We partner with bada$$ companies that offer products that help our readers achieve their goals! If you purchase through our partner links, we get paid for the referral at no additional cost to you! Read our disclosure for more info.
If you donโt get someone to click your blog headline, you donโt get the reader.
If you donโt get the reader, you donโt get the fan.
And if you donโt get the fan, you donโt get the customer.
And if you donโt get the customer you, donโt have a business.
Great Headlines = More Clicks = More Potential Fans = More Potential Customers.
You cannot become an uber-successful bloggerย without being a good headline writer. But the good news is that this is a learned skill!
Hubspot says, โOn average, only 20% of people who read your headline will click through to read your article.โ
Only 20%!!! And obviously, the better your headline is, the more clicks youโll get. So what can we do about increasing that number?
Why Headlines Are So Important
Before we spill the proverbial beans on those headline-writing hacks, we need to address why headlines are so important.
It boils down to three letters โ CTR.
CTR stands for click-through rate, and it basically is the percentage of people who click through to your blog after they see the headline. Whether the link was seen on a social media platform like Facebook or Twitter, or in an email or advertisement โ it is the percentage of people who click the link.
Organic CTR is about search engines. Itโs the percentage of people who click on your link when it comes up in search via Google, Bing, Yahoo, etcโฆ
Imagine youโre ranking #4 for a keyword that 100 people are searching for monthly.
If 10 people click your website in the search results, it means you have an organic CTR of 10%.
The more organic click-throughs you can get, the better.
Why?
For starters, the higher your organic CTR, the more traffic youโre getting.
If youโre organic CTR jumps from 10% to 30% youโve gotten 3 times more clicks instantly!
And, if your organic CTR does jump up, it tells the Google gods that people like what youโre sharing.
As a result, it can give your search engine ranking a boost.
Yep, just by getting more clicks, you could go from #4 to #3 or even #1 in search!
How cool is that?!?
So, how do you get people to click on your website in search?
A big key is to write better headlines because when people are looking at a page full of search results, theyโre ultimately going to click on the headlines that appeal to them the most.
Now, how about those headline-writing hacks we promised you?
Get More Clicks with These 11 Headline Writing Hacks
1. Write more headlines.
Wait, what?
This might seem confusing, but what it really means is you should write more headlines for every blog post you write, and then pick the best option.
Upworthy said in their SlideShare Presentation โThe Sweet Science of Virality,โ that they write 25 headlines for every piece of content they publish.
Upworthy goes viral โ a lot. And, they test things frequently to see what works and what doesnโt.
One thing that has remained the same throughout their testing is their practice of writing 25 headlines.
While it might seem like overkill at first, with practice youโll be able to crank them out faster. I now only write about 3-4 for headlines for each blog post to compare them and see how they sound.
25 is probably a bit overkill, but I think itโs great practice as a newbie to write at least 10 of them at the beginning when youโre getting the hang of it.
If you arenโt sure which ones you like the best, ask a friend or fellow blogger!
2. Keep it short.
Make sure your headlines are below 70 characters because Google will cut them short if theyโre above that length.
Apparently, there is a thing to the number of words you write too. Headlines should not be more than 8 to 12 words.
The folks at Outbrain found that โheadlines with eight words had a 21% higher click-through rate than the average title.โ
You also want to keep it short for the sake of social sharing.
As one study showed, headlines with 8-12 words in length โgot the most Twitter shares on average.โ Facebook users gave more likes to headlines with about 12 words as well.
I wouldnโt worry too much about this.
Try writing out your titles naturally and then review them for length and number of words and make changes if necessary.
3. Add the keyword or keyword phrase to your headline.
Adding your keyword or phrase to your headline tells Google that when someone searches that keyword or phrase, your content can deliver what the user wants.
It also tells the user that you have what they are looking for.
Next, you must ACTUALLY deliver what you said you would in the headline.
Inserting a keyword just for the click will cause website visitors to leave without reading that page or any other page on your site.
