What makes you click on a piece of content such as a blog or article? Besides the fact that it might be a topic you’re interested in, how did you find it? You may have probably clicked on this article because of its catchy headline.

Like a magnet attracts a piece of iron, an article's heading acts as a magnet that attracts readers. Your heading can make or break the success of your content. Indeed, it could have a huge impact on your traffic.

Let us take you a few seconds back. You might have searched for “tips on how to write a great headline” and you might have seen this article as one of the many articles that appeared on the Google search engine.

What made you click on this article?

Well since we wrote it, let us tell you that it’s probably because of the headline we chose. The enticing heading acted as a trigger for the questions in your mind.

Investing a little time and getting creative with your headlines can bring you halfway to success. The success of an article/blog depends on various factors with headings being overlooked by many content creaters.

The basic formula to write awesome headlines is as follow:

1. Start with a number or trigger word, don't be afraid to ask questions (How, Why)
2. Add an adjective
3. Insert a keyword
4. Make a promise and deliver

Here are some examples of catchy headlines:

7 Effective Website Marketing Strategies to Increase Conversions!

5 reasons your SME website is not getting enough traffic!

Both headlines follow the basic rule of writing a heading.

With so many articles on the Internet that talk about the same topic, your article or blog heading has to be different from others. Although the content within maybe refined, it is of no use unless the readers are drawn to it.

Here are some important rules to follow in order to write a great headline:

Simple & Attractive

In the quest to have attractive headlines, don’t use fancy words. Keep your headline simple so that everybody in your audience understands it. Make sure your headline is self-explanatory and very clearly lets your users or readers know what to expect from the article.

With so many blogs and articles published on a single topic, the competition is bound to be difficult. But one of the first things a user is going to see are the headlines of all these blogs that come up on the search. So having a good headline means you can capture a majority of an audience before they even consume your article or blog.

Stick to One Message

The message that you are trying to convey through your article or blog should also be evident in the headline. Stick to the message you are trying to tell your audience. For example, this article called “7 Secrets to Write Powerful Headlines that Convert” is perceived by the audience as an article that is going to help you convert your potential customer with the help of powerful headlines. And that’s exactly what we’re discussing! So, it’s important to never lose focus of the actual topic of discussion and always keep the content aligned with the headline.

Incorporate Keywords

By adding relevant keywords to the title of your article or blog, you are making your content more discoverable to the right people. Optimizing your title is perhaps one of the most important aspects of writing headlines. If your title does not include the keyword that your user is looking for, what reason do you give them to click on your article?

Adding keywords in your headline make it more relatable to people looking for your content as well as make it discoverable to the right people who are searching for these keywords.

Ask Interesting Questions

Asking questions in an article or blog headline is a common trick to lure your readers to click on your blog or article. As an online user, you must have come across blog titles that ask you questions. For example, “Why startups fail and how yours can succeed” is a direct question to users who might come across this article on the Internet. This headline is both personalized and arouses curiosity, such that the user is compelled to click on the article.

A Glimpse of the Future

A headline that reflects the scenario of the future will always arouse curiosity. This is because discussing something that is yet to happen or will happen in the near future can be exciting for a user. For example, at the end of 2017, we published an article called “9 Digital Marketing Trends that will Rule in 2018”. As suspected, our traffic for this article went through the roof. A couple of reasons for this could be that it spoke about the future, it spoke about a topic that is trending and it also made use of a number. Which brings us to our next point!

Add Numbers

According to research, headlines that make use of a number have a higher click-through rate. Why is this? The basic explanation for this gimmick is that as a user, if you come across a blog topic called “6 Tips for Achieving Company Goals & Objectives”, you may want to click it because it gives you the assurance that if not all, at least one of the 6 tips will work for you.

Add Adjectives

Adding adjectives to your headlines is another trick to follow if you want more clicks on your blogs and articles. Adding an adjective to your headline can have a bigger impact on your audience. Often, people make use of words like easy, simple, powerful, impactful, successful, proven, etc.

For example, an article we wrote called “10 Impactful Business Tips of Beginners” makes use of the word impactful, giving the user an impression that the tips are not just any tips but valuable ones.

Tip to remember: While you are at it, it is best to make you aware of the click bait techniques. Writers use it to lure the readers with an attractive headline and fool them with irrelevant content. Stay away from these techniques as this can easily harm your online reputation.

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