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Once you’ve figured out how to create your blog, choosing great blog titles for your blog posts is an integral part of any company’s content marketing strategy. Attention-grabbing headlines are what make people stop scrolling and start reading. Plus, knowing what titles work well contributes to the success of a blog post in terms of its overall engagement and conversion rates. The more that people interact with your post, the more exposure your business gets, so including compelling blog titles is essential.
What Are Blog Titles?
Blog titles are short sentences that describe what a blog post is about in a headline format. These headlines are what people read first as they are scanning through the search engine results page (SERP) or the content of a website.
Blog titles are the most visible part of a blog post that people see. That’s why they’re an important part of your marketing strategy, as they draw in readers who are curious about your article based on your title. According to HubSpot, blog posts lose 80% of their intended audience when they lack a compelling headline. Creating an engaging blog title makes people click the link to your blog post so they can learn what your blog post is about.
Image via Flickr by racheocity
How to Choose Catchy Blog Titles
To choose good blog titles, consider the following steps:
1. Understand Popular Blog Title Formulas
Blog posts are an effective part of any company’s content marketing strategy. One of the best formulas for blog titles is as follows:
Number + Adjective + Keyword + Rationale + Promise = Blog Title
To fully understand this formula, it helps to break down the different variables within the headlines and know when to use them. Consider this information while researching popular blog titles:
- Number: Of the many types of blog titles, those that start with numbers are extremely popular because they are straightforward and break the content of a blog post into a clear list.
- Adjective: When choosing the right adjective, consider which word best describes the topic of your message. Some adjectives are better suited for certain topics. The tone of your blog post (playful, informative, serious) will guide you to the right word choice.
- Keyword: Including the top keywords that people are searching for online could increase the chances of people wanting to read your post.
- Rationale: People read blog posts for different reasons. Consider the rationale behind why your audience may want to read your blog post and shape the title around that angle.
- Promise: Great headlines indicate what your audience will learn once they click the link. This is known as the promise.
If the focus of your blog is to highlight a specific aspect of your company, like its products or services, include that information in the title. Blog posts that teach readers how to perform a specific action fall under the how-to category. This means that an appropriate blog title for an instructional blog post should start with “How to” because it indicates that your post includes the necessary steps to learn something new.
2. Take Note of Headlines You Enjoy
As you peruse content online, make note of which headlines grab your attention. By making a conscious effort to notice the way titles for social media, articles, videos, and blog posts are written, you can better understand how specific structures lead to high engagement rates. If time allows, write down your favorite titles, how they affected you, and if they delivered on their promise. Take note of trending topics and the headlines writers use to attract an audience.
3. Spend Time Practicing
To determine which blog titles are best for your brand, it helps to focus on the art of writing them. As you develop your writing skills, you’ll become more familiar with the headline structure and work through creating blog titles more quickly in the future. Because it is easy to forget things that require practice, dedicate at least 30 minutes of time each week to writing blog titles and watch your titles improve.
4. Add Relevant Keywords
Keyword research is an important part of the writing process for businesses with an online presence. If you haven’t already performed keyword research related to your company’s offerings, do so before you write any blog posts. According to research conducted by Advanced Web Ranking, websites that appear first in the SERP for a specific keyword receive a 30% click-through rate. Because blog posts with the top keywords get the most organic traffic online, it is important to use the keywords people are searching for.
If you’re new to keyword research, start with online keyword tools that offer free trials. This will give you a feel for the keywords you might include in your blog title and throughout the content of your post. If you’re limited on time, consider enlisting the help of a content marketing firm to do your keyword research and write your posts. CopyPress creatives are skilled in writing copy that includes keywords naturally.
5. Experiment With Different Blog Titles
When you’ve invested hours of your time into one blog post, it may be unappealing to write more than one blog title for your post. To increase the chance of your post being read and shared by thousands of people, experiment with more than one title. Doing so helps you recognize the best option that will make a great first impression. Consider asking others to weigh in on the perfect title.
6. Deliver What You Promise
When choosing the best blog titles for your posts, ensure you include corresponding content that supports your title. Successful blog posts provide value to your target audience. Avoid using clickbait headlines that entice people to read your post but leave them disappointed. There is a difference between writing engaging headlines and writing headlines that don’t live up to the hype. Misleading headlines result in a lack of trust, which affects your website’s overall level of authority and expertise.
Search engines rank websites based on these important factors and penalize sites that don’t provide value to their readers by ranking them low in the SERP. For example, blog titles that promise readers how to do something but leave out critical steps of the process throughout the post are not helpful. Headlines that promise 25 kid-friendly recipes attract parents who are looking for easy meal ideas their children will love. If the blog post contains recipes that have spicy ingredients or exotic seafood, parents will not take the article seriously and quickly exit the site.