This is called a bounce, and a high bounce rate tells Google that your page isnโt what users are looking for.
If you CAN deliver what the user was searching for in the form of really great and well-written content, the user will linger on your page, increasing โdwell timeโ and further boosting your rankings in Google.
4. Give it some digits.
No, not a phone number, but put a number in your headline.
Something likeโฆ
- โ5 Ways to Get Over Being Firedโ instead of โHow to Get Over Being Firedโ
- โ7 Mistakes Youโre Probably Making With Datingโ rather than โHow to Avoid Common Dating Mistakesโ
Here is are the top 3 search results in Google when you search for โwhat not to do when dating.โ
Headlines with numbers generally signal to the reader that youโre giving them a list, and readers love lists because it means the information is organized and there is a defined end.
Lists help us read faster, and make what weโre reading easier to follow.
And it may sound crazy but people have very low attention spans on the internet so having a defined ending number always just generally makes people feel more comfortable with your content.
Want to write a list post of your own? Here are some list words to help get you started:
- Tactics
- Ways
- Tips
- Hacks (hello this post!)
- Reasons
- Ideas
- Secrets
- Tricks
- Strategies
- Facts
- Statistics
- Lessons
- Principles
But, never use the word THINGS in your list.
Itโs too boring, and people donโt click boring titles.
Weโve also read somewhere that I canโt recall well enough to be able to cite it at the moment that using the number โ7โ in posts makes users even more likely to click your posts compared to other numbers.
Iโm not super sure about that but here are some examples of some of our posts with numbers:
- 17 Best Blogging Tips (Newbies to Advanced Bloggers) for 2022
- How to Get More Traffic to Your Blog in 7 Steps
And here are some other examples of headlines with numbers in them:
- 5 Mistakes Youโre Making in the Gym
- 30 Lessons Iโve Learned in 30 Years on Earth
- 7 Secrets About Fad Diets
- 13 Facts About Fertility Your Doctor Wonโt Tell You
- 9 Principles of Home Staging
- 11 Ways To Do Your Hair For Your Wedding
- 8 Tips for Saving More on Travel
People want to know that when they read your blog, their problems will be solved.
How are you going to make their lives easier? Whatโs in it for them?
Make sure the headline shares the problem youโre solving, and that your content actually solves it.
If you can solve your readersโ problem(s), they will remember you, likely come back to your blog and maybe even purchase a product from you.
6. Use parentheses and brackets
When you use parentheses and brackets, you can clarify what type of content youโre sharing.
For example, โ11 Workouts That Donโt Feel Like Exercise [Video]โ
This tells the reader that there is a video in the post.
Another example would be โ12 Bloggers Making Bank [Infographic]โ
The reader now knows that they are going to find an infographic with the written content.
They can also be used to show emphasis on something:
Outbrain and Hubspot conducted a study of over 3.3 million paid links and concluded that brackets or parentheses in a headline can perform as much as 38% better than headlines without them.
Itโs interesting to note that their study also found that using the word photo(s) in the headline performed 37% higher than headlines without the word.
We use brackets in our blog post and email headlines to signal highlight FREE content because readers LOVE free stuff!
For example:
- Blog Post Headline: 11 BEST Keyword Research Tools for Bloggers (Free and Paid)
- Email Headline: How to Create Content That Gets Traffic and Makes You Money [Free Training!]
7. Include some science and/or facts.
There is a LOT of information out there on the internet, and a lot of it is NOT reliable.
Readers like seeing reputable sources quoted and scientific facts stated because it lets them know that youโve done some research and arenโt just making shit up.
It gives credibility to your posts.
It will make people trust you more and can even lead to more click-throughs.
Here are some examples of how to SHOW this in your headlines:
- 9 Ways to Prevent Career Burnout: Backed By Science
- 7 Reasons You Need a Vacation: Backed By Science
- The Science of a Hangover: How to Prevent the Pain After Drinking
Just make sure to DELIVER on this promise by properly citing and linking your sources in your articles.
