Writing catchy blog post titles becomes an essential task to help you stand out from the crowd in this information-overloaded era when you start a blog.
In this article, I will share 18 blog post headline tricks so you know how to write catchy blog titles to attract more clicks.
Why Are Catchy Blog Titles Important?
Blog titles are the first element to your audience’s eyes in the search engine results page (SERP).
Your titles can decide if your blog posts will be read or buried in a matter of seconds.
There is no way people can land on your post or blog site without clicks. If nobody clicks, all your effort into the blog posts is in vain.
Luckily, there are many ways to write great blog titles.
How to Write Catchy Blog Titles
1. Add Numbers to Your Blog Titles
Numbers can give your readers a clear idea of how many points to expect in a post.
Research shows odd numbers are often used in headlines and tend to be more memorable by the public than even numbers, such as 1, 5, and 7. Or numbers end with odd numbers like 37 and 41.
Here are some examples of blog titles with odd numbers from BuzzFeed.
With that said, it is not like you can’t use even numbers. There are also lots of titles with even numbers.
Note: Don’t use numbers just for the sake of it. Use numbers when you see fit in your content.
Psychologically speaking, the magical number 7, plus or minus 2 (7 ± 2), is humans’ average short-term memory capacity.
If you are writing a step-by-step tutorial, don’t write more than 9 steps as more than that will be hard to process the information.
However, with ways or product recommendations, you are welcome to write as many as you want.
Also, adding the current year, such as 2021, to your blog title is a smart move as we all love fresh and updated content.
2. Include Symbols
Numbers and symbols (like parentheses or square brackets) work magically well in blog titles.
You can include some key takeaways or bonuses to make your headlines more clickable.
Here are three examples of blog titles, including symbols.
- Every Single Way To Cook An Egg (61 Methods With Videos!)
- 9 Common Long-Tail Keyword Research Mistakes You Can Easily Avoid [Slides]
- The Ultimate Guide To Email Marketing [Free Ebook]
3. Go Straight to the Point
Net users tend to have a relatively short attention span. If blog titles are not clear, they quickly move on.
You want to be clear and put the most important message in your title so the audience will know what to expect, and they wouldn’t waste time guessing what the post is about.
For example, in this title from Google News, the post is about the health benefits of handstands. People who are interested in handstands are more likely to read the post.
4. Don’t Use Difficult Words
It is not a time to impress your readers with difficult words unless you are writing for an exclusive group.
Instead, keep your blog title simple and clear to reach a broad audience. Your audience will thank you.
However, if you are talking about a specific topic such as marketing, it is expected that you write marketing terms. Remember to explain the words in a simple way to make everything easy to understand if you want to reach a wider audience.
5. Add Powerful Adjectives to Trigger the Emotions
Adjectives are modifiers that evoke your readers’ different personal emotions (such as happiness, surprise, and fear).
They are used to describe nouns (such as best blog titles).
For example,
- top
- popular
- fun
- free
- simple
- easy
- powerful
- effective
- catchy
Some adjectives may sound exaggerating, but you can compensate for it with helpful content.
6. Use Nouns to Shine Your Blog Title
Some attention-grabbing nouns are as powerful as adjectives.
Here are some blog title examples:
Reasons – Top 12 Reasons Your Affiliate Applications Get Declined | What To Do Next
Facts – 11 Fascinating Facts About Waking Up At 4 a.m.
Ideas – 9 Ideas To Write Clever Titles For Blogs
Ways – 18 Practical Ways To Drive More Traffic To Your Website
Tricks – 15 Easy Tricks To Start Speaking Any Language In 9 Days
Lessons – Top 9 Lessons I Learned While Traveling By Myself
Tips – 23 Important Tips To Know After Starting Affiliate Marketing
You get the idea.
7. IncludeLong-Tail Keywords In Your Popular Blog Titles
We all know keywords play a big part in SEO content and ranking in search engines.
Keywords in headlines could increase the chances of ranking in search engines. In other words, it is easier for readers to find your blog posts in search results.
Short headlines are usually generic and broad, whereas longer blog titles (3 words or more) are more specific with long-tail keywords. It is also easier to understand the posts with clear headlines.
Examples of blog titles with long-tail keywords:
- What To Do Before Quitting Your Job (Read more)
- How To Write Your First Blog Post In 2022
- How To Choose A Domain Name For Your Blog
However, too long (more than 60 characters) also risks not being shown in search results.
