11 Tips for High Converting Blog Titles

Your headline has the biggest influence on your blog posts’ success or failure.

Why? Because it is your ticket into your readers’ minds. 

Write a weak one, and your readers will not notice and read your post, no matter how good.

In other words, your headline can make or break your post. 

So how do you write a compelling headline?

If you’re looking for a short answer, here it is: Trigger emotions and show a clear, specific benefit.

Hungry to learn more? You’re in luck!

In this post, we’ll go over 11 of my favorite tips for writing high converting headlines. Let’s go!

1. Know Your Audience

Have you ever listened to a song with lyrics that feels like they are personally written just for you? If you have, chances are you were entranced.

That’s the feeling you want to evoke from your audience when they read your title.

How? 

By having a clear picture of who your ideal audience is.

If you want your audience to care, you have to know how to speak to one.

Get into your reader’s psyche and identify what they care about the most. 

What are their frustrations and fears? What are their dreams, and what keeps them up at night?

Write a title that taps into your audience’s deepest desires and fears, and they will find it impossible to resist.

2. Show A Clear, Specific Benefit

Many bloggers make the mistake of making their blogs about them. 

But, your blog is never about you, it’s about your readers. 

We live in a world where everyone’s competing for attention.

To stand out from all the distractions and noise, you must offer your audience something worthwhile. 

Out of all the content they can consume, why would choose yours–what’s in it for them?

If your headline conveys a clear, specific benefit to your readers, then there’s a high chance they’ll click on your post. 

This is why how-to articles are timeless. 

Readers are drawn to articles that help them accomplish something. 

How-to articles offer readers a simple yet irresistible promise: read me, and I’ll give you something of practical value. 

It promises to move readers closer to their dreams and desires, whether that’s learning how to cook or becoming a better partner.

When writing your articles, remember to be clear and specific with the benefit.

An example would be “How To Make A Yummy Chocolate Cake With Half the Calories.” 

The clearer and more specific you are with the benefits; the more compelling your headline would be.

3. Use Power Words to Trigger Emotions

All excellent blog post titles stir some emotion in the reader.

 

Why?

 

Because emotions, not logic, is what motivates people to take action.

 

So, if you want your reader to read your blog post, you need to craft a headline that pulls on their heartstrings first.

 

Design your titles specifically to arouse emotions. 

 

How? 

 

By using words that triggers an emotional or psychological response, whether positive or negative.

 

These words are called “power words.”

 

Power words are arresting and influential because they make you feel something. 

 

The more you trigger their emotions, the higher the chance that they will read and share your post.

 

Here are some examples of power words that add strong emotions to blog titles: 

 

  1. Absolute 
  2. Adventurous 
  3. Amazing 
  4. Astonishing 
  5. Authentic 
  6. Awesome 
  7. Best-Selling 
  8. Bold 
  9. Cheap 
  10. Clever 
  11. Common 
  12. Confident 
  13. Controversial 
  14. Courageous 
  15. Critical 
  16. Easy
  17. Enchanting
  18. Fail
  19. Gigantic 
  20. Gloomy 
  21. Glow 
  22. Honest 
  23. Horrific 
  24. Horrifying 
  25. Jaw-dropping 
  26. Longing 
  27. Mesmerizing 
  28. Mind-blowing 
  29. Mysterious 
  30. Passion
  31. Remarkable
  32. Spectacular
  33. Terrific 
  34. Threat
 
When you’re crafting your blog titles, try to use power words in them whenever possible.

4. Keep it Short

There is no perfect answer to how short your blog title should be.

 

It depends on what your goals are with your post and where you want it to appear. 

 

If you want your post to rank well in Google, then you’ll mostly want to keep your title short.

 

Google’s title tag has a display limit of 60 characters, so you’ll generally want to keep it below this number.

 

(You can simulate what your title tag will look with this Title Tag Simulator. )

 

If you want to optimize for social shares, you’ll want to keep your titles on the longer end. 

 

A study conducted by HubSpot found that title lengths between 12 and 14 words have the highest average Facebook likes and twitter links. 

When sharing on social media, longer, descriptive titles are often more effective than concise ones. 

5. Keep it Accurate

Ever had that experience of starting a Netflix movie because the trailer reeled you in, but halfway through it, you realize it’s not what you expected?

You feel frustrated and let down right? Don’t let your readers feel that way. 

Whatever you do, always respect your readers’ experience.  

Don’t write sensationalist headlines that can’t live up to expectations. 

You don’t want to write a title like “How to Lose 20 Pounds without Diet and Workout”  if you can’t deliver on the promise. 

You also don’t want to write a headline that has nothing to do with the content because you think it will get more clicks.

I’ve seen these types of posts in a few photography blogs, where a blogger would write their title as “10 Tips To Take Better Photographs” but somehow only talk about camera gear reviews in the post. 

