8 Secrets to Creating Blog Post Titles That Will Set the Internet on fire

Titles change the fate of your posts.

Those few words at the beginning of your blog post can mean the difference between the post being read and spreading like wildfire across the internet, or sitting unnoticed in your archives.

This month we talked about how to create blog posts and took a look at key moments in blog post writing where it’s important to stop and put in a little extra effort.

While your post title usually only contains a handful of words – They are the most powerful words you will write Because for most of your readers, the decision whether to read the rest of your post is theirs.

Why blog post titles are important

Blog post titles appear in:

• Search engine results
• RSS feeds
• Links from other bloggers
• Social media sites
• On your archive pages (depending on how you format them)

In any of these cases, the title may be the only thing people see and the only one who makes the decision to visit your post. Write a boring, complicated or confusing title and it doesn’t matter what you wrote in the post – very few people will ever read it.

What should a good blog post title do?

There are many techniques that copywriters use when creating titles or headings, both online and offline – but generally there is a common goal behind them all. It can be summed up in the words of David Ogilvy, who wrote in Ogilvy on advertising (a great copywriting book) repeats the refrain over and over again:

“The purpose of a title is to get potential readers to read the first line of your content.”

This is one of the lessons that has helped me the most in blogging and I have seen time and time again how powerful it is.

Write a captivating and intriguing title, and you’ll make people want to read it every time.

How to Create a Blog Post Title – 8 Tips

How do you design a blog post title that gets people to read the opening lines of your blog post?
There are many techniques for writing blog post titles that engage readers. Below I’ll outline some of them (you won’t be able to do all of them in every single post).

Before I share, I would like to give a general tip – Don’t rush – that’s the main point of this whole content creation series. If you can’t think of anything else today, remember that if you rush through your titles, you could very well be wasting the time you invest in your actual posts. Invest time in your posts, it will pay off!

Now that we’re taking the time – here are 8 tips I use when creating blog post titles. Note: You probably won’t use all of these in one post (although for fun I did my best to incorporate some of them into the image caption above). Different techniques work better in different situations.

1. Communicate a benefit

This is SO IMPORTANT. When a potential reader comes across your post in Google search results, in your RSS feed, or on a site like Digg and sees a title that promises to fill a need, they’ll click on that link almost every time. Identify the need of potential readers (we talked about this in yesterday’s post) and communicate in your title that your post will solve that problem or need. That’s why posts with titles like “How to Hold a Digital Camera” and “10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits” (LINKSSSSSSS) have brought hundreds of thousands of readers to my photography blog over the last year. They’re not “clever” or “cryptic” titles – they simply SHOUT out to those who see them what they’ll get if they visit the post. These titles won’t attract everyone who sees them, but they will certainly attract people with the needs you’re targeting with the post.

2. Provoke controversy or debate

Another technique that is very effective at getting people to contribute is to create the context for controversy, debate, or a strong opinion. You have to be prepared to back up these types of titles with posts that reflect the title – but controversy is one of the things that piques people’s interest. Remember that if you cause controversy, you will provoke strong reactions from people.

3. Ask a question

When you ask a question, those who read it are wired to respond (or see what the answer is). I find that questions on post titles can not only be very popular for attracting readers – but also particularly effective for getting readers to leave comments – especially if the comment directs a question at the reader (i.e. the word YOU in the question use) and not is just a random question. I’ll write more about title personalization below.

4. Personalize titles

When you write blog posts, you may be targeting a large audience of many thousands of readers – however, readers may feel like the post is tailored to their own specific situation, especially if you personalize the language you use. One of the easiest ways to do this is to simply use the word “you” in your posts. I’ve written a little bit about “you” in First Person Blogging, but mostly talked about the use of the word “you” in the post itself, but in the title of your posts it can have an even greater impact. Example – 21 preparation options Your Blog or website sticky.

