Tips for writing effective headlines
Did you find the best headline, only to have it fall short? Perhaps you found the most interesting information on a topic, but not many people care. There's always been a lot of debate about how to write headlines that capture attention and boost engagement. Recently, there's been an increase in companies using machine learning to help create engaging headlines. But for now, human writers are still needed for written content.
We asked our community members to write in with their best tips for writing effective headlines. Here's what they said:
1. Tailor the headline to the specific article.
This is by far the most popular tip and a great reminder that our headlines need to be focused on each article. If you're sharing an article, but not an entire blog post, you need to adjust your headline or get the whole post itself published somewhere else instead of reposting it on your own site.
2. Consider the attention span of your audience when choosing a catchy headline.
3. Make it clear what your headline is about before you share it on social media or email in bulk!
4. Use numbers in headlines if they're significant to the content.
5. Use a question in the headline if you want your audience to participate in a discussion.
6. Keep it short and sweet:
7. Make it attractive:
8. Add also make sure that your headline is clear on whether it's asking a question, or making a statement:
9. Be as specific as possible with your headline and avoid cliche words like "killer" or "shocking":
10. Work on crafting an engaging headline, especially for those who will read your content on mobile devices and apps like Facebook:
11. Check out content from sites like BuzzFeed for inspiration:
12. Try different combinations of questions and statements to see what works best:
13. Use numbers or countdowns if you want your audience to share the content:
14. Try being clever or wordy, like this example:
15. Make it relevant and current, making sure you include a keyword or topic in the headline:
16. Make it clear what the article is about:
17. Use words that are interesting in your headlines, such as "shocking" or "dreaded," but avoid using too many of these words because they're overused by other writers, as well:
18. Take a look at other headlines and note what they do well:
19. Make sure to include the most relevant keywords, but don't overdo it on stuffing the article with keywords:
20. Think about how people will find your content if they're not on your site and include information that will help them do that, as well as make it enticing enough for people to click through:
21. Include your call-to-action in your headline for added clarity:
22. Use action verbs that people can relate to or associate with, such as "how," "what," or "will" for the active voice in headlines:
23. Make it as short of a headline as you can, like these:
24. Include what the headline is about in your copy (such as "How to...")
25. Be clear on what you're asking the reader to do:
26. Choose a specific example from the article and make it relevant somehow:
27. Make sure your headlines are easy to scan and understand, such as by using a list format like these examples:
28. Keep it unique, but don't be too crazy:
29. Use a character limit if you can:
30. Don't forget to use key phrases that people search for, like "how to" or "top tips" in your article headline:
31. Make it interesting by including questions, shocking news, or statistics:
32. Create a more personal connection with your audience with this trick:
33. Keep it simple and easy to read by using common words instead of fancy ones:
34. Try not to be too clever in your headlines because readers might miss what you said or get the wrong message:
35. Use numbers and figures that are relevant to the content for added effect for example, "(according to US News & World Report).":
36. Make sure it's clear that you aren't biased before sharing the article:
37. Keep it short with a goal of capturing interest and getting more answers to questions:
38. Use the word 'you' in your headline if you want to make a connection with the reader:
39. Include interesting information in your headlines such as statistics or data about something most people are interested in, this way you're likely to get more clicks on your links:
40. Tell people what they'll learn so they can make an informed decision about reading the article or not:
41. Include words that are related to the topic of the article and are commonly searched for, like "best" or "health tips":
42. Add a word or phrase to your headline if you think it will add more context or interest to your content:
43. Include a verb in your headline if you want to make it more active:
44. Write headlines that take advantage of people's curiosity:
45. Make sure your headlines aren't too similar to others so that you don't get deleted as spam by social media platforms such as Facebook:
46. Have a list format in your headline and use a catchy word or phrase to get people to click through:
47. Keep it short and sweet:
48. Make it clear you're asking a question so the reader will want to click through:
49. Use numbers that are related to the topic of the article and add a link, making it easy for readers to find out more about something like this example:
50. Put the most important stats first so people understand how much value they'll get from reading your article by looking at this example:
51. Make sure you include "the full story" in your headline so people will want to read more:
52. Make sure your headlines are consistent with what you will include in the body of the copy, like this example:
53. Include a statistic people will be surprised by, such as this example:
54. Make the headline specific and active, instead of vague or passive. Like this example:
55. Include a key phrase that people search for in your headline to make it more likely that people will see your link in search results (like this example):
56. Make sure you're using relevant statistics or numbers so you attract as much attention as possible to your content:
57.
Conclusion
Headlines are one of the most important aspects of content writing, which is why it's so crucial to pay attention to what you write. Attention grabbing headlines make people want to read the article. They're more likely to share it if they find a headline that speaks to them or is interesting enough.
Content writing can be stressful, but once you get better at writing headlines and practicing these skills, you'll be able to churn out more content when you need it and get more traffic by using this information in your own projects.