The Cold Hard Truth
If your blog post’s title isn’t catchy, it won’t get read by anyone other than your most ardent supporters (and even your mom is probably sick of your stuff). To those with journalistic experience, this won’t be surprising. Headline writing is an art.
Today’s blog traffic is generated by social sharing and social sharing is heavily dependent on the title that shows up in the Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Google+/Pinterest feed automatically (and the feature image attached to it). In fact, one dirty little truth that people don’t like to admit, is that they often share a story on Facebook or Twitter before they read it. It boils down to User Interface – people share the story while still in Facebook or Twitter AND THEN open the link to read the post because it is more efficient.
I have the good fortune to work for a company that has a very active blog, with multiple authors. We publish several times a day, which means I have access to extraordinary data surrounding not only what makes good content, but also what makes content sharable. Timing of post, feature image, author, publicity – it all makes a difference. But one of, if not the most important factor, is title.
What I have learned is that if you want traffic and shares, a “Cosmo” title wins nine times out of ten. And if you think that the title you just crafted is that winning number ten, you are most definitely incorrect, because you are not writing about the royal wedding or Blue Ivy Carter. People today are busy and they have no real loyalty to your blog, their loyalty is to their own self-interests. What people want to read about is quick solutions to hard problems. Cosmo Magazine discovered this years ago and has perfected their headlines.
Here are a few story titles from Cosmo covers:
- Call Him or Text? The New Rules
- 50 Ways to Seduce a Man in a Minute or Less
- PMS News: The Fruit That Prevents Bloating
- 75 Sex Moves that Men Crave
- Flatten Your Abs Fast
- What Guys Hate for you to Wear in Bed
Cosmo magazine promises quick solutions with headlines so eye-catching that a busy person, at a check-out, has time to peruse the cover, see that they are interested in the story and pull the magazine into the cart. They have no idea if the story is good, well-written, applicable to them or even factual. But they still are willing to commit $7.00 because that headline is so good. That is the standard you should strive for.
What to Use In Your Headline
- Ask a question and then promise to answer it (Call Him or Text? The New Rules)
- Promise to solve a complex problem very easily (Flatten your abs fast)
- Compare your topic with something people passionate about (10 Ways Blog Writing is Like Dating Edward Cullen)
In all cases, titles that include a specific number of steps, days or tips will outperform those without. “50 Ways to Seduce a Man in a Minute or Less” truly captures this. Additionally, you need to create a needle of doubt in the potential reader’s knowledge base – the answer within has to be too important to miss.
What about SEO?
These days Google is taking more and more social signals into account (shares of a link is an important sign of quality). Ensuring you have catchy titles and those titles get shared is SEO. That doesn’t mean you throw the other rules out the window of course. If you are interested in reading more about good SEO practices, check out my previous posts How Your Blog Title Impacts SEO and Social Media Sharing’s Impact on SEO: 6 Lessons.
Wrap Up
Don’t believe me? This has been tested over and over – there is a reason why magazine covers look like they do. But if you want more proof, go read a prominent blog and check out the share counts on the stories with and without “Cosmo style” headlines. The numbers tell no lies.
Have thoughts on this article ? Let me know in the comments section below (or of course – you could share the story and make a comment about it…).
