How to write blog headlines which drive real traffic to yourwebsite

www.costsavingmarketing.co.uk /how-to-write-blog-headlines-which-drive-real-traffic-to-your-website/

Tanya

So, you are a small business and has heard of the power of content marketing – the articles which drive traffic toyour website and position your organisation as a knowledgeable expert in your industry. You know blog articles havethe power to convert hot leads into customers.

How to write blog headlines which drive real traffic to your website Click To Tweet

Great! Your Marketing Manager starts pouring their heart out into your newly created blog. Your family reads it, yourfriends share it, your business partners love it, you promote it on social media, you know the articles give greatinformation on the most current topics in your industry…and yet your blog is not as popular as it deserves to be.

The reason why most great blogs do not drive a lot of traffic is because their headlines are not as appealing to theirtarget audience. You may ask – is a headline so important? In the words of the Godfather of Advertising himself,David Ogilvy:

“On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When youhave written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”

Why does an article headline matter?

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Apart from the obvious reason – people click on it and read the article – the other reason is that a great headline willintrigue your audience, it will improve your click through-rate and it will bring hot leads who are hungry to learn more.These are the reasons why content marketing needs to be part of your overall marketing strategy.

Can I just research popular keywords and insert them in the headline?

I have seen this so many times – writers will research keywords, play with them to create an interesting articleheadline but then the content of the article itself will not match the title. We have all heard of clickbait – a term usedto describe content which is created to generate advertising revenue at the expense of quality and accuracy. This isone of the worst content marketing strategies – you will not only have a high bounce rate but you will most likely loseyour credibility as a writer.

Ready to learn how to write headlines which drive more traffic to your website? Here are our 7 easy tips:

1. The good old “How-to” headlines

You can write how-to headlines with virtually every topic. Don’t make the headlines too long but make sure they aredescriptive enough to attract readers’ attention. There is not a hidden formula here – “How to [fill in the blank]”. Forexample, “How to optimise your Google Plus profile“.

1. Reveal a secret, be mysterious

People love headlines which entice their curiosity. Everyone loves juicy secrets. We wrote an article called “ Google’slittle secrets” which has a great click-through rate because it gives tips and tricks on how to find any information onGoogle.

1. Resolve a common problem

People run into problems all the time – especially in this digital era. If you know the solution for a common problemand know how to present it in an easy-to-follow way, you have a great opportunity to attract a wide audience. Inaddition, you will be positioned as an expert in your audience’s mind which will add even more credibility to yourarticle.

Some of the best ways to start such articles is “Get rid of [fill in the blank]” or “How to resolve [fill in the blank]”. Thereason why these titles work is because they imply readers will get rid of their problem which sounds reassuring.

1. Lists

Lists are a great way to attract more readers. The reason why they are so popular is because readers perceivethem as easy-to-understand information in a bite-sized format. If your title is a list make sure your content is easy tounderstand and to the point so readers are not overwhelmed with the information presented.

An example of a list heading – “7 ways to [fill in the blank]”.

It seems that there are magic numbers when we write list titles – 5, 7, 10, 101 are the numbers which work the best.Why? Who knows? If you have any insight into the psychology of the numbers, let us know in the comments sectionbelow.

1. Current trends

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Everything in this digital era changes so fast. Many digital marketers need to stay on top of their game so updatingtheir knowledge is a top priority. A headline which implies that the information of the article will give an up-to-dateinsight of a particular topic has the power to create a high click-through rate. For example, “Hottest SEO trends tofollow right now“. Some marketers are scared to use such titles because the information in the article has a shortshelf life. While that might be true, such an article will attract a lot of attention fast in certain industries.

1. Information served in a fast and easy format

Some people don’t like waffle – they enjoy to-the-point articles which provide valuable information in a verysimplistic way. Simplicity is the key here and the headline should convey this message. A great example here arethe titles: “The easy way to [fill in the blank]” or “Quick guide on [fill in the black]”.

1. The question

Titles written as questions almost sound like “Do you think it’s true or not? I am speculating but what do you think”.It’s like you are indirectly provoking your target audience – read the article and tell me what you think. They workgreat for topics where the issue discussed in the article may have a tremendous impact on the target audience. Forexample, our blog article “Google To Rank Websites Based On Truthfulness? ” created a lot of interestingdiscussions because if the information turns out to be true, then it will impact a huge amount of website owners.

Here are our top 7 ways to write an article headings which have to power to drive more traffic to your website. Whatare your tips for writing blog titles? Tell us in the comments section below.

Tanya

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