How much time and thought goes to crafting a catchy blog post title?
Should you spend a lot of time coming up with catchy headlines? Does it really matter?
The answer is yes. A big YES.Blog post titles do matter and they are everything. They are what entice people to click on a post and read it.
With so many blog posts being published every day you need to find different ways to make yours stand out and crafting a catchy blog post title is the way to go.
It’s one of the most important aspects of your blog post and can make your post go viral.
With blogging, it’s a learning journey every day and the more you write the better you become. This has to be one of my blog posts as it has opened my eyes and I have had to think twice about how I craft my titles.
If you haven’t started a blog yet,check out my step by step tutorial guide.Where i show you how to start a successful blog in less than 30 minutes.
How to start a profitable blog in less than 30 minutes
Why should you come up with a catchy headline?
- Your blog post title will appear on most of the important places such as your archives for example under the recent post, on search engines such as Google, links from other bloggers and on social media platforms too. Of course, you want your title to catch your prospects readers’ attention.
- A catchy blog post title will generate clicks and attract more readers. It is the first thing that people see and from the title alone they decide if they are interested in what you have to say or not.
- More social shares leading to better engagement. With no doubt, this is every blogger’s dream. We all want to have many people engaging with our blog.Haven’t met or read of any blogger who doesn’t want to boost their page views.
- More subscribers. If your title grabs people attention, you will gain more readers which will result in subscribers and we all know how important that is.
Related post: How to write a good blog post that will attract readers attention
What makes up a catchy post title
- Should be specific. Don’t beat around the bush, be straightforward. From your title alone one should be able to tell what your post is all and of what value it will be to them.
- Accuracy. I hate click bait titles. Make sure that your headlines fulfil your readers’ expectations. You need to respect your readers. A good blog post fulfils its promise. If a prospect reader clicks on a title which doesn’t deliver what it promises to do then you lose their trust and you can be sure they won’t be sticking around.
- A catchy blog post title is intriguing, actionable, short, unique and engaging. Most bloggers advice that you keep your title under 8 words.
Brainstorm your blog titles first
I suggest coming up with up with titles first. This will help to guide your train of thoughts and you will be able to stick to the objective of your post.
You will also be able to outline your post nicely.
Comes up with a few titles, then ponder on each for a few minutes and pick the one that is likely to get more clicks. Some bloggers come up with like 20 different titles.
Related post: 5 ways to make money blogging at any level
I have compiled a huge template of 71 blog post titles and powerful adjectives words.Just look into the subject you are interested in and edit accordigly.These blog post titles will for sure grab your reader’s attention.
Different ways to come up with a catchy blog title
1.Use a question
Questions will immediately attract some attention. Questions are intriguing.
For example:
Why should _____
Why i stopped taking lemon lemon water.
2.Make use of keywords
Optimize your titles for search engines. This will make it easier for your readers to find the post for example in google.
Think what your ideal reader is searching for then use a relevant keyword. I use Google AdWords Keyword Tool and Jaaxy to find the best keyword.
Always have your readers in mind. Don’t forget that real human beings are the ones clicking on your headlines. Don’t get carried away stuffing keywords on your titles that it ends up losing the meaning and it’s uniqueness.
Let it resonates with your ideal reader.
3.Use numbers.
Using numbers is a perfect way to attract your ideal reader’s attention. Numbers are awesome since not everyone has the time to read a full post so they just skim through the post.
Who doesn’t love a good list? The longer the better. This can be time-consuming especially if you are coming up with an extremely long list but it’s worth it.
For example:
71 reasons you should love Christmas.
Examples of post title I have used are:
9 Things you should do before you monetize your blog
7 ways to stay motivated as a blogger.
Studies have shown that odd numbers do even better.
4.Use Adjectives
Also, think of using odd/unexpected words. Doing that will make your blog titles stand out even more. You can look for synonyms to change common words. Use synonyms.com for that.
For example use words like:
Brilliant
Incredible
Essential
Effortless
irresistible
5.Emotions
Headlines that evoke emotions get more social shares. This could be humour, curiosity, empathy.
6.Get inspiration from others
Look at the successful websites, go through their posts and find out what type of titles they have used. Emulate and learn from the pros. You can modify and try to better them just be careful not to copy and paste
7.Take advantage of negativity bias
These type of posts appeals to prospects readers because in a way you are helping them avoid something negative. Studies have shown that most people remember negative things more than positive ones
Example: 25 ways to avoid blogger slump
Popular blog post title templates
1.How-Tos
Works perfectly well and very effectively. How To’s titles appeals to those who want a quick fix and want to learn something or solve a problem in a short time.
Examples of How To’s posts
How to start a profitable blog
How to write an epic about me page
How to write a good blog post that will attract readers attention
2.List/number posts
For example
17 reasons why i started blogging
3.Tutorials
This is where you guide your reader on how to use a product step by step.You canalso write an honest review of a product or service you have used.
See example of this post i wrote: Grammarly review
Blog Name Generators
You can also make use of blog name generators. They are great tools that will help you come up with post title ideas
- Coschedule’s Headline Analyzer
- SEOPressor’s Title Generator
- Hemingway Sharethrough
Conclusion
Don’t be in a rush. What’s the point of spending so much time coming up with an awesome post only to paste a not so good blog post title that will do nothing for your post.
Crafting a catchy blog post title is not hard but it’s an art and it does take time. So patience and practice make perfect.
You might also like:
9 Things to do before you monetize your blog
How to write an epic about me page
The ultimate guide to SEO your blog post
Mistakes new bloggers make and how to solve them
Hope this was helpful.How do you craft your catchy blog titles i would love to know?
Very helpful tips. Thanks for sharing
There are some great tips, I totally agree with you about creating how to posts, I always find those perform the best! Thanks for sharing
Thanks for the tips!