7. Consider Human Emotion
Emotions make people take action and get shared more. That’s why it’s important to think about how you want people to respond emotionally to your blog titles. Using specific words in your headlines like the words below triggers curiosity and other emotions related to a reader’s current state of mind. Examples of words that evoke strong emotion, according to SEOPressor, include:
- Free
- Guaranteed
- Easy
- Simple
- Discover
- Huge
- Proven
- Save
- Never
- Secret
- Powerful
- Best
- Everything you need
- Because
A survey by CoSchedule found that blog posts with the highest Emotional Marketing Value (EMV) scores were those with titles that evoked strong emotion in readers. Using their exclusive Headline Analyzer Tool, they discovered that posts with a score of at least 70 generate the best results. Consider online tools like the one offered by the Advanced Marketing Institute to see how your titles rank.
8. Get Specific
When creating your blog title, be as specific as possible so that people know the value of your blog post. Describing what your blog post is about in a few short words takes a bit of work, but it helps people understand that it’s worth taking the time to read.
Titles that are too vague may cause people to keep scrolling. For example, if you’ve written a blog post that focuses on an interview with an important person in society, rather than calling the title “An Interview with Gary Raffauf,” you may opt for an engaging title like “Q&A: 10 Life Lessons From WWII Veteran Gary Raffauf.” The latter title not only states the man’s name, but it also describes the man’s background and the specific type of information readers will find.
9. Experiment With A/B Testing
Knowing what works best for your target audience helps you get more clicks. One way to know what your readers prefer is by conducting A/B testing. This is done by creating two different headlines. Set the filter to only show blog data, then make note of the titles that have the best engagement rate. You may learn that your audience prefers blog posts that promise numbered lists or how-to articles over others.
10. Cater to Your Target Audience
As you learn more about your target audience, it is wise to cater to their needs and preferences. One of the main goals of writing blog posts is to drive traffic to your website, which can hopefully translate to revenue. To do this, you must provide your readers with valuable content. Keep them coming back for more by giving them what they want.
Blog Title Templates
Cut down the amount of time it takes to create an exciting blog title with these title templates:
- How to Tell If …
- How to Find …
- How to Create … That Gets …
- How to Rock …
- How to Completely Change …
- How to … the Right Way
- How to Get Rid of …
- How to Make a Strong …
- How to Accomplish … Before the Age of ….
- How to …. That Drives …
- How to … in [#] Steps
- How I Made …
- How to Learn …
- How to Use … to Stand Out
- How to Deal with …
- How to Discover Your …
- How to Unleash …
- What to Do With …
- Where to Find …
- What No One Tells You About …
- What Your … Says About You
- A Complete Guide to …
- Ultimate Guide to …
- Your Guide to …
- The Beginner’s Guide to …
- [#] Hacks for …
- DIY Tips for …
- [#] Reasons to Love …
- [#] … Trends for [Year]
- [#] Amazing … to Try Now
- [#] Types of …
- [#] Things Your … Doesn’t Tell You
- [#] Secrets to …
- [#] Creative Ways to …
- [#] Signs You Might …
- [#] Tips for Busy …
- [#] Easy Recipes Using …
- [#] Surprising Facts About …
- [#] Tricks for …
- [#] Tactics That Get Results
- [#] Handy Tips for …
- [#] Pleasant Ways to …
- [#] Mistakes You’ll Never Make Again
- [#] Essential Steps to …
- [#] Ways to Research …
- [#] Lies You’ve Been Told About …
- The Best Advice You Can Hear About …
- The One Thing You’ve Been Missing to …
- … 101: All the Basics You Need to Know
- What Will … Be Like in [#] Years?
- Why … Is Overrated.
- Do You Need …? Take Our Quiz to Find Out.
- How Much Do You Really Know About …?
- The History of …
- The Anatomy of …
- Is It Really Worth It to …?
- Which … Is Right for You?
- What Would Happen If …?
- The [#] Secrets of Successful …
Blog Title Example
Here is an example that demonstrates the process a business professional may use before writing blog titles:
Gene Murray owns a floral shop that sells locally sourced flower arrangements. She interviewed one of her suppliers who specializes in harvesting peonies, then wrote a blog post designed to help people grow their own peonies. Here are some of the blog titles she created:
- 15 Handy Tips for Growing Your Own Peonies
- A Complete Guide to Growing Peonies
- How to Grow Peonies in 5 Easy Steps
- What No One Tells You About Growing Peonies
She decided to experiment with some of these titles to learn more about the headlines that attract her readers. After some A/B testing, she learned through her blog’s analytics that the title “15 Handy Tips for Growing Your Own Peonies” received the best response.
Writing a creative blog title that is both informative and exciting takes time. Just remember that putting considerable thought into the words you use increases your chances for high website traffic and possibly, sales. With practice, you’ll generate titles your readers want to know more about in an efficient manner.
