7 secrets for writing your best blog headlines ever
Your business blog headline should be a show-stopper. It’s what entices someone to click on your article. I would go as far as to say the headline is your reader’s initial call-to-action.
Consider the experience you may go through for finding and opening a blog post just like this one.
You go to Google and say, “How do I write a blog post headline.”
It comes back with give-or-take 250 Million search results.
How do I sift through all of those options to find what I’m looking for?
Between you and me, there is a max of 10 results, maybe 20, I’m actually going to look at until I rephrase my search or give up completely.
With this page of limited information, you only have a couple of tools at your disposal.
There is your URL, which isn’t going to change much, the small description that shares a bit about what your article includes, or there is the big blue headline shouting “I’m important, click on me!!”
The blog headline is (very likely) the first thing that will catch your eye and spark your interest.
If it isn’t a strong one, you could be missing out on more traffic, more leads, and more potential customers.
That’s the power of a great blog headline.
But what’s the secret formula?
Blog headlines aim to accomplish two things: Pique interest and drive clicks.
When you create an awesome headline that is accomplishing both of these, the continued results of traffic, leads, and sales will certainly follow.
But, if you were doing that, you probably wouldn’t be here asking me how to write the best blog post headlines ever, right?
So let’s hop in.
These are the tried and true techniques for writing the best blog headlines that will have your audience interested and clicking every time.
1. Reflect the actual value of the content
The quickest way to lose trust with your audience is to promise one thing in the headline but deliver something different in the content.
An example I often think of (and grumble under my breath about) is using titles like “The Ultimate Guide to blah blah blah.”
When I read that headline, I’m expecting an all-inclusive, instructive manual for success and understanding of that topic. So, why am I instead reading a 700-word, high-level overview about blah blah blah?
Make sure your headline and content actually align.
The headline will mold itself from the content that is being produced, not the other way around.
Trying to force content into a headline can lead to confusion from the audience that will not only disqualify you as a resource but could cost you future traffic and future business.
The best way to ensure your headline matches the content of your article is to identify the “one thing” you want your article to achieve.
The one thing doesn’t have to be this deep, thought-provoking idea either.
Think, for example, that you sell kitchen sinks. The goal of your piece of content could be that you want to help the consumer find the perfect sink for their home. Your one thing is to educate the reader on what factors they need to consider when buying a sink.
The article headline should reflect that one thing, resulting in a headline such as 8 mistakes homeowners make when purchasing a kitchen sink or How to buy the best kitchen sink for your home.
By having a clear one thing, you are setting yourself up for success in creating a great headline that matches your content while still enticing your reader to click in and learn more.
2. Use words and phrases that resonate with your audience
Too often I hear, “I know what my buyer needs to hear.”
Or even worse, “Well, that is what I would search.”
Shivers shot through my fingertips even typing those phrases.
No, you don’t get to choose what your buyers are thinking or wanting to search.
Instead, you need to take your marketing or sales hat off your head and look purely at how your audience is expressing their needs.
A great place to start is to look at the reviews and testimonials that customers leave on your products or services as well as your competitors.
Whether the reviews are good or bad, you will get a clear picture of not only how your audience talks about what you offer, but what their pain points, satisfactions, and overall experiences are with what you offer.
Take note of compelling phrases and words and use them in your headlines.
For example, let’s say you are a running shoe manufacturer and you get a review online that says, “These shoes are very comfortable to wear, but the arch support during long runs was lacking.”
Your article headline can directly address the (literal) pain point of arch support. If you were creating a “Best of” listicle, your headline would be X best men’s running shoes with arch support.
Or you might get even more general and write Why arch support is important for long-distance runners.
This activity ensures that your audience is being heard through your headlines because you are using their tone and phrasing.
And while I go into it deeper later (see point 7), you should perform additional keyword research from a traffic and performance perspective too in order to confirm you are on the right track with your headline.
The headline needs to make the audience feel heard and understood. The last thing you want your headline to feel like is a sales pitch for how great you are. Your audience won’t want to listen click in and your article will suffer.
3. Ask questions
The structure of your headline makes a huge difference in the appeal of your article.
Building on point two, consumers want to be heard and you can do that through the structure of your headline. They want to feel understood. Speaking their language is one way of accomplishing that.
If a consumer is going to Google and searching “How to…” or “What is…” those are headline goldmines.
These questions are opportunities for you to answer and give them what they want in your headline and your content.
Having a question in your headline also makes the audience immediately reflect and try to answer the question in their minds.
- That’s exactly what I was wondering. Tell me more!
- Have I thought about that before?
- I have my answer. I wonder what their answer is?
All three of these responses are sparked just by reading the question found in your headline.
They all will immediately pique interest and more likely drive the reader to click into the article.
4. Use numbers
When it comes to writing a great blog headline, don’t hesitate to use a number.
Headlines with numbers are proven to resonate better than those without.
Why is this so?
Well, numbers spark a psychological trigger to get the reader thinking.
Numbers in your headlines help quantify the content, allowing the reader to process how long it may take to consume, what might be involved, and scale the information before they even click into the article.
Time wasn’t even mentioned, yet you determined how long something could take based on the number of steps you saw in the article headline.
Numbers in your headlines also visually stand out from the standard text, in turn, drawing the audience’s attention even more.
So, how should you use numbers in your headlines?
Get specific with a step-by-step guide by inserting a number helps the reader understand just how many steps they’ll need to take.
When I wrote my step-by-step guide for building a social media following, I could’ve just said “How to build a social media following in 2020,” but instead I titled the article, “How to build a social media following in 2020: 9 essential steps.”