Such inaccuracy will only lead to higher bounce rates, poor engagement, and loss of trust in your content.

6. Keep it Clear

Don’t make your readers work.

Modern readers are lazy and easily distracted. Most would skim and jump around from one content to the next.

And if they have to spend even a second trying to figure out what you’re trying to say, they’ll likely move on.

Write your title so that your readers to understand it without having to think.

Remember, not all your readers will know about the same slangs, jokes, or movie references that you do. 

Make your title clear and easy to understand. Otherwise, you risk losing your audience interest.

7. Use Punctuations

Punctuation can elevate your blog title in a variety of ways.

Ending your title with a question mark invites your readers to participate in a conversation. 

Exclamation points help convey excitement and surprise. They also help add additional emphasis to your statement! (see what I did there?)

Colons are your friend if you want to write long, descriptive titles without wasting any characters.

Here’s an example: “Star Trail Photography: A Guide from Preparation to Execution.” 

The first part gives you a general topic, while the next tells you precisely what the post is about.

8. Instill A Sense of Urgency

We’ve all heard of FOMO.

 

That anxiety we feel when something amazing is happening somewhere else, and if we don’t act, we’re going to miss out.

 

As social beings, we don’t like to be left out. 

 

You can use this to your advantage by creating a sense of urgency in your title. 

 

Blog titles that convey scarcity and deadlines push people to click.

 

When something is time-sensitive, they will want to get the information right away.

 

While creating a sense of urgency doesn’t work on every blog topic, when it works, it works well. 

 

A great example of this is a headline on Digital Photography School: “The Biggest Legal Mistake Photographers Make.”

 

As a photographer, when I read that, I immediately want to click because I want to avoid making that mistake before it’s too late. 

 

Here’s another example: “10 Mistakes Bloggers Make in Their First Year Blogging.”

 

If you’ve only been blogging for less than a year, you’ll want to read that article to avoid the pitfalls before you make them.

9. Use Numbers

Another classic way to grab your reader’s attention is by including numbers in your title. 

 

It’s so effective it outperformed all other types of headlines in a study conducted by Moz and Conductor.

 

But what makes numbers on a headline so effective?

 

Well, there are a few reasons for this.

 

For one, they are efficient.

 

As mentioned, most readers are lazy. We tend to scan and skip around when we read.

 

Numbered blog posts allow readers to skim through your content and digest relevant information without reading the entire article.

 

In other words, it allows readers to find what they want with little effort.

 

Numbered blog posts are also approachable. 

 

When you see a blog titled, “16 Tips to Become a Better Photographer,” you can gauge what you’re getting yourself into before you click. 

This makes articles less threatening to readers.

 

Finally, numbered articles provide some measure of structure.

 

Even if you tend to skim and skip, with numbers guiding you, there’s always an obvious path to follow.

10. Address The Reader

Addressing your readers in your title is another great way to resonate with them.

Again, this goes back to being able to make your audience feel like you’re speaking directly to them.

For example, instead of writing a title, “10 Mistakes House Hunters Make,” you can write it as “Are You Making These 10 House Hunters Mistakes?” 

You can also describe your readers in your title. An example of this is the title: “10 Mistakes Beginner Online Entrepreneurs Make.”

Here, it’s obvious you are talking to beginner online entrepreneurs. 

This works so well that “addressing the reader” falls only second to “number” headlines in the study conducted by Moz and Conductor.

The more they can relate to your title, the more likely they will click.

11. Include Relevant Keywords

Keywords are words or terms your readers type in search engines for their queries. 

 

While it’s true that including exact keywords in your title is not as important in your search rankings as before, they still matter, just in a different way.

 

Here’s what I mean:

 

Over the years, search engines have gotten better at understanding searchers’ intent.

 

Unlike in the past, they can now evaluate rankings based on context rather than exact keywords.

 

However, despite these changes, including keywords in your title remains a powerful strategy today.

 

Why?

 

Because using keywords allows you to talk to your readers in their language.

 

And as we’ve established, speaking to your audience in their language is key to getting their attention.

 

So while keywords are not as relevant in rankings, it’s still a good idea to include them in your title.

 

Just remember not to overdo it.

 

Putting the same keywords in your title multiple times will not accomplish anything other than bad user experience.

 

You don’t have to say “How to Take Sunset Photos for Sunset Photography During Sunset”– that’s just confusing. 

 

A simple “How to Take Beautiful Sunset Photos” will do.

 

Another thing to keep in mind is where you place your keywords in your title.

 

According to this research, people typically scan as few as the first two words of a headline.

 

For the most effective titles, try placing your keywords at the front of your title to attract your readers.  

Conclusion

There you have it, 11 tips on how to write compelling headlines. 

Now you have the tools you need to get your audience to say YES to opening that beautiful blog post you work so hard writing for them. 

Aren’t they lucky?