The art of writing winning blog titles

Written by Carly Snider | 2/11/16 9:18 PM

 Attention grabbing, interest inducing, lottery ticket winning, blog titles. They are what will get your blog read, they will bring traffic to your website and they will be the first introduction to your content for potential leads. 

It’s an art form really, but our tips below will help you to write effective, attention grabbing titles every time.

Start with a rough draft title

Think about the topic of the blog that you are about to write and then narrow it down to one specific sentence. Use this sentence to guide the content your are about to write. Your rough draft, is simply your working title, rarely do you find the perfect title the first time around, so there's always time to tweak and perfect.  

Be keyword-conscious

The wording used in your title can play into your SEO efforts, if you choose effective keywords. SEO drives your organic search reach, so it's important to think about what targeted keywords could help your blog get found.  You'll also want to include targeted keywords in your blog post to further increase your SEO efforts. 

Use numbers, adjectives, trigger words and action

These are tactics that work time and time again.

Numbered lists stand out to readers. Numbers that work best are between 3 and 5. It says to a reader that this blog post won't take up too much of my time. 

Including an adjective at the beginning of your title can give your content a little intruige. Effective adjectives are those that are intriguing like free, essential, easy or disruptive. Spicy adjectives add an exoticism to your posts and help them to stand out from the mundane.

Triggers words in titles are a great way to persuade readers to believe in your content. Typical trigger words include what, why, how and when.

Using action words will tell readers why they need to read your blog. Actionable titles sound like “How to create” or “Achieve higher traffic” or “ How to improve”.

Be concise

Short titles are good for SEO and are great for getting your point across. Search engines award titles under 65 characters and keeping it under 70 will avoid your title getting cut off in posting situations.  You can rework your title with different phrases to get the most concise and effective title for your readers. A definitive and concise title also shows authority and confidence in the content to follow.

If this blog has given you a few ideas on how to refine your blog titling process then we've done our job. Blogging is a critical part of your lead generation strategy and you blog titles shouldn't hold you back. If you are looking for support managing an effective blog, let us know. Our expert content writers are here to help.