This clarifies how many steps and gives the reader an idea of how easy or difficult this could be before they even read it.
Another example could be a listicle.
IMPACT’s lead content trainer Kevin Phillips wrote an article titled “17 business blog topics your audience wants you to write.”
Your initial reaction when you read that headline probably felt something like this:
17?! I can barely come up with five, much less 17 unique topics!
Next thing you know, you have clicked into the article all because of the number used in the headline.
This is what makes numbers in headlines so powerful. They set the stage, add context, and drive interest.
5. Play around with the visual structure
Using two-part headlines with a colon, parentheses, or brackets can add a dynamic feel to your content, tease the contents of the article, and provide further context to the value of your blog content.
These two-parters will also act as eye-catchers because they not only provide additional context about what the reader can expect in the article, but look unique compared to most headlines.
IMPACT client Yale Appliance has mastered dynamic blog headlines.
From washer reviews to oven range comparisons to professional appliance tips, Yale always employs creative structures to appeal to their audience.
Here are some of their article titles:
- Is The LG Smart Front Load Washer WM3900HBA Any Good? (Reviews/Ratings/Prices)
- BlueStar RNB Series Vs. Wolf 36-Inch All Gas Pro Ranges (Reviews/Ratings/Prices)
- Best Appliance Maintenance Tips (Pro Appliance Tips)
Other examples could be providing context to the format of the article, such as interviews.
When you read the title Who is not a fit for IMPACT’s Digital Sales and Marketing Coaching program? [Interview], you understand the style of the article just by adding that one word in a couple of brackets.
Whichever way you choose to experiment with the structure of your blog headlines, make sure it is driving value for your readers, not just for dramatic effect.
6. Be concise and to the point
A great headline is specific and concise.
Your article headline should fall in the “character sweet spot.” This typically falls between 50-70 characters but can vary depending on the platform.
On LinkedIn, for example, 40-49 characters for an article headline is the recommended length, which feels so short but performs exceptionally well.
From a search performance perspective, while it won’t always punish your search performance if your title is longer than 70 characters, your title will get cut off by the Google search engine results page (SERP) — especially on mobile.
That means the reader can’t witness the glory of your whole blog headline.
Here is an example I made just for you that shows how the article headline could be cut off by Google:
Our team uses Spotibo as it helps us test meta descriptions as well.
If your headline is super-duper long, even if it sounds great, imagine what the user is experiencing.
They want to find the quickest answer to their question, problem, or curiosity, meaning you don’t have that much time to catch their eye and convince them you have the answer.
I always think of the resume timeline, which went something like:
Your resume will be in front of someone for about sixty seconds before they make a decision. How will you stand out in those sixty seconds?
How long do you have the attention of someone reading an article headline? Five seconds?
Keep it concise. Keep it to the point.
That will make your headline great.
7. Optimize for keywords and search performance
Remember when the best practice for writing headlines was to cram in all the keywords you could so Google would rank you higher?
Please, please, PLEASE don’t do that.
Wait, does that mean keyword research is dead? No.
Optimizing your headlines for search performance is a core part of creating the best headlines, and getting specific with your most valued keywords is crucial.
You need to know what keywords you are aiming to rank for with the article and, in turn, the headline.
When researching keywords, definitely start with intention and what your customers or target audience are saying in regards to that (as we discussed in point 2).
A great example I use for intention-based keyword research is purchasing dog beds. When you need to purchase a dog bed for your favorite pup, you might start by searching “Best dog beds”.
Your results, however, will be so vast that it will likely be impossible to find what you are looking for.
Instead, intention-based keyword research takes it one step further. Instead of just searching for the best dog beds, you get really specific and search “Best blue dog beds for smaller dogs”.
Now you have identified not only a color but the size of your dog and those keywords will play a big difference in the results you get.
By focusing on intention, you will have the specific keywords or phrases your audience is using, but don’t stop there.
You need data to back it up.
Once you know what you are going after, tools such as SEMRush, Moz, Answer The Public, or even the Google search bar will help fill in the gaps on which variations get the most search volume.
While there are a lot of factors that feed into your keyword research, the two most important I always make sure to look at are competition and search volume.
Competition (or difficulty) refers to how challenging it is to rank for a particular keyword based on how many other websites are also looking to rank for that keyword. When a keyword is more competitive, it means it will be harder (and likely take much longer) to rank for.
Search volume, on the other hand, is the number of people searching for that keyword. But don’t be fooled, super high search volume isn’t the answer because that likely means they are extremely competitive.
Finding that magical combination of low competition and high search volume can take your headlines from good to great and so would your results.
Time to write your best headlines ever
Your blog headline is the first call-to-action (CTA) your audience will see when they come across your article. That first click on your article headline needs to feel as valuable as the content that is within it.
But a great blog headline is only part of creating an effective blog article.
Not to bore you with math formulas (I know, I write content to avoid numbers too) but:
Effective blog article = Great headline + great content
Writing an effective blog headline is something that will need to be practiced over and over until you find the right process for you.
Even then, while your headline could be the most mind-blowing, drool-inducing set of words, the content still has to live up to the hype.
Make sure you are still dedicating time to the content being just as good as the headline is.
If you want to create content that will drive results for your business, always make sure you are delivering on what you are promising to your audience in your headline.
By focusing on your audience and structuring your headlines to be both intriguing and effective, your headlines will drive traffic to your website and the results will follow.
This post was originally published by Connor DeLaney on August 5, 2020 at https://www.impactplus.com/blog/writing-best-blog-headlines