8. Throw in a hyphen or colon
A study conducted by the Content Marketing Institute showed that including a hyphen or colon in the headline can increase your click-through rate by 9%.
And you get points if your hyphen or colon comes after your keyword or phrase.
Letโs say your keyword phrase is wedding attire. Your headline could be something like: โWedding Attire โ What Not to Wear on Your Big Dayโ
Here are a couple of examples of how we do this in our blog posts:
- Pinterest Marketing โ The Definitive Guide for Bloggers in 2022
- Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers: How to Make Your First $200+/Month
9. Ask a question
Weโre in an age where we can ask Siri, Google, Alexa, and other artificial intelligence all kinds of questions.
And boy do we ask a lot of questions.
In fact, Google alone receives over 63,000 searches per second on any given day, and many of these searches are in the form of a question.
If people are asking Google all of these questionsโฆ Can you imagine what happens if you are also to pose the same or similar question in your headline?
The people asking that question would undoubtedly click your post over someone elseโs in search results.
Branding specialist Longneck & Thunderfoot also says, โAsking questions can inspire curiosity and critical thinking, in turn compelling your target audience to click through or continue reading an article.โ
The important thing is to not ask yes or no questions. You need thought-provoking ones that persuade your reader to click through for the answer.
And again, to avoid bounce rate woes, if you ask a question as your headline, make sure your content answers it!
10. Mimic your top competitors.
That was mimic โ NOT copy!
An easy way to come up with inspiration for better headlines is to visit the websites of your top competitors and see what they are doing.
This allows you to learn the keywords and phrases they are using to get visitors to their websites.
You can also find out more information on the keywords your competitors are using to drive their traffic with the help of keyword research tools.
From there, you can reverse engineer, or change things up completely to create headlines that stand out more than theirs do.
11. Use emotional words and adjectives.
Emotional words grab your attention. They are the ones that hook you and make you want to know more. They are also what drive purchasing decisions.
If you donโt invoke some kind of emotional response, thereโs a chance your headline wonโt get clicked in SERPs.
Here are some examples of emotional words you could add to your headlines to get more clicks:
- Incredible
- Strange
- Fun
- Effortless
- Essential
- Miraculous
- Eye-opening
- Conquer
- Urgent
- Immediate
- Happy
- Loving
These types of words can help your content stand out amongst the see of other headlines.
Bonus Pro Tips to Use With These 11 Headline Writing Hacks
Weโve given you a lot to work on with your headlines, but weโre in the business of overdelivering, so here are some additional pro tips you might find helpful:
1. Use the word โyouโ in your headlines to address the readers. It can grab their attention because youโre relating to their personal needs.
Here is an example: How to Write a Blog Post Your Readers Will Love
2. Practice creating the perfect headline with the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer.
This handy dandy tool will help you learn which headlines will drive the most traffic, shares, and search results.
3. Learn the emotional marketing value of your headline with the Advanced Marketing Institute Analyzer.
This free tool will analyze your headline to determine the Emotional Marketing Value (EMV) score.
4. If you have writerโs block, Inbound Now has a Blog Title Idea Generator that might help you come up with something new to write.
Use caution just going with the blog title they suggest though.
You might want to write about the blog idea, and then use other headline-writing hacks from this post to create the perfect headline for you.
5. Another tool for generating blog ideas is SEOProcessor Blog Title Generator.
This tool will ask you to type in a keyword, and then choose what kind of keyword it is before populating ideas for you.
6. Finally, if youโre not using the Rank Math WordPress Plugin, you should be.
Rank Math allows you to easily change your metadata to see exactly how your headline and description will appear in search results.
Now, We Want to Hear From You!
What did you think of these 11 headline-writing hacks? Did we miss any?
Leave a comment below and tell us about it.
If these hacks were helpful, do us a favor and share them!