Six Ways to Generate Catchy Headlines for Your Next Blog

You spend a lot of time writing quality content, and it is the title that is side-lined every time. Of course, it is vital to make your blog informative and provide value to the reader.

But do you know that title plays the foremost role in deciding whether people will click through and read the rest? As per Copyblogger, 80% of your visitors will read your headline – but only 20% will go on to finish the article.

So, it is definitely worth investing some time generating catchy headlines for your blog that are difficult to resist clicking.

Here are a few ways to generate catchy headlines and strengthen your title-writing game for your next blog:

1. Learn headline formulas

There are some basic headline formulas that interest, engage and compel the readers to read a blog.

Here’s an ultimate formula to generate a blog headline that really attracts:

Numbers + Adjective + Target Keyword + Rationale + Promise

Example: 11 Free Social Media Tools You Must Use Today To Increase Your Followers

Apart from this formula, there are several ways to create a catchy headline:

Starting the headline with a number or making it a listicle.
- Example: Six ways to generate a catchy headline
Promising something big can attract more readers
- Example: 52 tools every content writer must use
‘How To’ headlines are simple but work well for the audience trying to find how any particular thing can be done.
- Example: How to learn driving a car without owning it
Reflecting urgency can drive reader’s attention, and they cannot let that go off.
- Example: Six most luxurious deals you must not miss today.
Questioning something to the readers can compel them to read and answer.
- Example: Do you know how to switch from a night owl to an early bird?
Adding a negative element in the post can make people anxious to read.
- Example: 7 Freelancing mistakes you must never do or be ready to lose a client
Surprising the audience can arouse their interest in giving it a read.
- Example: This is how I make $10,000 a month by freelancing
Adding specific details in the post can drive the attention of people looking for particular results.
- Example: Five-step guide to generate 2x more profit from your online business.

Moreover, many websites help you generate catchy headlines using effective formulas. Some of these are: Inbound now, Impact Blog Title Generator, and SEOPressor blog title.

2. Use Keyword Research

To reach an unlimited reader-base, implementing SEO is a must. Keyword research is an integral part of SEO. It also lets you understand what the audience is looking for.

Adding the target keyword in the research is essential to let Google know what your content is about, rank higher on the search engine, and generate more clicks.

3. Pay Attention to Headlines

Whenever you click any title to read the post, take a moment to think about what is that X factor in it that drives you towards the content.

You will realize that it is some basic tweaking of words and not really rocket science that generates interest and engagement.

You can also check out Buzzsumo. It is popularly known to generate massive engagement through its headlines.

By analyzing headlines, your creative and headline-generating skills will improvise naturally, thereby helping you generate more catchy headlines.

4. Do Not Use Clickbait

Some sites generate traffic by using clickbaits or titles that promise to deliver something big but do not.

Examples: Lose 20 Kgs in 1 month, 50 Ways to grow your blog (but actually mention only 35.)

By generating such headlines, you can allure your readers to click through once or twice but not always. They will not return to you if you break their trust by not providing them with what you promise.

So, make sure that your blog’s content matches the title and you deliver what you promise.

5. Keep It Short

You cannot set a fixed number of characters for all your headlines because it depends on the topic, what you are aiming at and what you are delivering. However, it is crucial to keep it short and concise to make it ideal for SEO.

Ideally, the headline should be 50-60 characters, and it should not exceed 70 characters.

If it exceeds the limit, it gets cut off in the search engine results and does not make sense.

However, it can be somewhere between 8-12 words for sharing on Twitter and 12-14 words for Facebook posts as these received the most number of likes.

6. Write Blog Headlines for YOUR audience

Indeed, many successful headline formulas have been effective in generating clicks. But, not everything works for everyone. Therefore, it is essential to understand what YOUR audience prefers and how you get a better response.

Initially, you can use these formulas in your blogs to attract an audience, but sooner or later, you need to see what is working better and use that.

To understand what is working well, you can do A/B Testing in which you send two different headlines to the audience to see which one derived more clicks and better results.

Similarly, you can look out for statistics and analytics to understand what worked well and why.

Conclusion

Remember that writing THE PERFECT headline comes with practice as no set headline formula works in every case and for everyone. Even professional copywriters discard numerous headlines before coming up with a perfect one. You must devote the required time and patience to get that winning one. The above-stated tips would make the task easier for you to generate a catchy headline for your next blog.