Starting a blog and writing content is only one part of the journey. One of the most important hurdles is writing a blog title. A bad title won’t convert to clicks, and that’s a major problem when it comes to growing your blog and making a profit. So, how do you go about writing stellar blog titles that get clicks?
Well, let’s start with some basics and some fundamentals.
Why are Blog Titles Important?
When it comes to writing a blog post, the content within could be the best on the internet, but without a proper title, nobody will truly know what’s within.
You see, when people look up answers to questions they have or they’re just perusing the internet for some information, the title of your post is your chance to make a good first impression. It’s just like a book cover. You see the cover before the content.
When it comes to writing a blog title, it’s not the easiest thing out there. You may think your title is great, but upon publishing your post, it’s just not converting. Trust me, I was there back when I first started writing blog posts, and it wasn’t very enjoyable.
If you really want to see your stats go up, you need to start with your cover. You need to get a system down that makes sense so that people can read your awesome content!
Tips to Craft the Perfect Blog Post Title
You want to make sure that you’re representing your post accurately and without clickbait. If your readers are continuously baited by your titles, then you’ll find a drop in readership and a lack of faith in your credibility.
Always make sure to be truthful, honest, but catchy with your titles.
Additionally, Google is working even harder to crack down on spam. If your website keeps producing clickbait, you won’t get the results you were hoping for. You’ll likely be hit by a Google update and watch your rankings tank.
Remember this fact: The search engine of Google is not YouTube. There are no thumbnails. Clickbait is not going to work the way it might on YouTube. You shouldn’t do clickbait on YouTube either, but I think you get what I’m saying.
Find your Target Audience and Know Them
In any blog, you need to be aware of who your target audience is. It’s not enough to simply think you might have a vague idea of who you want to click on your posts. You need to be precise and conduct some market research first.
Some questions you have to ask yourself are the following:
- Who is my audience?
- What are their values?
- What are their core demographics?
Once you have an idea of what the answers are to these questions, you can move on to the most important part of your blog post: What value am I giving my target audience?
If you’ve ever noticed your own searching behaviors, you’ve probably found yourself looking up a lot of “how to…” or “what is…” or related titles. Do you notice a pattern here? These titles all provide an answer to a problem.
As a blogger, you are delivering some sort of value to your readership. That’s extremely vital when it comes to crafting your post in the first place. Your title has to address that problem first.
Conduct Keyword Research
Keywords are one of the most important parts of crafting your title as well. Besides answering a question or addressing a problem, if you’re not sure what keywords people are researching, then you’re missing out on vital impressions and clicks.
Once you’ve identified what you are answering in your blog post, conduct some proper keyword research. Try to target longtail keywords. Here’s an example:
Let’s just say you’re writing about affiliate marketing. Don’t just target “affiliate marketing” as a keyword. What specifically about affiliate marketing are you answering? Maybe you’re reviewing a certain affiliate program. Target that, not just a general word.
There are many tools you can use to conduct keyword research, among those are Mangools. Mangools offers a great keyword research tool that lets you know how difficult the keyword you are researching is competition-wise.
Use Power Words
One of the most important things is to use power words. These are words that typically have a strong connotation associated with them. Think words like “powerful,” “insane,” “crazy,” etc…
Words like these are eye-grabbing and attention-catching. They intrigue a reader first and foremost and make them feel more compelled to click on your blog post.
Be conservative with using these words though, as you can come off as click-baity or exaggerative if you use these.
Write and Test Multiple Title Variations
Writing a title can be a bit of a lengthy process, since you want the optimal option for your blog post in order to get the most clicks. This can usually be done by writing several iterations of the same title and then running them through a headline analyzer.
One headline analyzer that we recommend is CoSchedule. Their headline analyzer is great to test which ones will get the best results.
The Next Steps to Take with your Blog Title
Now that you’ve created your title, there are some more SEO-friendly practices you should conduct in order to optimize your page for other platforms and sharing strategies.
For instance, if you have a social media like Pinterest where you share your blog posts, optimize your titles for that social media. You will probably need to play with the length of the title according to which platform you’re using.
Conduct A/B Testing
This is a commonly overlooked tip, but you should definitely take the time to conduct some A/B testing. If you want to start simply and easily, make two Pinterest pins, create a different title for each pin based off of your blog, and then post the pins. Analyze your impressions and results and see what title gets the best reception.
Conclusions
Now that you know just how to get started with properly writing your blog titles, go ahead and try out our tips for yourself! Just remember, blogging is a waiting game and it takes time. However, once you’ve become a pro, you’ll see the results flooding in easily in no time.
If you want to check out our series on blogging and the related topics, check out our personal finance section, where you can read our tips, tricks, guides, and more to social media, money, and everything in between.
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Zainah Yousef
Zainah Yousef is the author of The Fallen Age Saga and specializes in gaming, social media advice, and reviews. She's been writing all her life and she probably won't stop anytime soon.
