13 Types of Blog Headlines That'll Get You More Traffic [+ Examples]
Fewer people read your blog posts than you think. More people read your headline than you think, too.
You might not realize it, but your headline could be the reason you're losing traffic. In fact, on average, only 20% of those who read your headline will click through to read your article. That means good headlines lose 80% of your audience.
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Great headlines, though, can make a dramatic impact in the opposite direction. You can increase the traffic to your articles by as much as 500%, based solely on the headline.
Not only does the headline affect click-through rates, but it sets the tone and establishes the key subject of the article. points out , a title can have a huge impact on what the audience takes away from an article.
Discussing her article, "A Gene That Makes You Need Less Sleep," Konnikova said, "If I had instead called it “Why We Need Eight Hours of Sleep,” people would remember it differently."
What makes a great headline?
That depends on who you're writing to, and where they're reading it.
As a marketing consultant, my job is to help companies grow. The content I help them create must accomplish two things:
- They must appeal to their target personas.
- They must promise to provide value to their target personas.
When I talk about the greatest headlines of all time, it gives a connotation of the most creative titles. If I was writing about creative titles, I would go with something like, "Why My Cat Has a Savings Account," or "In Defense of the Figurative Use of Literally." These are both intriguing and creative titles.
But these kinds of titles don't appeal to SEO, and they don't address the problems my clients are facing. Too many marketers make their titles too cute to be effective.
The best headlines are the ones that capture the pain points of your target personas and introduces a topic that will make their lives better. And it must be compelling.
If your headline is not compelling, you'll lose up to 80% of your audience.
1. The 'Best' Headlines
These headlines are powerful for SEO. These types of headlines speak right to the common web searches of your customers. Consider this -- if you're searching for ways to save money, wouldn't you be intrigued by the best way? Or would you be satisfied with any old way?
These headlines are typically exact-match searches; starting off with the words, "the best way to..."
Example:
- The Best Ways to Do Market Research For Your Business Plan
2. The 'Make My Life Easier' Headlines
This is the little sister to the 'Best' headlines. If your customers are facing problems, they don't always want to know the best way to do something. Sometimes, they want to know the easiest way.
Personal Story
At one point, I worked as the internet sales manager at a car dealership. I found a lot of our customers weren't interested in the best way to buy a car, which is save money and pay cash.
They were very interested, however, in the easiest way. Our most successful content was helping our customers do things easier.
Example:
- The Easiest Way to Become a Successful Writer
3. The 'It's a Race' Headlines
Sometimes people don't want the best, and they don't want easy - they want fast. In some industries, you see personas that are always in panic mode, needing something done yesterday.
The plus side of "fast" content is, it means they will jump through the buyers' journey much faster if you can prove the value of your product or service.
Example:
- The Quickest Way to Deliver Your Message? Make It Visual. (ironically, this article has 0 visuals.)
4. The 'If I Were You' Headlines
Most of us share a desire to improve. We want to be more productive and more successful. We all would love to accomplish more in less time. And, we all want to be good at what we do. It's those desires that make the, "If I were you..." headlines so powerful.
When someone tells us how we should do something, we balk. When someone offers to show us why we should do something, it appeals to us. It speaks to the reasons and motivations we should adopt a new idea, or change our current ones.
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