The most important part of your blog post is its title. You need to grab a reader’s attention with the title and get them to actually read the post. If you don’t, nothing you put inside the post really matters — it’s irrelevant how great and helpful your content is. It doesn’t matter what offers or affiliate links you have in your post. And it’s inconsequential who sponsored you to write it. If you can’t get anyone to read it, the blog post doesn’t do you much good. Therefore, it’s essential to understand how to write attention-grabbing blog post titles.
Your blog post title is also important when it comes to getting free search engine traffic. It is the most important factor when it comes to getting your content to rank. Yes, there are plenty of other factors but a good title with the right keywords in it will do more good than anything else you do. So how do you go about writing a good, eye-catching blog post title? I usually start with a working title for my post and then write my content. When I’ve finished, I go back and change the title, implementing as many of the tips below as possible.
Make it interesting and truthful
When writing an attention-grabbing headline, there’s a temptation to hype it up and possibly stretch the truth slightly. Whilst that may get you some extra clicks, you’ll lose credibility if readers can see that you’re exaggerating. You see a lot of those headlines on social media — you click through and end up being disappointed because the post doesn’t fulfil what the title promised.
Instead, make it interesting without all the hype and stick to the truth. A great way to do that is to think about what’s in it for your readers. Think about the titles that grab your attention and how they relate to the content in the blog posts that you read.
Keep it short and engaging
Shorter titles tend to do better both with click-throughs on your blog and social media. Therefore, keep your blog post title short and to the point. Think about engagement straight from the title of your post. For example, make a statement that makes your readers think or ask your readers a question. Put numbers in your titles to get them thinking about what’s in the content, such as ‘5 Top Tips To X’.
To help you craft engaging titles when you need them, keep an eye out for titles that catch your attention. Copy and paste them into a swipe file and see how you can tweak them for your own needs and audience.
Include your keywords
Last but not least, don’t forget to work your keywords into the title. It’s usually easier to do this last. You should always write for your readers first and then work in your keywords to make sure the search engines recognise what your content is about.
Ranking well for something that your readers don’t want to read or don’t want to click on doesn’t do you much good. So focus on your audience and then optimize for the search engines.
Test some attention-grabbing blog post titles
Implement these tips as you write your next few blog posts. Pay attention to what’s working and what isn’t. Each market, each blog and each readership is different. Use these tips as a guideline to help you find your own style — and one that resonates well with your audience. Try out some different titles and discover which ones work best to get you the results you want. Let me know how you get on in the comments below!
Image credits
Main image: Tim Douglas on Pexels. Second image: Kevin Malik on Pexels. Third image: WOKANDAPIX on Pixabay.
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