8. Make a Promise and Deliver it
The best blog titles often include a promise.
Blog title examples,
- Legit Ways To Make Money Online
- Create A Logo With The Secret Weapon In Minutes
- Build a Website with 8 Easy Steps Today
Reading the blog titles lets you know what you will learn before reading the posts.
Never fool your audience. If you can’t deliver what you have promised, don’t say it because they will find out once they click your link.
Eventually, you want people to be your loyal readers, so be honest and transparent with your promise by showing the REAL benefits in your headlines.
9. Offer Your Readers a Solution
A blogger is also a problem solver.
Whenever there is a question online in your niche, there is a chance to provide a specific headline that meets their needs with in-depth answers.
How-to posts showing people how to do something step by step is a case in point.
Here are two examples of how-to blog titles:
- How To Write Good Headlines For Blogs Step By Step
- How To Lose Weight 10 Kg In 2 Weeks Without Exercise
10. Create Value to Your Audience
If your headline and content don’t provide value to the audience, you will never see them again, even if they click on your headline by accident or emotional trigger.
However, the value could be different for every individual.
For example,
Informative value: People want to know something before making a purchase, such as reviews or product comparisons.
Practical value: Your readers could learn how to do something, such as how-to posts that provide step-by-step guides.
Entertaining value: Your posts make people laugh and kill time.
Make sure you know what your target audience wants to create viewer-generated content.
If you can provide something unique and original to make your readers’ life easier and better, you are the champ.
11. Be Controversial
Controversial headlines are debatable and can easily trigger clicks from your proponents, opponents, or both.
Consider writing trendy controversial topics.
12. Evoke Curiosity
You can think of a blog title that is interesting and unique enough to arouse curiosity.
When readers are curious, it is natural that they want to dig more. For example, asking questions is a great way.
Some blog title examples with questions:
• Is Upwork Worth It? Check This Out!
• How Can Catchy Blog Titles Increase Your Revenue? Read This!
• Do Questions Really Make Great Blog Titles?
13. Use Urgency
Urgency triggers different emotions, such as fear.
Readers are more likely to check out headlines that contain urgent words such as now and today.
For example, eCommerce stores like to show how many items are left. Scarcity could trigger fear and make you want to purchase the item because you are afraid that you may not get it if you don’t buy it today.
14. Call for an Action
The whole purpose of a catchy headline is to entice viewers to click on your title, read your post, and eventually visit more pages on your site and increase sales.
So including actionable words (like do it now or buy it today) could increase the chances of clicking.
15. Use You/Your in Your Blog Titles
Adding “You” or “Your” can create a conversational tone in your blog posts.
Plus, it feels like you are writing to the specific/special YOU.
- Common Blogging Mistakes You Might Be Making (Read here)
- How To Improve Your Blog Posts Readability (Click here)
16. Understand Your Audience
Give people what they want, then you will get what you want.
Keep yourself updated with the general trends and what they are searching for online in your niche.
Make sure your blog titles match their search intent and expectation.
17. Prepare 5-10 Catchy Blog Titles
You might not have always come up with the most popular blog titles for the first time. Therefore, it is wise to write the best 5-10 (or even more) blog titles to test the market reactions.
For example, after publishing your post for a while (1-3 months), you may have many impressions (hundreds or thousands) but few clicks with a particular post based on your stats. You might want to use a more popular blog title.
Change your headlines periodically or use different catchy blog titles when promoting on social media platforms.
By doing this, you can find out what titles are working for your blog posts and what are not.
18. Learn from Popular Blog Titles
Being a blogger also makes you a collector of the best blog titles online.
If you find some catchy headlines, you can collect them and make tweaks to your blog titles.
Don’t know where to find the best blog titles?
BuzzSumo can help you.
You can type popular sites into the search box on BuzzSumo. Then you will see which blog titles have the most social shares.
For example, here is a post with 364.8k social shares in total.
17 Things Gen Z Thinks Millennials Need To Stop ASAP
You can change it to:
9 Things You Need To Stop ASAP If You Want To Write A Catchy Blog Title
Final Thoughts – How to Write Catchy Blog Titles
Writing great blog titles that get attention takes time, but it is worth every minute.
Because once you get more clicks, there will be more visitors to your blog site and possibly more conversation rates.
I hope these tips can inspire you to create catchy blog titles.
Do you have other tips for writing great blog titles? Let me know in the comments.