How to Write Effective Headlines

Looking for a way to make sure your content stands out and grabs the attention of your site visitors? Write effective headlines.

Now that you’ve put all the effort and resources into creating the content, you want to make sure your content attracts site visitors and puts out a good first impression. Since most people will just skim through your web pages, headlines offer them a sense of direction for your content. This means effective headlines make it easier for your site visitors to find what they were looking for and stay on your website.

However, it can be a challenge to write ‘effective’ headlines for your content, especially for startups or new business owners. In this post, we’ll dive deeper into how effective headlines are created and some tips that will help you create some for your business.

What is an ‘effective’ headline?

Before we jump into various ways you can create effective headlines, let’s first understand what headlines are. Headlines are used to direct the readers or users consuming your content on your website. For instance, you can use headlines at the start of articles, include them in marketing tag lines, and use headlines for better navigation of your campaign copies.

Ideally, your headline should contain three to ten words and should help engage the site visitor with your content. It’s important to keep in check the word count of your headlines especially when creating SEO-optimized blog posts. Similarly, you can also include sub-headings for better direction in your content and make your website more user-friendly.

Some of the main characteristics of an effective headline include:

• Headlines that grab attention. Your headlines are there to grab the attention of site visitors and help find them exactly what they need. It keeps them interested enough to keep consuming your content and prevents site visitors from bouncing off your website.

• Headlines that provide information. Another important part of enhancing the user experience is providing site visitors with proper navigation and information on your website. This is especially useful for catering to new and returning site visitors and makes your content easily digestible.

• SEO-optimized headlines with high-priority keywords. If you’re putting in all the work for creating unique, high-quality content, you need to make sure the content appears on the top of the user’s search engine results. Including high-priority keywords in your headlines can help enhance the SEO of your content. This way, you boost engagement on your content and help increase organic traffic on your website.

5+ ways you can write effective headlines

Here, we’ll go over some of the best ways to write effective headlines for your content and keep your audience fully focused and engaged.

#1. Brainstorm more headlines ideas

It’s very simple, the more headlines ideas you come up with, the better options you will have for choosing and creating headlines for your content. This lets you basically ‘empty out’ your brain and come up with some of the best headline ideas depending on your content.

For instance, you can write a large number of headline variations and choose some of the best ideas from them that suit your content and your audience. You can discuss different headline options with your team members by hosting a poll that lets your staff members decide on the best headline from the chosen options. Additionally, it’s also a great idea to host an A/B split test for getting a better idea of how well each headline variation works with your content.

If you’re writing more headline variations, it will help you create better, more effective headlines for your content. This way, you make your content easily digestible and help your brand stand out from the rest of the competition.

#2. Validate and A/B test your final options

Once you’ve got some of the best options for creating headlines for your content in front of you, you can start validating which one might work the best. It helps ensure the headline you use will attract the attention of site visitors and enhance the user experience on your website.

One of the best ways to do this is by split A/B testing your final headline options. This gives you a better overview of two potentially effective headlines side by side and gives you an accurate idea of which one might work the best. This way, you will have an easier time deciding between two “best” options and lets you quickly separate your well-thought ideas from bad ones.

The final winner of the A/B test can be used as your ‘effective’ headline. As a result, you can increase conversions and boost engagement on your content.

#3. Include numbers in your headlines

Another great way to create effective headlines is by including numbers in your headlines. This essentially means you can increase the click-through on your posts by grabbing the attention of site visitors with big numbers. For instance, instead of saying ‘Different ways to increase conversions on your blog’, you can use ‘10 ways to boost conversions on your blog’, or ‘6 ways to manage time better when studying’.

Ideally, when creating effective headlines, you want to only include digits and not words. In addition to this, to ensure an effective headline structure for your content, placing the number at the start of the headline is recommended.

#4. Make an offer that’s hard to refuse

Headlines are one of the first things your site visitors see when they first land on your webpage to view content. This is why it’s important to make the first experience of your site visitors the best experience by offering them something that’s valuable. For instance, you can say ‘How to start earning a side passive income from blogging’ or ‘Create a six-figure income from blogging using these marketing tips!’.

However, it’s important to remember that you don’t want to make a promise that’s not possible for you to deliver. Promising your audience something and not delivering it can cause a poor user experience and negatively impact your brand’s image.

In addition to this, you also don’t want to ‘overdo’ the offer in your headline. This means you don’t want to offer something that’s completely off the shelf. For instance, using a headline such as ‘These marketing tips will help you achieve financial freedom and completely change your life.

#5. Create urgency

Creating urgency is an effective sales tactic used by business owners from all around the globe. It’s not only a great way to sell more but also increases the click-through rate on your blog posts or content.

This also means you can boost engagement on your content by including a sense of urgency in your headlines. For instance, you can write ‘10 ways to SEO optimize your blog post right now instead of just writing ‘10 ways to fully optimize your blog website’.

Additionally, you can also highlight to your audience what they might be ‘missing’. Creating FOMO or the fear of missing out can cause site visitors to stay interested in your content or keep reading the blog post so they don’t miss out. For instance, you can create more urgency by using a headline such as ‘5 important steps needed for creating a successful blog website’ instead of saying ‘5 effective tips to help create a successful blog website’.

#6. Keep headlines short and sweet

Ideally, it’s best to keep your headlines short and sweet. For example, instead of using a headline ‘different ways to help you quickly attract more site visitors and boost sales’ you can just say ‘Top 10 ways to attract more site visitors and increase sales’.

This helps your web pages rank better in search engine results and makes it easier for site visitors to quickly skim through your content and find what they were looking for. Keeping headlines short is important because Google uses a 70-character word limit in search engine results for titles.

Additionally, you can keep in check the keywords you’re using in headlines. This is because SEO is one of the major factors that will help you attract more site visitors and increase engagement on your content.

Conclusion

Creating effective headlines is a ‘must’ for promoting your content and making it easier to digest for all types of site visitors on your website.

Keeping site visitors focused on your content is important for increasing conversions and generating more revenue for your business. This is why it’s important to write effective headlines for your content such as articles, marketing write-ups, tutorials, or guides to better guide your audience and help keep them engaged with your content.

Check out our article on How to Maximize Content Efficiency for more ideas.

Do you know of any other ways for writing effective headlines for your content? Let us know in the comments box below.