One area that new bloggers struggle with is writing compelling headlines. I’ve been blogging for 12 years now, and along the way, I’ve learned a few tricks to increase visitors to my blog posts.
Here are my 6 headline tips for getting more clicks.
1. Be controversial.
Be bold. Take a stand. Don’t be afraid to say something that challenges conventional belief.
Taking a solid position on a controversial topic will bring you readers who both agree and disagree with you. As well, by consistently taking strong stances that are backed up by research and facts, you can establish yourself as a thought leader and expert, increasing return visitors.
2. Use lists.
Like this post, numbered lists attract people. Numbers stick out in RSS feeds and Twitter streams, and people think they are easier to skim, thus faster to read. Web users are fussy with their time, and anything that seems to make them smarter in less time is attractive.
3. Consider tutorials.
People love answers to the things they struggle with. Discover what common questions and problems plague people in your industry and propose step-by-step solutions for those problems.
4. Use strong adjectives, adverbs, and verbs.
Compare the following headlines:
| How to increase Twitter engagement | Supercharge Twitter engagement in 30 minutes per day |
| 3 super easy tricks anyone can use to increase Twitter engagement | |
| How to respond to negative comments | 4 critical components for dealing with negative social media |
| How to improve your Twitter profile | Every perfect Twitter profile should have these 4 things |
| How to get started on social media | 6 things you must do when starting a company social media account |
It’s easy to see how the headlines on the right are more compelling.
5. Keep it short.
Keeping your headlines short is important for at least 4 reasons.
- If your post appears in Google search results, you want people to see the entire thing. Google will truncate it if it’s too long.
- When creating pinnable images to accompany your post, shorter headlines mean larger text, making it easier for your images to stick out.
- The shorter your headline, the easier it is to include commentary when tweeting it.
- If your post ends up in an enewsletter, a short headline will work better as an email subject.
6. Don’t worry about top search results.
Focus on quality content rich with good keywords, but don’t worry about trying to reach the first page of search results for the most popular terms. Consider the long tail.
In the above graph, the green represents the most popular keywords. The yellow represents less popular keywords, or the long tail. The funny thing is that long tail search engine results often account for more combined traffic than popular keywords.
My most popular blog post discusses the difference between sitting and seating. In fact, it’s so popular, that it garners 75% more traffic than my home page does. Visitors arrive to the post through a variety of search terms, not just popular ones:
- seating or sitting
- difference between seating and sitting
- difference between sitting and seating
- difference between sit and seat
- sitting or seating
- difference between seat and sit
- sitting and seating
- what is the difference between sit and seat
- sit and seat difference
- sitted or seated
- seating and sitting
- what is the difference between sitting and seating
- seat and sit difference
- sitting and seating difference
- seating arrangement or sitting arrangement
- seating sitting
- difference between sitting arrangement and seating arrangement
- different between seat and sit
- differences between sit and seat
- sitting seating
And those are just the top 20 search phrases. The list goes on forever.
These are my 6 headline tips for getting more clicks. Let me know if you found them useful, and share your own tips in the comments below.