5. Use keywords

Keywords in titles are good for two main reasons:

• First, they grab the attention of readers who are scanning content – something I noticed recently when I was in buying mode and looking for an iPhone. Every time a post in my RSS feed contained the word “iPhone,” it was like a flashing light and caught my attention. I couldn’t help it, but because I was looking for information to help me make this purchase, the keyword caught a lot of attention.
• Second, keywords are important to the longevity of your blog post because they tell search engines what your blog post is about and help it rank high for those words. Search engines place special emphasis on titles to clarify what a web page is about – especially if you also use the words in your page’s “title tags” (read more about title tags and SEO).

Therefore, use keywords related to your post in your titles. This is an especially useful tip when writing about products, people, or companies, as these types of “names” are some of the most searched terms on the Internet.

Another tip for keywords: If you include them at the beginning of your title, they can have a greater impact on SEO than if you include them at the end of a title (especially if the title is long).

6. Use power words

Not all words are created equal – some evoke a strong reaction from the reader and it can be well worth exploring what they mean.

It’s difficult to compile a list of these “power words”, but I’ve found a few that can work (although you can read my disclaimer below):

• Free – The idea of ​​getting something for free triggers a reaction in most of us.
• Stunning – I use words like “stunning” a lot in my photography blog. These words are “big claims” that draw people’s attention to the post to see if it is true (see below for more information on “big claims”).
• Discover – Everyone likes to make discoveries. Another related word is “revealed.”
• Secrets – This triggers a reaction because it promises to show you something you don’t already know. Likewise, you could use “Little Known Ways to…” as an alternative to “Secrets.”
• Simply – similar to “free” – we all like “easy”, right? – Also use “quick”. Better yet – how about “quick and easy”?

Disclaimer – Power words can be very beneficial, but they can also trigger negative reactions. Some people become skeptical when they see titles with such words and refuse to click on them – others click on them but get angry when the post itself doesn’t live up to the title. Proceed with caution.

7. Big claims and promises

I’ve mentioned this technique before, but it deserves further exploration as it’s definitely a way to get people interested in contributing. Making a small claim or promise really extends to my first technique – “Communicate a benefit’ – but brings it to a point where the benefits shared in the title simply cannot be ignored.

Such “big claims” ensure that even people who have no real interest in your topic will want to take a look.

The only problem with posts that make big claims is that you run the risk of alienating readers if you can’t back them up with the post itself.

8. Humorous titles

The humorous title is another technique that can be very effective in attracting readers to your blog – assuming you pull it off.

The risk with humorous posts is that they also fall by the wayside, leaving you with a post title that not only fails to attract loyal readers, but is also not well optimized for search engines (unless you manage to include some keywords) .

Two more quick tips for writing blog posts:

Keep it short – While it is possible to actually grab people’s attention with a very long title (the length itself can draw people in), in most cases you should keep it simple and easy to understand. This is good for readers, but also for search engines (they only display about 65 characters, so your full title won’t appear in search results if you go too long).
Do not use dots (dots) – This may just be my personal preference and is up for debate (although I have seen a number of copywriters talk about it), but using periods or “periods” at the end of titles can stop reader flow. It’s not a major problem, but something that could have an impact.

More readers on blog post titles:

• Andy Beal has written a thought-provoking post – How to optimize blog post titles – in which he examines two blog post audiences and how he recommends you optimize titles for each at different stages of a post’s life.
• Brian Clark has written some fantastic posts in his series on blog post titles Magnetic headlines. It includes some title templates that are worth experimenting with.
• Coschedule – a tool we use to schedule blog posts and social media – also has a very handy feature Headline Analyzer free tool that gives you feedback to help you improve your titles.

What have you learned about writing blog post titles? Do you use some of the approaches above or have you found other techniques that work for you?

Read the complete series

This post is part of a series on creating blog posts. It will be even more powerful when viewed in the context of the entire series, which addresses 10 points in the posting process to pause and make extra effort. Start reading this series here.