How to Write a Catchy Headline for Blogs

Must-Follow Headline Guidelines

Before we get into some specific recommendations for headlines, let's go over some of the qualities that every headline should have:

• Your headline needs to accurately reflect the content of the blog. No bait and switch! Your title should be relevant to your content.
• Your title should be approximately 50-60 characters long. Google will cut off your title if it's too long for search. This is generally set by pixel width of letters, not character count, so use this title tag tool from Moz to preview what your title will look like in Google.
• Your headline should (probably) contain a keyword or phrase. Blog titles and topics are the easiest way to build organic SEO, so it's useful to make sure your titles include your keywords whenever possible. However, you may occasionally have a blog title that doesn't have a keyword in the title and where it doesn't make sense to include it. When in doubt, go for coherency over keywords. 

Make sure all your blog headlines match these guidelines to best position your blogs for being found on Google and optimized for user experience.

→Read Now: How to do Keyword Research (And Why It Matters)

How to Write a Catchy Headline

1. Include numbers

Numbers in headlines are common to see - and for a good reason. A study by Conductor found that headlines with numbers got more clicks over any other type of headline.

Let's take an example of a blah headline and add a number to it to make it more interesting:

Blah: How to Improve Your Organic SEO

Catchy: 9 Easy Ways to Improve Your Organic SEO

WordStream put together a list starter words that you can use in your numbered headlines:

• Reasons 
• Ways 
• Tips 
• Tricks
• Secrets
• Ideas
• Techniques
• Strategies
• Facts
• Methods
• Statistics
  
  

2. Use the 5Ws 

The 5Ws (and 1H) are fantastic words to use in a blog post to make your headline catchier:

• Who 
• What 
• Where 
• When
• Why
• How

You can make a headline instantly more compelling by adding one of the 5Ws to the beginning:

Blah: Keyword Research is Important for SEO

Catchy: Why Keyword Research is Important for SEO

3. Address the reader

A great way to capture reader interest is by making your headlines more personal using the second person - "you/yours." This calls out to readers directly. 

Let's break this down with an example:

Blah: Update Google My Business Listing

Catchy: How to Update Your Google My Business Listing

→Read Now: How to Write Content (When You Hate Writing)

4. Ask questions

Another easy way to capture interest is by structuring your headline in the form of a question. Try typing in your keyword or phrase into Google to see the recommended questions that come up - this gives you an idea of the real questions your audience is asking.

Here's an example of a headline in the form of a question:

Blah: What SERP Features Are

Catchy: What are SERP Features? And Why Do They Matter?

5. Write multiple headlines

The final tip for crafting catchy headlines is to write multiple headlines for each blog. This helps you think about your blog in different ways. It also gives you more material to work with, so you can choose the headline that works best for that specific blog. 

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As you plan out your content, you want to make sure that you have goals in mind and track towards them. Your content is the main driver towards your SEO, so having an organized plan is key to measuring results! 

With this template you'll get:

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