How To Write Better Blog Headlines (Tested and working)

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Have you ever picked up an article just to peruse it and have your attention caught by a unique and catchy headline?

Presently in the society, people are so occupied carrying out series of activities that they find it hard reading contents or write-ups, be it news updates, articles, and some other related write-ups…most of them probably just read the headlines and scroll.

However there are tactics one can adopt to get these “lazy” readers to read contents.

The first step is to ensure you have a very good headline. Here, the headlines don’t necessarily have to be news worthy headlines, rather they should be catchy headlines.

This is because using catchy headlines forces the reader to click your content to further devour what it entails, irrespective of whether he/she reads to the end.

The truth is that, for every 10 people who view your content, only about 2 may click on it especially if the headline isn’t eye-catching.

However, in this article, I will be giving you tips on creating better headlines for your blogs to get the attention of the readers and drive traffic.

Write multiple headlines

For a particular write up or article, get at least five different creative headlines for it, then brainstorm to choose one capable of captivating the sight of the audience.

Having these multiple headlines serve as a great means of drawing people to read your content.

Incorporate specific numbers

Headlines are usually more captivating and enticing when specific and simple, and one way to achieve this is by including odd numbers in the headline. It has been said that headlines with odd numbers tend to have more clicks than those with even numbers.

Most people would find the second headline catchier and love to click on it because it involves numbers, and odd numbers in particular.

If one has a headline containing an even letter of 8, it can be deducted to 7, and then the eighth one can be written in the form of a conclusion.

Use parentheses or bracket

Over time, I have come to understand that headlines with parentheses and brackets get more clicks than those without them.

Most copyrighters who are respected and have quality and good write-ups are those who include parentheses and brackets in their headlines.

Brackets and parentheses are used to separate clauses in the headline. Below are some examples of headlines with parentheses and brackets:

Referencing Additional Bonuses

One way to use parentheses is to mention and include bonuses or give readers a better reason to click on that headline without a doubt.

Example: 21 Ways to Burn Belly Fat. This kind of headline is enough to make anyone click on the article.

I mean, who doesn’t want to rock a flat stomach?

Generating Curiosity

Another use of parentheses, this involves adding a short phrase that will generate curiosity and spike the interest of the readers. Some popular and world-known news feeds used this tactic a lot when they were starting out.

Example: 21 Ways to Burn Belly Fat (#5 Will Wow You)

Boosting Credibility

A major way to use parentheses is to add a credibility booster to your headline. This gives readers an enticing, yet assuring reason to view the content contained in that headline, and they’ll be more likely to click through and read your article due to its catchy headline.

Example: 21 Ways to Burn Belly Fat (That Decreased my Waist to 26 inches)

You can think of parentheses as included in a really short sub-headline into your headline.

Few words like credible statements added in parentheses can strengthen your title by adding promised benefits or giving readers another reason to click that headline.

Browse Similar Articles On Google To Identify Competing Headlines

Another interesting exercise when writing to achieve a good headline is to search Google or various search engines for other similarly written articles and headlines to see other headlines you are competing against.

Looking and citing other people’s headlines might give you some good ideas for your own headlines.

Thinking about how you can create a headline?

Reuse Past Winning Headline Formulas

If you have been involved in lots of blogging in the past, then you can reuse headline formulas that worked well and had high clicks during that time.

Looper is an entertainment site that features and works on articles, news about movies and celebrities, as well as entertainment-related articles and news. All these can be discovered on their YouTube videos.

Some of their news include:

  • The Reason Why The Movie Industry Won’t Cast Tobey Maguire Anymore (7 million views)
  • Why Hollywood Won’t Cast Alyson Hannigan Anymore In The Movie Industry (2.5 million views)
  • Why Hollywood Won’t Cast Tom Welling Anymore In The Movie Industry (2.5 million views)

Do you see a pattern?

If you’ve written a headline in the past that did really well, consider using the same formula for writing headlines for future articles and news.

Create Different Headlines For Different Channels.

Every blog article or news title doesn’t have to be the same as your SEO title or the headline you share on social media.

If writing articles on a blog with high traffic, you may want to take into consideration the writing of different headlines that will target different channels.

For instance, Slate uses this method to create titles that are targeted towards different channels.

Title in Article: Why Do We Still Keep Planting Stinky Gingkos?

Title in SEO: Why We Still Plant Smelly Ginkgo Trees.

Social Media Title: Ginkgo Trees Smell Like Vomit. But Why Do We Plant Them Everywhere In Our Cities?

Conclusion

Your headlines must always be eye-catching and worthy of attention.

Use brackets and parentheses where necessary to further increase and drive clicks to your website.

The title used on social media is always edgier and may likely result in more discussion and shares on social media.

The article title can be brief, short, and straightforward without having to contain keywords like the SEO title.

Still there? Get to work!

Kindly check out our article on how to improve your writing style.