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How to write a catchy blog title
Sometimes writing the title or your article or blog can sometimes take as much if not longer than writing the article/blog itself. With content and marketing as a whole becoming more and more important in developing a business, as well as it becoming increasingly more competitive in all markets. This article will focus on how to write a catchy blog/article title, and little hints and tricks to use.
Start with a working title
Working titles are a great way to brainstorm potential ideas. The only confusion that does occur are people getting confused with topics and working titles. A topic is a very general rule and could create a number of articles. A working title on the other hand is very specific and can help to create a single blog post. A good example of this is below
Topic
- Buying a new home
Working titles
- How to purchase your first home
- A guide to purchasing a new home
- Who are the best agencies to buy a new home with
As you can see a topic is very generic, however a working title can help to create a very specific area to focus on. Therefore a working title can help to create the basis for your article to begin with.
Stay Accurate
Accuracy of the title is going to be one of the most key elements. A title that is not accurate can give off a false representation of what the article is and what it is trying to achieve. Making sure you can fulfil the readers expectation is also very key to creating a successful title.
Some writers will ‘big up’ their article in the hope it gains them more readers. Yes this may be true, however what it also does it decreases confidence in your content. For example don’t mention other companies who have improved via content unless you can back it up. Use content to increase confidence not ruin it.
Make it Sexy
Staying accurate and making it sexy are sometimes quite difficult. You want to make sure that the title is engaging, and is going to entice people to read. However it also does need to be relevant to the article itself. Understanding your audience will help to make your title engaging and sexy.
Having a title which is completely out there for your audience will do more harm than good. If you focus more on the 18-25 age range then you know chucking some slang or buzz words in there will actually help. However if you are appealing to an age range of 40+ then you need to tailor it to them as well.
Some key things to consider when making your title sexy are as follows:-
- Use Strong Language
Be emotive, and make sure it uses language which is engaging. Using words such as brilliant, excellent or amazing will instantly draw people in. It’s positive and powerful.
- Make it Visual
Not always possible but can you use some form of graphic or visual tool to be able to draw readers in. People will tend to respond to a visual aspect, as it’s eye-catching and easy to read from the get go.
- Make the Value Clear
Do not sacrifice the value of the title when trying to be creative. The main aim of the title is to be engaging, and to be found by readers. If you are not doing this then your title is not right, and could be detrimental to the article.
Keep It Short
For most, the question that is asked regularly is how long should my title be. Knowing how to write a catchy blog title actually means there is no one size fits all answer, and it depends on the article itself. You do however need to consider the phrases your audience search for, this should give you a clear idea.
If you focus heavily on searches through google or bing, then you should look to only have around 70 characters for each title. This is mainly focused around the amount of characters people will tend to use on a search engine.
Social media is slightly different. Each platform will have a recommended length of title, with twitter being 8-12 and facebook being between 12-14 words respectively. However, in this case, look for something in the middle ground and you should be just about right.
Try to Optimise for Social and Search
The key word in this part is try. Sometimes it can be really difficult to optimise your titles for social and search purely due to the amount of variations people will look for. Also, optimising for both search and social can be difficult. This is mainly due to the searches people run on google or bing, will be different to those on instagram or facebook.
When building your title focus heavily on the keywords that people will search for in relation to what your business offers or does, as well as your audience. Having a consideration for the keywords will ensure that you put your article/blog in the best position to be found. Having content that is found can help to increase traffic, subsequently increasing potential lead generation.
SEO can help when looking to build a title. Take a look at this article by Neil patel on the basics of SEO. A Simple Step by Step Guide to SEO.
To Conclude
Writing a title can be a difficult task, and does require time and effort to be able to get it right. A title is also the first thing that readers see so it needs to be engaging as well as clear and concise. The pointers above can really help to drill down on the title, and can help to structure your article. Therefore how to write a catchy blog/article title becomes easier.