Copywriting tip: research has shown that headlines without a full stop (period) at the end have better comprehension than headlines with full stops.
In fact, 10% of the sample indicated that the full stop reduced their intention to reading the rest of the material!
Full stops, as their name suggests, halt the flow of the reader’s eye movement – whereas you want readers to continue to the body text.
That’s why you’ll never see a newspaper article (printed or online) with a full stop at the end of the headline. They know all about readability tricks!
What about full stops at the end of sub-headings?
The same rules apply to sub-headings: you want people to keep reading on. So don’t use full stops in sub-headings either.