8 Tips for writing Catchy Headlines

May 14, 2014

Stepping up your online game requires a combination of catchy headlines and informative blog title ideas.

You work hard creating in-depth content your audience is dying to know, so how come they don’t even notice?

On these pages, you post tons of useful information, tips and recommendations that your audience is dying to know. So why aren’t more people checking out your articles if they’re so awesome? Are you doing something wrong? Are you being sabotaged?

Chances are there’s just one thing that you need to change in order to make more people read through your blog: check your blog titles.

People can’t help but judge a blog by its title. There are so many high-quality articles out there that aren’t captivating the right audience simply because they’re not catchy enough.

What’s more, did you know that up to 50% of a blog post’s effectiveness is accounted for by its title? Imagine if great books had bland titles.

Would you read To Kill a Mockingbird if its title was really Trial and Racism in the 1930’s or Romeo and Juliet if it was called Two Lovers?

Think of your blog posts as masterpieces, and like every great work, they demand the best title!

Catchy headlines Trick #1: Stick to the Odds

Odd-numbered blog titles tend to perform better than those with even numbers. In fact, studies have shown a 20% increase in an article’s click-through-rate whenever a blog post has an odd number of words in its headline.

So if you have a blog title in mind, count the words. If it even subtracts a word or add an additional adjective there. But don’t go overboard with the additions as you may go against one of the tips below!

 

Catchy headlines Trick #2: Show Some Structure

Writing engaging blog titles can easily become an art. But you want people to know what to expect from your article, as they’ll be more likely to click through to your link. For example, if your blog was entitled “Today’s Events,” your reader would have very little information to go on in order to decide if he or she would want to check out what you’ve written.

Try changing the name into something that denotes structures like lists, instructions or countdowns. For instance, instead of naming your post “Today’s Events,” try calling it “How to Get Through Rush Hour Traffic” or “4 Things I Learned Today”.

Catchy headlines Trick #3: Show Some Numbers

A list article or a how-to article will more likely be clicked on if its title starts with a number. A number gives the reader an idea of how long your post would be. This ensures they won’t be overwhelmed with a long list when they thought they’d just be reading your article for about 3 minutes.

 

Catchy headlines Trick #4: Your Lucky Number is 70

70 characters are all that Google and Bing will display when they feature your article in the search engine results pages. So if you have 100+ characters in your title, the 30+ characters will just become ellipses; thus, your reader would have an incomplete idea of what your article is about.

In addition, 70 characters for your blog titles are ideal for retweeting because there’s still some space for a bit of intro plus the actual shortened link to your blog post.

Catchy headlines Trick #5: Start with Keywords

You probably already know just how important keywords are when you’re doing SEO.

An optimized headline gives you plus points for this. In order to make the best of your relevant keywords, try to keep them closer to the start of your title. Take the example of a list-style article about baking cupcakes. You could call it “12 Cupcake Secrets You Need to Know.” Your keyword doesn’t necessarily have to be the first word of your headline, but keeping it in the first three words definitely pays off more in terms of SEO.

 

Catchy headlines Trick #6: Use Strategic Words

A great idea for writing the best headlines and blog titles is to get creative and expand your use of words.

Some words are more effective than others when it comes to attracting readers. This is the perfect time for you to whip out your thesaurus and start looking for synonyms. Words like “cool,” “good,” “nice,” and the like are definitely not noteworthy.

With such a finicky audience as Internet users, you need better words to attract more readers. Up the odds of getting more readers with words like surprising, secrets, science, huge, critical, intriguing and other hyperbolic words.

These keep the readers and casual browsers interested enough to click through to your link. However, don’t go overboard with these because it may make your entire blog seem too attention-seeking.

Catchy headline Trick #7: Learn from the Pros

If you’re not a pioneer in your industry, you’ll probably have a lot of authoritative sources to look through in order to do research about your niche. These sources provide great material for finding inspiration in titling your blog posts.

However, you shouldn’t copy their titles verbatim as these authoritative sources will definitely best you in search engine results pages. Instead, just gain inspiration by checking out which of their posts get a lot of attention.

Have a look at its title and try to discern why it’s so catchy. Then, try to recreate this technique with your own blog posts. Are they using technical jargon? Are they using a lot of lists? Do they have instructional blog posts? Answer these questions and choose the right words, and you’ll have your headline in no time!

 

Catchy headlines Trick #8: Keep Going Back to Your Headline

Choosing the perfect blog headlines is not always easy.

You don’t always have to come up with a title before you start writing. Yes, this may help you steer your writing towards answering your headline’s biggest question, but there’s always room for improvement.

After you’ve written your content, go back to your title from time to time. See if this is still a title you would like your content to have. Try to check if there are any phrases or words that you’ve used in your content that would fit into the title.

Tweak, write and then tweak again to perfectly match your content to your blog title!

 

What are your main struggles when writing headlines? Tell us in the comments!