Increase Your Clicks: Crafting an Effective Blog Title

The very first item a potential visitor sees before deciding to click on your online content is the title.  Finding the perfect heading for your blog post can determine whether a stranger becomes a visitor and potential lead.  In fact, in some cases clicks increased by 500% when the blog title was improved.

Your title is the first point of contact between you and your desired visitor.  Make it insanely clickable with these key strategies.

Define your topic with laser-focus.

Chances are, someone on the Internet has written about the same topic and content before. Your blog post should offer a unique perspective and theme, even if that means it appeals to a narrower audience. The title should reflect the exact direction you went with your content. Don’t be afraid to start with a working title and after you’re finished writing, reevaluate the focus of your piece, and change the title accordingly.  There are many title generator tools on the Internet that you can use to help brainstorm.

Don’t fall in to the click-bait trap.

It can be tempting to copy what some websites are doing to get lots of clicks on their content.  But the essence of click bait is that when the visitor reaches the page, the content does not match up to their expectations.  The writer overpromised and under delivered.  So while you may initially get more clicks, if you’re unable to deliver what the headline promised, your will lose your visitor’s trust. If you lose this trust, they are less likely to view you as an expert in your industry and will not return. Losing these visitors eliminates your chance of ever converting them into leads or customers, and they will certainly never promote your brand to their networks.

Appeal to your buyer personas.

In order to increase clicks, your title should directly address the buyer personas you want to attract.  These personas are a summary of your ideal or current customer. By narrowing down who these personas are, you can craft language that speaks directly to them.

Experiment with grammar and language.

The best blog titles inspire feelings and emotions, causing the visitor to click through to your content. Language can invoke compelling images and incentives for possible visitors. Your title can use a variety of psychology-tested methods to entice readers that your content is worthy of their time.

• Give your reader a shortcut. The title might imply that your content shows the easiest way to their solution.
• Be trustworthy. Show in the title that your content is backed by scientific research.
• Appeal to their competitive side. Provide comparisons between products and identify that your content shows the best way to meet their goals.
• Inspire urgency. Your title might provide the fastest way to a solution, or offer information that the reader needs to know immediately to help them stay ahead of trends within their industry.
• Utilize lists. People love lists! It gives them a clear expectations of the content and allows them the freedom to jump around the page without missing major information.

Pay attention to your SEO.

Always refer back to proper search engine optimization techniques. Try to incorporate keywords into your title. Also, keep the number of characters in your title to 60 or less. This allows the entire title to show up in search results without being cut off. If your title is too long and gets cut off, readers will be less likely to click because they won’t know the exact focus of your article.

These five strategies are guaranteed to increase the number of clicks on your content, as well as delivering on the expectation your title sets.  Remember, getting a stranger to click on your blog title is only one metric to determining the success of your content.  Once you’ve captured their attention, deliver on your promise and keep them coming back for more!

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