You already know that nobody “reads” online, they skim. The only thing that slows them down is spotting something that interests them. What gets them interested? The title. Good blog titles are the beginning of sticky content, stopping skimmers in their tracks.
How are good blog titles created? These tips will set you on the right path.
Ask a Question
You have done your homework and you know your audience. You should have no trouble figuring out the questions spinning through their minds. If your blog title echoes one of these questions you will have no trouble getting them to stop and read.
Asking a question lets your prospects and customers know how well you understand them. You are anticipating their questions and giving them the answers with no effort from them.
Create Intrigue
Who doesn’t love a good mystery? It’s part of the human condition to be curious. If you deliberately set out to pique their interest they can’t help but look to see what’s going on. This is especially effective if, like titles that are questions, you show that this post may be one that answers something that has been nagging at them, once again showing how well you understand their needs.
Include Keywords in Title
Don’t neglect this important part of SEO. You choose a keyword or phrase because it is one people use to find you. Having the keyword in the title not only helps readers quickly find your blog post, it gives the search engines a way to find your post, too.
Keywords in the title give you another boost. When other writers use the post as a resource, they often use the title as the anchor phrase for the back-link. The keyword now does double SEO duty. It is in the title, something search engines like, and it is in a link back to your post, something search engines love.
Make a List
People love lists. Why? Because a list will be easy to skim. It lays out everything in easy to consume bullet points and they don’t necessarily have to read anything more than the first word or two. If the bullets prove to be about a topic of interest, they will go back to pick up the detail.
Lists rapidly tell readers what the post is all about. A good blog title will let them know a list is coming and snag them with the topic. Be sure to check that list twice, too. Make certain your post has the number of items in it that the title promises.
Don’t be a Copycat
There is always someone around who cleverly co-opts a current cultural phenomenon or comes across a particularly clever way to describe an idea and uses it to create a catchy title. Once this happens, everyone else wants to jump on the proverbial band wagon.
Good blog titles will be unique. You don’t want to have the same title as half a dozen other posts or share the title with the name of someone else’s website. As noted in the beginning, you want to stand out, not blend in. Don’t be too clever; people still have to understand what the blog post is about. But don’t follow the crowd using today’s catch phrase. Tomorrow that catch phrase will be yesterday’s news.
Deliver the Goods
Writing a catchy title that has nothing to do with the post is lying. How are readers going to feel when they are hoodwinked into wasting even a modicum of time on a post when they find out it isn’t what they were lead to think it would be? What happens when you lie to a customer in any way? They won’t trust you. And they certainly won’t buy from you.
Now you have six tips about good blog titles to get you started down the yellow brick road of success. Follow up those good blog titles with excellent content and you will have the complete package.
