I Know Why Every *Good* Headline You Make, Fails Miserably

You’ve seen it before.

That headline that grabs your attention, but there’s no substance behind it. It’s not selling the reader why they should continue reading.

And if you’re not selling them… well you know the rest. People won’t read what you have to say and you’ll lose their attention.

This blog post will teach you how to do it right — without sounding like a salesperson or making any of these common mistakes people make when writing headlines.

Here are some pointers for creating an engaging and informative blog post headline that is begging people to read your article.

Make headlines short and sweet

It’s true. If you want to capture people’s attention, your headline needs to be concise and provide a little bit of information for the reader.

People don’t have time these days, so avoid coming up with a long-winded headline. The last thing you want is for people to scroll past and never read your blog post because it doesn’t tell them much.

Be concise and get straight to the point. Give just enough information to make people want to read more but also keep it short and sweet.

Use a keyword in your title

For your blog post title to be found online, it needs to include a keyword that people are searching for. That way, you’ll be found on search engines and can reach a wider audience.

Keywords are the most important part of any SEO strategy. They’re what Google and other search engines use to rank your content on their platform.

You want to be as specific as possible so that people who are searching for what you offer will find you. This is why keyword research is so important!

Some of the best keywords from those who have been blogging for a while are:

• How to
• Best practices
• Tips
• Quick tips
• Top 10

You’ll also want to create more unique or longer keywords that aren’t as popular but still get searched a lot.

Say something they can’t get elsewhere

You might be thinking, “duh, of course, I want to say something that someone can’t get elsewhere.” But it’s more than just having a topic.

To be different from other headlines, you have to create a headline that is so specific and interesting that it begs the reader to click on your blog post.

The best way to do this is by narrowing down your topic and coming up with a title that not only includes keywords but also tells the reader what they will learn from reading your article.

For instance, let’s say you’re going to write a blog post about how social media affects the mental health of teens. A good headline for this post would be: Social media is messing with your teen's brain. here’s how…

This headline tells people what they’ll learn from reading the article and is compelling enough for them to click through and read it.

The Final Thoughts

The attention span of the average person has become shorter and shorter. We are inundated with information, but also often miss out on things that are relevant to us.

This is why it’s important to get your message across succinctly. If you can’t do that in your headline, then you’re not doing it well enough.

Some people may think that good headlines will write themselves, but they don’t. It takes work and strategy to craft the perfect headline to get people’s attention.

You should always be thinking about what will grab your audience’s attention, so consider these tips when you’re writing headlines for blogs or articles.

I originally posted this article on Medium.