Your headline is the first impression you make on your audience, and sometimes the only one. So writing a good headline is just as important as writing good content.
How long should my headline be? Should I optimize for search engines? What words should I avoid? This article answers these questions and more.
The Importance of Great Blog Headlines
According to reports, we check our phones 96 times a day. That’s once every 10 minutes! You’re probably thinking that’s great, I have a chance of my content been seen. But, as much we check our phones so many times a day, we only spend an average of 2 minutes scrolling through the feed.
And with 95 million pictures posted on Instagram daily, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. So how do you stand out?
Your headline has to appeal to your audience and promise to provide value to make them stop and take notice.
More than that, your article has to be found. Headlines play an important role in search engine optimization.
Tips For Writing Effective Headlines
Write Multiple Headlines For Every Post
Brainstorm a few headlines for each post. By writing multiple headlines, you and your team can decide which one will work best.
This has the double benefit of also keeping you focused as you write your article. By writing the headline first, I tend to focus on the topic at hand and not stray off topic.
Be Specific
A simple way of being specific is to include numbers in your post. Here are two example below:
“Lose Weight Fast!”
vs
“Lose 10kgs in 3 months!”
The first headline is enticing enough, but it is vague and doesn’t give much detail. The second headline is specific both in the amount of weight lost and timeline. It will hook lots of readers who have this goal.
Use Keyword Research
You will have obviously conducted keyword research before you write your blog. That’s how you know what to include in your article to answer the searcher’s query.
But, keyword research is also important for your headlines. If you’re writing an article about weight loss, you need to include this phrase in your headline so the reader can know straight away what the article is about. It will also help you rank with Google.
A blog with a keyword in its title can also have a long shelf life if that keyword is trending up.
Write For Your Audience
You can’t please everyone. If you’re creating content hoping that every single person on the internet will find it interesting, then you’re going to be bitterly disappointed.
Focus on your audience. They read your articles because they are interested in what you’re writing about. Forget about everyone else.
Optimize For Readability and SEO
Keep your headline under 70 characters if you want it to be displayed fully on Google. Longer headlines get cut off, making it appear incomplete. This can influence not only your ranking, but readers might not even click on it as they won’t know what your article is about.
Don’t Oversell
Meaning don’t over promise. Don’t promise to ‘help me lose 10kgs in 4 weeks’ when you know that your article does not fulfill its promise.
You will get lots of traffic to your site because that is a very popular topic, but your audience will not spend long on your site as the article will not provide the benefits it claims. Google will pick this up and demote your ranking.
Also, you will develop a bad reputation with your audience and they will dump you and go somewhere else. There are no long-term benefits to cheating your way through this.
Appeal To Emotions
We are not robots. We have feelings, and we use those feeling when it comes to making decisions.
If you are writing a review about a popular product like a phone, laptop or sports car, using emotional words in your headline can invoke your readers to read your article when they agree or disagree with your point of view. For example:
“Why The New Apple Mac Is Not Popular”
vs
“8 Reasons Why The New Apple Mac Is Rubbish”
These two headlines could have the same copy but they will definitely invoke totally different feelings from your audience. Readers who are loyal to Apple products will read the article to disagree with you, and those who have tested and agree that it’s rubbish will want to see if your reasons for hating it are the same as theirs.
Do A/B Testing
Always, always be testing. That’s the only way to know if anything works.
At the beginning of the creation process, narrow down the number of headlines to about two or three. After writing your article and settling on one headline, test user engagement with a second headline to see which one is a hit. The click-through rate should be a great indicator.
If you have an email list, you can test the different headlines with each subset.
Types of Headlines To Consider
The “How To” Headline
This headline is best as it hooks the curious reader. If I’m struggling to fall asleep at night, I might scour the internet looking for tips to assist. The basic structure is:
“How To [Fall Asleep] in [5 minutes]”
We have all clicked on this headline, and this blog post is one of them. If you’re trying to solve your audience’s problem, a “how-to” post is a great place to start.
Just remember not to overpromise!
Listicles
Commonly known as “list posts”, this article gives you a list of things to consider on a specific theme. It can be anything from 10 to 100 items to consider.
This type of post is normally very easy to write and can get a lot of clicks as people mostly scan when reading, looking for parts that interest them.
“10 Foods For a Flat Belly“
When writing this post, don’t go too crazy. “100 Best Quotes From Bill Gates” can be a bit overwhelming. Keep it short and sweet.
The ‘Ask A Question’ Headline
These questions can resonate with readers especially if they’ve been struggling to find the answer to that particular question.
“What Is The Secret To Smoother Skin?”
If I had problem skin, I’d probably want to know what the secret to smoother skin is.
The All-In-One Headline
You can, obviously, combine different headline types to create the ultimate headline. These normally combine the “How-To” and “List” headlines.
“[Number] + [Best, surprising, etc] + [Ways, Reasons] + [Keyword]
As you can see, it’s pretty simple to combine the different elements. The hard part is coming up with a kick-ass headline that impresses your audience.
It’s A Wrapp!
If you’ve been concentrating more on your content than your headline, it’s time to reconsider. Headlines are just as important as your content, if not more.
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