Creating good blog titles is very important to the success of a content marketing strategy – they need to be both compelling, so people will click and share them and they need to have SEO properties so they can gather readers from relevant organic search.
Blog title writing at its best is a fairly complex operation combining the skills of a copywriter, marketer, journalist and SEO expert.
Here’s a six-point guide to the things we know work in blog title writing and also five that definitely don’t!
6 tactics that work
1. Use keywords
Any blog title needs to incorporate keywords somewhere in it, ideally at the start, as a large proportion of the traffic potentially coming into your site will arrive via organic search. NB – this is easy to monitor using Google analytics.
2. Be compelling and accurate
Blog titles need to be compelling – promising specific, interesting & well-organised information if someone clicks on it. You need to sell the blog in the title but also make sure you deliver on that promise with the subsequent content. Using numbers in the title shows the reader that the information will be well structured and easily digestible.
3. Make it sassy & on-brand
An unusual turn of phrase in the headline or a visual image can make all the difference to click through rates. Remember to stay on brand though and think about what will resonate with your buyer personas.
4. Keep headlines short
Research shows that headlines generate the highest level of engagement at moderate lengths (81-100 characters).
5. Use bracketed clarifications
When there are clarifications of the type of content represented by the headline in a bracket – e.g. [Infographic] research shows that click-through increases.
6. Use the words ‘photo’ and ‘who’ in a headline.
Getting rather specific here but again, research shows that when used in a headline, the words “photo” and “who” increase click through rates
5 mistakes to avoid
According to HubSpot/Outbrain research, there are specific words that should definitely be avoided in headlines as they are proven to decrease the click through rate (CTR) of blog headlines:
1. Using the words “easy,” “how to,” “credit,” “cure,” “magic,” and “free” decrease CTR.
2. Making references to the reader by using the words “you,” “your,” or “you’re” in the headline decreases CTR.
3. Including positive superlatives (“best”, “always”) in headlines decreases CTR.
4. When used in the headline, the words “simple,” “tip,” “trick,” “amazing,” and “secret” decrease CTR.
5. Using words that convey a sense of urgency (e.g., “need,” “now”) in the headline decreases CTR.
For more information on the strategy behind blog content creation, download our new eBook – Seven steps to a content strategy
