An effective title and headline will attract readers to your content, just as a bad title or headline will keep people from clicking on your articles. You might create killer content, but if you don’t have smashing titles and headlines to go with it, you won’t generate the audience your creativity deserves. Make sure you know the rules of creating great titles before you post your stuff online.
Ask Questions
Start by asking the same six questions reporters rely on: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? These questions lead you to a title that gives readers an idea of what they’ll get when they click on the headline. CopyPress offers a white paper about creating titles and headlines that expounds on how to effectively answer these questions. Content and SEO expert Neil Patel adds four more elements: be unique, be ultra-specific, be urgent, and be useful. These four U’s will help you pull in readers.
Start Brainstorming
Once you have these elements in mind, it’s time to start brainstorming. Kick off by using the SVO formula: subject, verb, object. Include these three parts of speech in your headlines to make sure that you’re creating informative ideas. Don’t worry if your first few aren’t very good. That’s why you’re brainstorming! Get the ideas rolling and give yourself lots of options.
Hone Your Technique
Creating hooks takes practice, but content experts agree on several main approaches when brainstorming hooks. Look at your previously successful articles and use them as a jumping-off point. Add a little pizzazz by talking about celebrities, using memes, or citing current events. Don’t be afraid to exaggerate! When used creatively, hyperbole is a great way to promise fantastic content to potential readers. Finally, keep your audience in mind. Your headlines and titles should reach the audience you want. You may have to throw away good titles because they won’t resonate with your readers.
Research Competitors
Before you start writing the content to go with your headline, do some research. See how other bloggers have covered the topic. Two million pieces of content get produced each day, and standing out in such a crowd gets increasingly difficult. Existing content offers inspiration: You can model your headline off of a few of your favorites. Borrow a topic that has received considerable coverage, then spin it in a new way. Don’t worry about coming up with the most original thing on the internet. What you want to do is communicate effectively with your readership and draw in new people who will enjoy your content.
Always, Always Revise
Once you’ve created the content, return to your title or headline. Does it still apply to what you wrote? Sometimes the purpose of your article changes as you write it. You discover new information, then realize that you need to expand on a certain point or find that what you thought was one blog post should actually become a series. Revise your title and headline to make sure it accurately describes the content it represents. Go back to brainstorming if you need to! The following infographic tells you all the major points you need to craft truly stellar headlines.
