Readers can predict the pattern and move through the piece faster. Simple, isn’t it?
Every subheading needs to connect back to the main headline. If it doesn't, you've either taken the article off-track or your piece is trying to cover too much.
Take an article titled “How to Manage Time Differences.” These subheadings don't hold up:
Headline: How to Manage Time Differences
Subheading 1: If you think that time differences are the reason your workflow is going off the rails, it’s not
Subheading 2: Adjust, don’t get adjusted
Subheading 3: Start late, leave late
Subheading 4: What if something urgent happens?
Subheading 1 (“If you think that time differences are the reason your workflow is going off the rails, it’s not”) and subheading 4 (“What if something urgent happens?”) don’t fit with the heading “How to Manage Time Differences,” so they shouldn’t be there. If you want to emphasize that having a team spread across different time zones isn’t a big problem, you can do it in the introduction and prove it throughout the article. It can actually be your key message.
Let’s see how we can fix the subheadings above to stay on track:
Headline: How to Manage Time Differences
Subheading 1: Schedule meetings in advance
Subheading 2: Adjust, don’t get adjusted
Subheading 3: Start late, leave late
Subheading 4: Have a plan B if something goes wrong
Now everything is connected to the headline.
View your article like a stairway. Each subheading is a step that moves the reader closer to the top. A subheading that doesn't belong is a step going sideways.
SEO taught writers that subheadings are for algorithms. So now we have this:
“Best Practices for Supply Chain Risk Management Software Development”
“Top Strategies for Improving Cross-Team Collaboration in Remote Work Environments”
Every keyword is in there. And no reader on earth would scan that and think: yes, that’s the section I need.
Subheadings help the reader navigate and help Google understand the page. Most writers treat them as the same job. They aren’t.
The fix is usually simple: write the subheading for the reader first, then check whether the keyword fits naturally. Most of the time it does. “How to define security requirements before you get into trouble” still contains the keyword. It’s also something a human would actually read.
Questions create curiosity gaps. That was the idea. Now half the articles on the internet look like this:
“What is a Design System?”
“Why Does Team Collaboration Matter?”
“How Can You Measure Performance?”
“What Are the Key Benefits?”
A page of question subheadings tells the reader nothing about what’s inside each section. Questions delay the insight instead of delivering it.
One-question-subheading can work, if the question is specific, and has some tension. “Has your Design System made anyone’s job easier?” is a question worth asking.
When in doubt, answer the question in the subheading itself and cut the question mark.
Go back to the last piece you published and read only the subheadings, in order, without reading the body copy. If they don't tell a coherent story on their own, your readers can't scan and decide whether to read. Most of them won't.
Fix that first.
Watch it on YouTube:
Hope this blog post has helped you figure out how to write good subheadings to your blog posts. Thanks for reading and subscribing to my YouTube channel.
Read next:
How to write compelling introductory paragraphs
How to write powerful conclusions
I've been busy this week exploring Claude Code, Skills and stuff. It does seem like marketers would need to requalify into builders to survive what's next. Exciting times!
Kateryna
P.S. If we aren't connected already, follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram. If you like this newsletter, please refer your friends.
P.P.S. Need help with quality content? Zmistify your content with Zmist & Copy
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