How to Craft Good Headlines that Make Your Blog Posts Get Read

If you do not know much about digital marketing, you may wonder “what’s the big deal in the title of my blog post?” It is a really big deal. Your headline determines if your post gets read. It is what people see first on search engine result pages, on social media and so on.

In fact, according to statistics, 8 out of 10 people just read headlines; so you see how important it is to craft your headline and obsess over it?

Let’s look at other importance of writing good headlines.

5 Seconds

You have about 5 seconds to convince your reader to read the whole of your article. What tool do you use to do this convincing? Your Post Title. Ignore headline crafting to your detriment.

Traffic on Search Engine

You have searched a term on Google. There are about ten results on the first page, all relevant to your search. Which would you click first? You might click on the first result, and at the same time, you might click any other results – excluding the first.

What makes you click on a particular result? Headline! Do you get it now?

All your SEO efforts are also connected to headline performance.

Now that you have seen the importance, how do you write great headlines? The truth is that there is no magic formula. Strike that. There are magic formulas, but you cannot always bank on them. Testing and retesting is important.

Here are some things you should give your attention because they have worked well in the past.

·         Engage

Your title has to engage your audience. You do not want a headline that just influences a scroll by. Consider something that gets your audience thinking and connects them to the article. “What Are the Effects of Your Daydreaming” works better than “The Effects of Daydreaming.” Do you get the idea?

·         Excite

Have you ever come across a headline that causes your heart to beat faster and your blood to rush? This is the kind of headline you should be looking to craft. How does “The Hottest Money Making Schemes in Nigeria” sound? Is it not different from “How to Make Money in Nigeria?”

·         Curiosity

We are naturally curious as humans. The idea of headline is to pass the message of your article, but you do not want to stop there. You want people to proceed and read the first paragraph. Does “Why Hasn’t My Well-crafted Headline Been Working?” not pique curiosity?

·         Use Numbers

For some weird reason, research has shown that figures perform better on blog titles. Especially odd numbers. Blog posts with “13 Tips on How to Manage Your Blog” will perform better most of the time than “Tips on How to Manage Your Blog.”

·         Rationale

Use your headline to give your reader a stronger reason to read further. Adding words like Tips, Reasons, How-to and so on.

Some more tips

• Let your headline be unique, not commonplace.
• Let it be as specific as possible: “Your Guide to Writing an Awesome Article in 30 Minutes.”
• Create urgency with your headline: “Earn 500 Dollars NOW, Writing Easy ”
• Your title should show that the article is a useful one. Avoid philosophical titles like “As You Lay Your Bed.”
• Emotional words are powerful words that can influence people to read beyond the headline. Employ them. “BEAUTIFUL Logos That Our Clients LOVED in ”

Finally, ask yourself questions like, “how well did that headline do?” “How was it different from the other one that didn’t perform?” These kinds of questions help you get insight into the headlines that work for you and be able to optimise non-performing headlines.

We hope that you now understand the importance of headlines and take your precious time when writing the next one. It is an art that requires special craft.