3 Quick Tips for Fantastic Blog Headlines

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3 Quick Tips for Fantastic Blog Headlines

Content marketing has taken over the world. From mommy blogs to plumbing DIY’s to corporate articles, content marketing is a huge part of our lives and you probably didn’t even realize it.

No matter how good your content is, if you don’t have a good headline, no one will look at it. It’s a well-quoted statistic that says 8/10 people will read the headline but only 2/10 will look beyond that. Because that’s the case, your headline better entice your audience to read more. At the very least, it should make it absolutely clear what the article is about, but we’ll get to that more later.

It’s more than important to have a good headline. In fact, it’s absolutely critical. If you aren’t sure how to do that, use these 3 quick and simple tips to write fantastic headlines for your blog.

Watch Your Length

When it comes to blog headlines, you don’t want to create one that takes 5 minutes to read or even a minute. You want to get your message across fast because you only have a few seconds to convince someone to actually read your article. That said, there is no one-size-fits-all for headline length. It depends on where your headline is going to show up and what you want it to do.

For search, you want to keep your headline under 70 characters so it doesn’t get cut off. When it comes to social, headlines with 8-12 words get more Twitter shares, but on Facebook, 12 or 14 words receive more likes. According to Outbrain, headlines with only 8 words had a 21% higher clickthrough rate than an average headline.

While it’s difficult to determine exactly what your headline length should be, one thing is clear: Try to keep it short.

Be Clear and Honest

It can be tempting to write headlines that promise grand results to get more people to read your post. However, this is a bad idea. I mentioned above that only 2/10 people actually read an article. Well, if your headline makes a promise that your article can’t fulfill, those 2 readers will quickly turn to 0.

As a general rule, readers hate dishonesty, and when you start using that technique, you’ll lose the trust of your readers. It’s really simple. Just keep your headlines accurate.

Make Them Fun

Just because you have to keep your headlines accurate doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun with them. After all, no one is going to click on an article with a boring headline. Try these suggestions to make your headline pop.
• Use a variety of word types. (Coschedule’s headline analyzer can help with this.)

• Try alliteration in your headline.

• Use strong words, but in moderation. (examples: Brilliant, Hate, Love, etc.)

Start Writing Great Headlines

When you start writing your blog headlines, take the time to make sure they really stand out. Start with these three tips: watch your length, be clear and honest, and make them fun. Use a headline analyzer to check how good your headlines already are and continue testing them.

What other tips do you have for writing fantastic blog headlines?