2 surefire tips on writing a captivating blog headline

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Hey, Sparkle Writers! It’s blogging series today and we are focusing on headlines. 

A headline is the first thing your reader sees before deciding to either click or not to click the link to your blog post. The need to understand the science of catchy titles for your blog posts is intense. Ok maybe it’s not as scientific as we just made it sound, but you get what we are saying.

How you write your headline could determine if you drive traffic to your blog or not. We saw this concise article on the bufferapp website where Leo Widrich, co-founder at Buffer, wrote about the best research on writing great blog post titles. We would like to let you in on some of the tips he found after his web research.

Give your readers numbers – the bigger the better

The bigger a number in a post, the farther it spreads. Iris puts it more clearly with great examples:

  • Make lists:8 reasons to…”, “15 tips to…” – Indicating a number of items on your post makes it sound more diverse, practical and easier to read. We found that these work exceptionally well.
  • Use digits rather than words – “10 ways to…” works well than “Ten ways to…” This is often a common blogging mistake that can easily be avoided.
  • Place the number at the head of the sentence. “5 ways social networks are changing the world” will work better than “How social networks change the world in 5 ways”.

Of course, we can’t always make a list post for every article we write. In that case, the following might work:

Everyone wants to be taught – Use “Introduction”, “The beginners guide”, “In 5 minutes” and “DIY.” A key idea about writing great headlines that great copywriters have mastered for a long time and that Iris and her team underline also is to teach people something. After all, we all want to get smarter. A common way to think about it is to make a lot of “How to” articles. The bad news is that whilst they do teach people something, they don’t spread as far. Instead, change it to something more specific, so people will know beforehand, what they will get.

An example:

  • Instead of:“How to get better at organizing your day.”
  • Try:“The 5 minute guide to organizing your day for more focus and productivity”

Being specific, while also showing that the article will be in depth, is one of the most important things to focus on.

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2 thoughts on “2 surefire tips on writing a captivating blog headline

  1. Thank you always. A good title helps seo. Now i am sure my titles are a bit not right. I need to try to put these tips into practise.

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