How to write an astonishing headline that gets clicked

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photo credit: Lady/Bird

We all know that a great headline is the real secret to getting traffic to your blog posts, website and clicks on your social media activity. A great headline or title should jump off the page, grab a hold of your reader by the throat and almost force them into reading the opening paragraph of your post.

A poor headline on the other hand will easily be skimmed over and lost.

A poor headline will doom your blog post to oblivion and leaving you convinced that you need to keyword stuff (you don’t) and do more SEO, leading you along the slippery path to  search engine dependency and ranking addiction.

So how do you write a headline that grabs attention? Here are a few simple ways that I’ve picked up throughout my blogging career.

Use Action and Power Words

Readers are drawn to vibrant and energetic words. Take the first sentence of this post as an example. If it had just said “A good headline should catch attention,” how ordinary would it be? Phrases like “jump off the page,” “grab a hold of” and “force them into reading” are examples of action words. The opening paragraph contains powerful visuals that are missing in the actual headline. Perhaps “Headlines that go for the jugular” would have worked better for me, but then you are here reading this right now, so I did something right.

Power words for surprising headlines

• Unexpected
• Astonishing (put to good use in this post)
• Stunning
• Shocking
• Staggering
• Wonderful
• Startling
• Savvy
• Amazing

Power words for controversial

• Lies
• Worst
• Mystery
• Quit
• Nightmare
• Forget
• Bad
• Confusing
• Scary
• Never

Say Something Surprising or Shocking

A shocking title tends to do better than a predictable title. Here are a few examples in different, but popular niches:

Diet  - Example of a good headline  ”How to lose weight fast”.  Better headline: “How I Lost 17lbs by Eating Carbs”

Finance  - Example of a good headline -  Is Apple Still a Good Buy? Better headline: The Only Time You’ll Lose Your Shirt on Apple is …

Relationships – Example of a good headline: How to Get a Girlfriend.  Better headline: What  Alex (my date) Told Joe After I’d Left

These are just a few examples of headlines that evoke curiosity. They’re counter-intuitive and hint at a blog post that you’d like to sit back and read… after all we’d all like to know what someone thought about us after a date and what kind of carbs help us lose weight.

Imply a Benefit in the Title

Someone who’s reading just the headline of your blog post should get a good idea of what the post  is about. Bloggers often make the mistake of writing shocking or controversial titles that don’t tell the reader anything about what’s inside the blog post.

Imagine how the headline whizzes past your ideal reader in their Twitter stream. It jumps out at them (as a controversial headline will) and yes, you’ve caught their attention for a fraction of a second, but they probably won’t click the link because there’s no implied benefit for them.

The benefit can be directly stated, or it can be subtly hinted at. The most important  thing is that someone in your target audience or ideal reader would get the sense that their lives might improve in some way if they read what you have to say.

Be Different To Your Competition

When everyone else Zig’s, Zag as the saying goes.

How do you Zag? Subscribe to all your competitor’s blog posts. Add them to your reader and as you skim your reading list see what jumps out at you. Do the same with their newsletters. The headlines that scream “open me” from your inbox are the ones you can learn from. Depending on where you are based depends on whether a headline has copyright. In the UK it allegedly has, and in the US and Australia it hasn’t.  Book titles don’t have copyright, so go and skim Amazon and see what book titles jump right out at you.

There’s nothing to stop you taking a headline and hacking it up till it works for you and your readers.

Always, always, always set yourself apart from your competition. When you realise that you’re starting to sound like your competitors (“Make money!” “Lose weight!” “Social Media is Here to Stay” etc.) then it’s time to take a different angle, because you will no longer sound true to yourself.

Even if the product / post / service you’re selling promises the same benefits as your competitors, that doesn’t mean you have to sound the same or even remotely similar. I mean how many blog coaches are there out there? Hundreds! Yet few have had an award winning blog, few have had a high traffic site set up from scratch and few are as straight talking as I am. Yes, my clients are not pandered to but treated like the grown adults that they are (and if you’d like to add yourself to my growing client list then please complete my contact form).

By learning  to imply a benefit in the title you will learn to differentiate yourself and speak directly to your readers.

• Learn to use shock to your advantage.
• Learn to use power words.
• Apply these techniques and your clickthrough rates will soar.

So over to you – what’s your best headline?

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Sarah Arrow

Director of Special Projects at Sark eMedia

Blogging an issue for you? Social media not quite working how it should be? I started out as a transport blogger for a same day courier company, and grew into a kick-ass blog coach as well as creator of Birds on the Blog (listed 3 times by Forbes as a top 100 website for women). You want your blog to make a difference, so subscribe here and stay in touch, my updates will help you connect the dots.

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