Importance of news headlines for their search rankings

[TheaterMania]

Hi there, we're trying to determine how to best write headlines to make our articles more findable. We're a Theater content and ticketing site (theatermania.com) and we're about to publish an article describing outdoor Shakespeare in New York City.

We've discussed a few headline options (we automatically use the headline as the page title, although we aren't married to this) below.

Are any of these much more findable than the other? For example, are we shooting ourselves in the foot if we lead with "Fill your Summer...." in the first option?

Fill Your Summer in the City With Free Outdoor Shakespeare

Summer in the City With Free Outdoor Shakespeare

Free Outdoor Shakespeare This Summer in the City

[WhoWuddaThunk]

I agree with the MadderPillar.  The third one tells you exactly what it's about immediately, which is why I think it is ideal.  Some SEOs report that there is a weighted system for Title tags, as well.  The first words in the title get more authority.  I've personally never experimented with this, but I tend to follow it to be on the safe side.

I would also suggest adding in some additional blog posts about this topic:

5 Things You Didn't Know About Shakespeare

5 Reasons to Go To The Free Outdoor Shakespeare

People love quick lists on Social Media, and 5 unique facts about Shakespeare would probably be worthy of a click from many people.

[WilliamKammer]

I'm a fan of the third one, personally. It looks like you know the terms you want to use, so if they can fit in the title naturally, the only thing that matters it which one sounds better and will get the best click through rate. In this case, "free outdoor Shakespeare" seems like it would get a bigger draw from people who saw the title, so putting that up front would be best for users.

You may not be shooting yourself in the foot with the first one from an SEO perspective, but from a CTR perspective you might be.