You’ve got mad skills as a writer, and can dish out blog posts like nobody’s business. Unfortunately, you keep realizing how badly your titles suck.
What can you do to make your titles as good as the golden content you are generating? Writing a catchy title is all about grabbing your reader’s attention, and it’s an art form. Luckily, it’s an art form that can be learned if you follow some simple guidelines and formulas. Here are a few tips to set you on the right path.
1. Start with a working title
Consider this the “rough draft” of your title, which you will look back at periodically and revise as you find you need to. You revise every other part of your blog post, so your title should be no different.
Keep tweaking it until you get something that grabs your reader’s attention while also meeting all of the other qualities a title needs to. Once you have your working title, run through the tips below for ideas on how to revise it. By the time we’re done going through all of these tips, you should have something to be proud of.
2. Ask a question
If you want to grab someone’s attention, ask them a question. This is an excellent way to structure a blog post’s title, since it draws the reader in and makes them want to see if they already know the answer, or if they’ll find a good answer.
If you ask a question, though, make sure you actually answer that question! If you habitually structure your titles into questions that you never answer, you will lose credibility in the writing community and your readership will leave you for someone with more integrity and honesty. A blog title like “Why Do We Need Widgets in the Office” is more appealing and engaging than “Uses for Widgets in the Office.”
3. Include a call to action
If your title provokes a reaction from the reader, this is a call to action. You might point out “10 Ways to Stop Worrying About Your Weight,” for example, in which the call to action is “stop worrying about your weight.”
Readers like to be prompted into action, so getting a reaction out of your audience is an excellent way to ensure they will read what you have to say. It is a tried and trusted method, and it works wonderfully for many articles.
4. Stay accurate
Make sure your blog post actually says what your title implies. If your title says you are going to outline 10 ways to write outstanding blog titles, then you had better make sure you deliver those 10 ways. (I’m only giving you eight tips, so I’ll have to make sure I title my piece accordingly). If your title misleads your reader, you will immediately lose credibility and that’s a death trap in the blogging business.
5. Make it attractive
Crafting a catchy blog title should be one part creativity, one part poeticism, and five parts sweat, blood and tears. Make sure you actually give it the one part creativity and one part poeticism by using your way with words.
Alliteration is especially powerful in titles, so use it, but sparingly. Determine who your audience is, and what will stand out to them, and tailor your title to those particular needs. A title like “The Wonderful World of Office Widgets” might not be as engaging as a question, but what if we combined the two suggestions: “What Wonderful Ways Can We Use Widgets in the Office” is a strong contender for Title of the Year.
6. Use strong language
Make sure you include some power words within your titles every now and then, and possibly even some words that are marginally offensive. Strong phrases like “Kick-Ass,” “Things We Hate” and “Brilliant” can really drive a point home and grab the reader’s attention.
You just have to be careful not to overuse these effects, or you risk diluting the effect they have.
7. Optimize for SEO
You want to bring in the readers, so you have to pay at least passing attention to search engine optimization to bring in people searching Google for answers to their questions.
For example, “Facebook Marketing” is a more commonly searched phrase than “Facebook Pages,” so you might want to make sure you are using good keywords in your blog post titles. Google’s Keyword Planner (part of the Google AdWords offering) is an excellent tool to check keyword usage, ranking, and placement.
8. Be brief
You don’t want your title to be too long, or it will get cut off in email subjects and Twitter posts.
I try to aim for no more than around 70 characters, which is still above what seems to be the highest character count before Google cuts off article titles in search engine results. Even better would be to keep your title under 60 characters, but if the beginning of your title is really catchy, you might be able to get away with a longer title.
Wrapping It Up
So, there you have it: eight tips for writing a compelling blog post title. If you are careful about your word choice and pay attention to how to grab your reader’s attention, you should have no problem learning these tips and making them second nature.
Remember, though, that writing is an art form, and writing catchy titles is a subset of that art form. In fact, there are freelancers out there who do nothing more than come up with catchy titles for their clients, and they have the skills and talent for that particular niche of the art of writing to make a decent side income off of it.
This doesn’t mean you cannot develop the art form yourself. In fact, quite the opposite. If you follow these guidelines, you might find yourself in a position to help other people develop compelling titles and make some money in the process. Pretty sweet gig, right?
I want your feedback! What other tips or tricks do you use to create blog post titles that attract attention? Share below or on Twitter!
