Very few people write headlines for search engines.
Very few people write headlines for digg.
Even FEWER people write headlines for people.
Many people think the purpose of writing better headlines is for search engines or sites like digg. It can be. There’s no denying the importance of search engines for long-term traffic growth, or the opportunity of social bookmarking sites like digg to drive thousands of visitors to your blog very quickly. But great headlines will work for search engines, digg and your audience.
And what bloggers are missing is that their audience wants better headlines.
Here’s why:
- There’s an insane amount of content out there. And we’re putting more online by the second, not less. People need more and more ways to differentiate worthwhile content from stuff they’ll skip. A great headline is tops as a differentiator.
- People’s attention is precious. You should value a person’s attention much more than you do, because as quickly as they give you a bit of it, they can take that attention away. Headlines grab attention. Their the single most effective way of grabbing attention. Content matters. Design matters. Headlines rule when it comes to getting noticed.
These two issues affect your blog’s success with PEOPLE – no matter how they find your blog – be it through a search engine, link, randomly or digg.
It’s not about search engines, digg, or anything other than people and how best to reach them, grab their attention and give them what they want.
The Headline Isn’t Secondary to the Content
Too often, people write great content but don’t focus whatsoever on their headlines. The headline is an afterthought – a necessity to publish a blog post – but not critical to it’s success. Wrong.
And this is wrong regardless of how you measure success – be it traffic to an individual post, traffic to your blog, digg, search engine pick up, comments, etc.
A headline is the doorway to your blog post. If it’s a great headline, you’ve opened the door wide open – a reader will walk through happily, devour your content and move to the next step: read more, comment, email you, sign-up via RSS. You’ve hooked them. And it’s not about being cheesy or fake. It’s just good copywriting.
5 Tips for Writing Great Headlines
The most important tip is to spend a lot more time and thought on headline writing. Learn how to do it. Check out what others recommend about writing great headlines. Study blog posts for their content and their headlines. Look at the list of “most popular posts” in my sidebar…
Here are 5 additional tips:
- Be Descriptive. The biggest headline mistake is not being descriptive enough. If I don’t have an idea about the subject of your blog post from reading the headline, there’s a very good chance I won’t read it. Don’t worry if your post titles end up being longer. Many people seem to go for 2-3 word titles, which are very hard to make descriptive.
- Use Powerful Words. A headline is a sales pitch. Every blogger is a salesperson, and your headline is the best tool you’ve got. Engaging, powerful words draw readers in. Think: Top, Free, How, Secret, You. Think about action words that encourage people to do something.
- Be Personal. People need to feel like you’re speaking directly to them. Being more personal in a headline can help. An example: 5 Phrases You Never Want To Hear In A Presentation. Not 5 phrases someone else doesn’t want to hear, but 5 phrases YOU don’t want to hear. I’m talking to you.
- Be Bold. More than the use of powerful, engaging words, being bold is about taking a stand with your headline. The headline is the perfect place to state an opinion. It’s the perfect place to make it clear that you’ve just written the BEST post ever on your subject matter. Be brave and claim ownership of something great.
- Ask Questions. Question headlines work because they draw people in to get an answer. It’s a great format for a headline, but the same tips above still apply. Make the question as engaging, brazen, powerful and descriptive as possible. And answer it in your post…
Don’t Ignore Your Blog Post Headlines
Failing to write a great headline is tantamount to ignoring your audience. Even if your blog is extremely personal in nature, a journal only your friends read, and search engines or digg are not of real concern, it doesn’t matter. Great headlines are about people, whether you have an audience of 5 or 5,000,000.
Great headlines will help with search engines.
Great headlines will help with digg.
But those aren’t the reasons you should focus on great headline writing. Gaining advantages in search engines and digg are just benefits of writing great headlines for people.
[...] The Best Headlines Are Not Just Written For Google or Digg “Many people think the purpose of writing better headlines is for search engines or sites like digg. It can be. There’s no denying the importance of search engines for long-term traffic growth, or the opportunity of social bookmarking sites like digg to drive thousands of visitors to your blog very quickly. But great headlines will work for search engines, digg and your audience.” [...]
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Great post. Thanks.
Great post. Thanks.
[...] from the fact that Dawud’s written a killer blog post headline, the tips are extremely [...]
[...] Another reason to focus on headlines: your blog. If you’re one of the legion of freelance writers with a blog, it behooves you to write good headlines so your blog posts get maximum exposure. There’s a special art to writing blog headlines. Learn more here and here. [...]
[...] 1. The Cheater’s Guide to Writing Great Headlines 2. Headlines: Making an Impact — Accurately [I totally violated the rules in this guide. Hmmm . . . let’s see if it works anyway.] 3. The Best Headlines Are Not Just Written For Google or Digg [...]
Number 4 is my favorite — be bold. Lots of bloggers settle for mundane, non-descriptive titles — just the sort of stuff to cause me move on instead of sitting up and taking notice. We have 1, maybe 2 seconds to make a positive impression — hook ‘em while you got ‘em!
Number 4 is my favorite — be bold. Lots of bloggers settle for mundane, non-descriptive titles — just the sort of stuff to cause me move on instead of sitting up and taking notice. We have 1, maybe 2 seconds to make a positive impression — hook 'em while you got 'em!
@Matt Keegan: I agree. The more audacious, bold, polarizing the headline, the better. At least in many cases…you want to grab attention, that to me is the #1 purpose of a headline.
@Matt Keegan: I agree. The more audacious, bold, polarizing the headline, the better. At least in many cases…you want to grab attention, that to me is the #1 purpose of a headline.
[...] Here is the how to write better headlines article. [...]
[...] Yoskovitz presents The Best Headlines Are Not Just Written For Google or Digg posted at Instigator Blogsaying, A reminder that writing headlines for blog posts is about writing [...]
Nice and very informative post keep the good work… I will do your advice thanks man…
Headlines are CRUCIAL in gaining attention. Lets not discredit content though, a headline is just a resume. Bright Vegas flashing lights saying “Look at me Look at me!”
But without great content, you have nothing…
[...] truth is: linkbait works best when the content is great. It’s about writing great headlines and valuable content. So I don’t consider linkbait cheesy or inappropriate (although [...]
Hey, I think youve made some great points in this post. When people use the headlines they should always make use of the H1 tag – this is one of the most important parts of your on page text regarding what the search engines look for. Also – good titles play a big part in Search Rankings.
Hey, I think youve made some great points in this post. When people use the headlines they should always make use of the H1 tag – this is one of the most important parts of your on page text regarding what the search engines look for. Also – good titles play a big part in Search Rankings.
[...] Yoskovitz presents The Best Headlines Are Not Just Written For Google or Digg posted at Instigator Blogsaying, A reminder that writing headlines for blog posts is about writing [...]
[...] Here is how you can write better headlines: link and link. [...]