Content may be king. But if you can’t get that content in front of people, then it doesn’t matter one lick what it says.
Without the right headline, no one may ever read your post. No matter how amazing and informed and funny it may be!
That’s the awful truth.
On average only 2 out of 10 people will read past your headline.
So it’s your headline, not your content, that’s going to be the reason someone sticks around to read your post, or just moves on off into the night.
There are a two basic schools of thought out there about blog post titles. One is – get your key words in there! The other is – GRAB THEM!
I tend to be of the Grab Them school of thought. If you are using a great SEO plugin like Yoast, then you should be okay for SEO even without your key words in your title. And if you can get your keywords in there and grab their attention then all the better!
(*Don’t forget you can always change your permalink to reflect your keywords even if you don’t use them in your title!)
Here are 5 sure-fire ways to rock your Blog Post Titles.
Action Verbs
Don’t mess around, say what you mean and say it like you mean it. ?Verbs like “Read”, “Learn”, “Optimize”, “Get”, are all words that make it easy for your reader to make a decision and act on it!
Make Them Want to Know
Arouse their curiosity. Use a headline that makes them have to click, because they must know what you want to tell them. Brian Clark from Copyblogger has some great ideas to pique your reader’s curiosity, so that they must click!
Offer them insider information on how to do something they really want to do, “Teach Your Child How To Read Like A Reading Specialist.” Offer them insider knowledge, “The 10 Secrets Every First-Time Mom Wishes She Knew.” Offer them something they seemingly can only get from you, “A Complete Guide to ___.”
Make a List
Like it or not, statistics show, that the most clicked on headlines involve some sort of list. “5 Reasons You Should Use Jen to Design Your Blog”, or “10 Ways to Gain More Twitter Followers.” ?”6 Signs You Might ___”
Learn From the Pros
You read blogs, right? Figure out what headlines grab you!?Create a secret pinboard and pin posts with great headlines to the board, who cares about content? Or read the paper, or a magazine, what grabs you?
Try a Colorful Adjective
Use words like “Surprising,” “Unconventional,” and “Unusual.” How about “10 Ways to Supercharge Your Love Life,” or “The Ultimate Guide to Google+,” maybe something like “12 Tricks to ___.”
[bctt tweet=”5 Ways to Rock Your Blog Post Titles! Tips to make your headline grab them!”]
It’s not always easy to create the right title for your blog post, but the more I researched, the more I realized it is the single most effective way to drive readers to your blog. Sometimes you just want to be clever, but maybe you can incorporate some of these tips and still create the desired effect. Many experts suggest writing 25 different titles for your blog post before picking one. No matter what you decide these tips will definitely help you write a title that gets noticed. And don’t forget! I’m offering free consultations to talk about taking your blog to the next level!