Those few words of your post title could be what brings in traffic, making your blog go viral and spreading through the web like wildfire, or scaring all potential readers away, not even giving themselves the chance to discover your well-written gem. Although there are only a few words in your post title, they are the most powerful words. The power here is due to the fact that to most of your readers, the decision as to whether to read the rest of your post relies on them.
Why Blog Post Titles Matter
Blog post titles appear in:
Search engine results
Other bloggers' links
Social Media Sites
On your archives page
RSS Feeds
In all of these situations, the post title is all the reader will see, and here is where the reader makes the decision to read on. You can be sure that few people will read a confusing or boring title. 7 Tips for Writing a Blog Title
How do you craft a blog post title that get people to read your blog post's opening lines? There are many ways to write a blog title that draws your readers in. Below are seven tips on crafting a blog post title for you to keep on your mind the next time you're looking for those right words (and every time).
Personalize titles
Blog posts are likely to be written for hundreds or even thousands of people. This is true. However, it is possible to make your readers feel that the post is tailored to their situation by personalizing the language you use. This can be done several ways, but the easiest way to do so is to simply use the word 'You' in your title.
Humor Titles
The art of comedy is a useful technique when it comes to drawing readers into your blog - IF you manage to pull it off. Although this technique can be very effective in attracting people to your blog via social media, it is not always a great option for search engine results. However, it is possible to create a funny title that includes search engine friendly key phrases.
Use key words
As introduced in the previous tip, key words are essential to gaining eyeballs from search results traffic. Also, including keywords tells search engines what your content is about, which will put your post higher in results for related searches.
Another interesting reason key words come in handy is because it grabs the attention of people who are visually scanning for content - I noticed this when I was looking into finding out more before buying a kindle(which I love) over the holidays. I found myself looking through an RSS feeds, taking in information in a hurry, scanning for the word 'kindle', before making the big buy. Because I was in a hurry, the keyword was a great attention grabber.
Ask a question
People are wired to answer questions when they see them. Questions are great because is also leads the reader to actually leave comments on your post as well. This gives you the opportunity to add a personal touch and make your post title more interesting. As we discussed in this list earlier, questions often include the word 'You' rather than a random question. I'll write more on the importance of questions in a later www.nebojsacvetkovic.com post.
Create Controversy or Debate
If a title is a controversial topic, readers will often comment on the post. Not only will they comment on your post, but these comments will often be responses to other commenter's comments, which they'll be inclined to check back to. This is a great opportunity to get readers involved in the discussion to subscribe to your RSS feed and see what others are saying. Always remember to keep your content relevant to the title.
Use power words
It is important to use prime words that elicit a strong response from readers. It will be worthwhile to discover what they are. There are several of these power words lurking throughout our vocabularies, but I've managed to pin-point a few into a small (yet powerful) list.
Easy - Mankind strives to make life easier and more efficient. Humans are able to access any information that will help them achieve this goal like moths to an open flame.
Free - There's something about getting something for FREE that triggers something in most of us.
Stunning - Using words like 'stunning' draw people in for them to judge whether the post lives up to it's name. This is a 'big claim' technique.
Explore - Curiosity can be one of the greatest weaknesses of man.
Secrets - Again with curiosity, this triggers a response because it promises to show us something that we don't yet know. You could also use "little-known ways" to get the same response from the reader.
Be careful when using these words however. Sometimes they can leave a negative response in readers who may assume the title wont live up to it's claim. This is a result of years of misleading advertising schemes that we have all encountered at one time or another on the internet. You should just show legitimacy without appearing cheesy and that you are trustworthy.
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