Titles change the fate of your posts.
Those few sentences at the beginning of a blog post can be the difference between that post being read and spreading like wildfire across the internet, and having it languish in your archives, barely noticed.
What we’ve been talking about this month How to “make” a blog post and are working on the critical moments in blog post writing, it’s important to pause and put in some extra effort.
While there are usually only a few words in your post title – They are the most powerful words you will ever write Because for most readers, the decision of whether to read the rest of your post is up to them.
Why blog post titles are important
Blog post title appears in:
- search engine results
- RSS subscription
- Links from other bloggers
- social media website
- on your archive pages (depending on how you format them)
In each case, the title is likely to be the only thing people see and decide to access your post. Write a boring, complicated, or confusing title, and it doesn’t matter what you write in your post—few people will read it.
What should a good blog post title do?
Copywriters use many techniques when crafting headlines or headlines both online and offline, but there is usually a common goal behind them. It can be summed up in the words of David Ogilvy, who in Ogilvy on Advertising (A Great Copywriting Book) echoes this statement time and time again:
“The purpose of the title is to get potential readers to read the first line of your content.
This is one of the lessons that has helped me the most with my own blog, and I’ve seen its power time and time again.
Write a captivating and interesting title and you will get people to read it every time.
How to Create a Blog Post Title – 8 Tips
How to design a blog post title that will get people to read the opening line of your blog post?
There are many techniques you can use to create blog post titles that attract readers. I’ll outline a few below (you can’t do them all in every article).
Before sharing – let me give a general tip – Do not worry – This is the main point of this whole series about making content. If you don’t get any other results today – be aware that if you rush into writing your headline, you’re likely to waste the time you put into the actual post. Invest time in your posts and it will pay off!
Now we’re going to take things slow – here are 8 tips I use when creating blog post titles. notes: It’s unlikely you’ll be able to use all of these in one post (although I did my best to include some of them in the image caption above just for fun). Different technologies work better in different situations.
1. Communicate the benefits
This is very important. If a potential reader sees your post in Google search results, an RSS feed, or a site like Digg and sees a title that promises to meet their needs, they will click on the link almost every time. Identify a need of your potential readers (we discussed this in yesterday’s post ) and communicate that your post will solve that problem or need in the title. That’s why posts titled “How to Hold a Digital Camera” and “10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits” (LINKSSSSSSS) attracted hundreds of thousands of readers to my photography blog last year. They’re not “clever” or “mysterious” titles – they just scream to those who see them what they’re going to get if they visit the post. These headlines won’t appeal to everyone who sees them, but they will certainly appeal to those who have the needs your posts are targeting.
2. Create controversy or debate
Another tip that’s great at getting people to engage with your post is to be prepared for controversy, debate, or strong opinions. You need to be willing to back up these types of headlines with posts that reflect the headline – but controversy is one of the things that tends to pique people’s interest. Remember, when you cause controversy, you will elicit strong reactions from people.
3. Ask questions
When you ask a question, people who read the question respond (or see what the response is). I’ve found that questions in post titles are very popular, not only to engage readers, but are particularly effective at getting readers to leave comments, especially if the comment addresses the question to the reader (i.e. using the word “you” in the question) rather than just A random question. I’ll write more about personalized titles below.
4. Personalized title
When you write a blog post, you’re probably writing to thousands of readers—but readers may feel that the post is personal to their own specific situation, especially if you personalize the language you use. settings. One of the easiest ways to do this is to use the word “you” in your posts. I wrote a bit about this in A first-person blog about “you” But the main discussion is about using the word “you” in the post itself, but it can have a greater impact in the post title. example – 21 ways to make it your Blog or website stickiness.
5. Use keywords
Keywords in titles are great for two main reasons:
- First, they attract the attention of the reader scanning the content—something I noticed recently when I purchased an iPhone. Whenever the word “iPhone” appears on any post in my RSS feeder, it’s like a flash of light that grabs my attention. I have little control over it, but since I’m always looking for information to help me make purchases, this keyword easily grabs attention.
- Second, keywords are important to the long-tail life of a blog post because they tell search engines what your blog post is about and will help it rank higher for those words. Search engines pay special attention to titles to assert what a web page is about – especially if you also use words in the page’s “title tag” (read more Title tags and SEO).
Therefore, use keywords relevant to your post in the title. This is an especially helpful tip if you write about products, people, or companies, since these types of “names” are among the most searched terms on the web.
Another tip about keywords – if you can include them at the beginning of the title, they will have a greater impact on SEO than if you include them at the end of the title (especially if the title is long).
6. Use powerful words
Not all words are created equal—some elicit strong reactions from readers and are worth your time to find out what they are.
Compiling a list of these “power words” is difficult, but I’ve found a few that work (though please read the disclaimer below):
- free —The idea of something for nothing triggers a reaction in most of us.
- amazing – I use the word “amazing” a lot on my photography blog. These words are “big claim” words that draw people into the post to see if they match (more on “big claim” below)
- Discover – Everyone loves to make discoveries. Another related word is “reveal.”
- secret – This triggers a response because it promises to show you something you don’t know yet. Likewise, you could use “lesser-known methods…” instead of “secret.”
- simple – Similar to “free” – We all like “simple”, don’t we? – Also use “Quick”. Even better – how about “quick and easy”?
Disclaimer – Powerful words can be very helpful, but they can also trigger negative reactions. Some people become suspicious when they see titles containing such words and refuse to click on them – others will click on them but get angry if the post itself does not live up to the title. Proceed with caution.
7. Big claims and promises
I’ve already mentioned this technique, but it’s really worth exploring further as it’s a sure-fire way to draw people into your posts. Making a little statement or promise really stretched my first technique-“convey benefits’ – but brings it to a place where the stakes shared in the title cannot be ignored.
These “big claims” guarantee that even people with no real need for your topic will want to check it out.
The only problem with big assertion posts is that if you can’t really back them up with the post itself, you run the risk of knocking the reader offside.
8. Humorous title
Humorous titles are another technique that can be very effective in attracting readers to your blog—if you succeed.
The risk with humorous posts is that they can also fall flat on their face, leaving you with a post title that not only doesn’t attract loyal readers, but isn’t well optimized for search engines (unless you manage to incorporate some keywords) .
Two more quick tips on writing blog posts:
keep it short – While very long titles can actually grab people’s attention (the length itself can attract people) – in most cases you’ll want to keep it simple and easy to understand. This is good for both readers and search engines (they will only display about 65 characters, so if your title is too long, your full title won’t show up in search results).
Do not use periods (periods) – This may just be my personal preference and is open to debate (although I’ve seen many copywriters talk about it) but Using a period or “period” at the end of a title may prevent readers from reading. It’s not a big deal, but it could have an impact.
Other readers of the blog post title:
- Andy Beale wrote a thought-provoking post – How to optimize blog post titles – In it he discusses the two audiences for blog posts and how he recommends optimizing your titles for each audience at different stages of a post’s life.
- Brian Clark has written some great posts in his series of blog posts entitled Magnetic headlines. It includes some header templates worth trying.
- Coschedule – the tool we use to schedule blog posts and social media – also has a very handy feature title analyzer Free tool that gives you feedback to help you improve your titles.
What have you learned about writing blog post titles? Do you use some of the above methods, or have you found other techniques that work for you?
Read the full series
This article is part of a series How to write a blog post. It’s even more powerful if you think about it in the context of an entire series that looks at 10 points in the publishing process to pause and put in the extra effort. Start reading this series here.
