Article title without the definite article before the word best

Question

I have learned that before phrases like the best, the latest, the smallest, etc, I have to use the definite article because the best is only one thing. Is this title of an article correct?

Shopping Guide for Best Women's Running Shoes

If I would write that, I would write for the Best Women's Running Shoes

Titles and headlines use '[tag:headlinese]', a style which eliminates as many uninformative words as possible so the headline can be displayed as large as possible. — StoneyB on hiatus, Aug 19 '17 at 11:39
Fewer words and characters means the typeface can be much larger in the space allotted. — StoneyB on hiatus, Aug 19 '17 at 11:42

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 19 '17 at 15:17

Yes and no. As a headline of an article, "Best Women's Running Shoes" would be fine. As StoneyB says in his comment (and in the linked answer), "headline" English often eliminated short and unnecessary words to save space.

However, "Shopping Guide for Best Women's Running Shoes" sounds awkward to me, and I would include the definite article. I'm not sure why this is, but it's possibly because the second part is a phrase modifying "Shopping Guide".

Three letters (four counting the space) can't really hurt, and it flows better.

Article title without the definite article before the word best

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