The titles of your blog posts are detrimental to the success of your content marketing. In a sea of Google search results and social media, the title of your post can mean the difference between a reader clicking for more or just brushing you aside.
In this post we’ll talk about 5 ways you can write catchy blog post titles that people can’t help but click on.
Why Blog Titles Are So Important to Successful Content Marketing
Your blog headline is the first impression a reader will have with your content.
It can be their reason for clicking or their reason for brushing your post aside.
How sad would it be to slave over a blog post for hours, getting the content just write and then slapping a title on it that doesn’t draw people to the value they’ll find within the content?
We live in fast-paced times where the amount of information we see each day is astounding.
People are flying through their Facebook feed while waiting in checkout lines or scrolling through Pinterest while watching TV.
It’s become increasingly harder to make your content stand out and reach your ideal audience in this noisy sea of information.
But a catchy headline could cause someone to pause, pique their interest and make them hungry for more of the content they’ll find in your blog post.
It’s also one of the most important factors for your search engine optimization (SEO).
Combine SEO with a catchy, intriguing headline and it’s content marketing gold!
Let’s get into some tips for writing blog headlines that get clicked, shall we?
1: Keep your Blog Post Titles Short and Unique
55 characters is your target for the length of your blog post titles.
This is amount of characters that Google will show users in their search results. Anything longer will get cut off.
Shorter headlines also tend to get more clicks because they’re easier for readers to digest and know exactly what they’ll get when they click.
Get creative here. Don’t just write generic titles.
Include a keyword but also put some emotion into it that will make your title stand out from the rest of posts flying through the internet.
2: Focus On Keywords
Powerful headlines always focus on a keyword.
This is how people may find your blog post and let’s search engines know what your blog post is about.
Decide on what words your audience may type into Google to find your blog post and work that into the title.
3: Get Emotional
A catchy blog post title will have a healthy dose of emotion that will grab the reader’s attention and lead them to click for more.
You can use power words to not only make your post titles unique, but also give a sense of urgency, curiosity and emotion.
You want to stay away from common words like best, awesome, or great.
Go for the jugular here and get creative!
Use words like:
- Ultimate
- Greatest
- Fascinating
- The Truth About…
For example, a generic headline for blog post may go something like this:
“How to Set Boundaries in Marriage”
It’s not bad, but unless I’m really interested in that topic, it doesn’t really intrigue me much.
But what about:
“The TRUTH About Setting Boundaries in Marriage”
You see the difference? The second title creates a bit of intrigue and makes me feel like everything I’ve heard up to this point about boundaries in marriage was incorrect.
I just gotta click!!
Here’s a great list of 317 power words you can start using today.
4: Use Numbers
There’s something about numbers that increase engagement with blog post titles.
When you say “10 Ways to Set Boundaries in Marriage” as opposed to “How to Set Boundaries in Marriage” it conveys the value of the post and exactly what the reader will gain from checking out your content.
I enjoy creating these types of blog posts myself because they provide a clear outline for the content instead of a giant blank slate.
The same mentality gets passed along to readers, because they can more easily wrap their head around a list of short tips rather than one long “how to” post.
When it makes sense, try and include numbers in your headlines to drive engagement.
5: Write and Re-Write To Get Your Blog Post Titles Right
I had fun with the word-play on that subtitle, not gonna lie…
Writing effective and engaging blog post titles takes a lot of practice.
Rarely will you ever use the first title you came up with.
I like to have a working title for my blog post to give me some direction for what I’m going to write.
But as the content unfolds, it may make sense to re-write the title.
Finally, once the blog post is complete, I’ll spend time focusing solely on optimizing my title.
One of my favorite tools to help me do this is CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer.
You can put your headline into the form and CoSchedule will analyze it, score it and give you tips to improve it.
Here’s the analysis for a working title I had for this blog post:
You can see I’ve got some work to do get the right balance of words and structure for my title.
It will also give you some other scores to help you improve your headline, such as analyzing the length:
Conclusion
Writing blog post headlines that stand out and get clicks takes time and practice.
It’s a skill, like blogging, that you’ll grow in over time.
Take note of the types of headlines you see in Google and social media and think about why they stood out to you.
Using the tips and resources above, spend time trying to recreate that feeling of urgency or curiosity you felt when you read those headlines.
Keep at it and, over time, I have no doubt you’ll see an increase in traffic to your blog posts.
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