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A good blog headline will grab your reader’s attention and entice them to keep reading. Without an attention-grabbing headline, you will lose a lot of interest. People will just pass it by.

You only have about 3-5 seconds to get someone’s attention these days. People are inundated with content all day and you’re competing with it. So, the headline is very valuable real estate on your blog.

Your headline MUST reflect the content in the blog post. Don’t just use clickbait headlines that have nothing to do with your blog’s topic. You know what I’m talking about. I know you’ve seen them! UGH!!

It’s good to really know your audience and what their interests are. Use their language when crafting both your headline and your copy.

Use Your Keyword In The Blog Headline

To help with the SEO of your post, you’ll want to use the keyword in the first 20 characters of your blog headline. That way it gets noticed by the search engine gods correctly. To learn more about keywords, read this past blog post.

The point of your headline is to get the attention of the reader and cause them to want to read more. That’s it. Don’t try to make it any more complicated than that. It’s really that simple!

If the headline doesn’t do that much, the rest of your blog post really doesn’t matter. If they read the headline and aren’t compelled to read more, you’re wasting your time. That’s how important a good headline is!

The blog headline sells the reader on reading the first line of your blog post. To dig deeper into your post. But it must also be credible, so they don’t dismiss it.

There are several different ways you can grab your reader’s attention with the headline. But try to think of it from your reader’s perspective. What do they want to know about? What are they curious about? What will they learn from reading your blog?

Ways To Grab The Reader’s Attention In The Blog Headline:

• Use curiosity. It’s one of the most powerful human emotions. Did my headline to this blog post do that for you?
• Solve a problem. What problems are your readers having? A solution will pique their interest.
• Urgency. Tell them why they need this NOW!
• Present benefits. What will they gain by reading more?
• Surprise. What would they be surprised to read about?
• Open loop. Create an open loop in the mind by asking a question.
• A famous person’s name. They will be curious if they know the person and want to know more.
• A song title. These will grab their attention if they’re familiar with the song.
• Expose a fraud threat. Just make sure you tell them how to not get taken advantage of.
• Goals. Speak to one of the goals your audience might have and how they can reach it more easily.
• Use a breaking news story. Explain in your post how it relates to your topic.
• A proposition. Tie it to a problem they’d like to solve or a goal they have.
• Use shock value. Use this one sparingly.
• Make a deal with them. People are always wanting to save time or money.
• Frustration. Express a common frustration they will relate to.
• Evoke strong emotion. How can your headline make them feel something?
• Advocate for the reader. Let them know you’re on their side.
• Report the news. What’s in the news that your reader will want to know about?
• Confirm a suspicion or fear. Again, you’re on their side and know how they feel.
• Make a prediction. This especially works well at the end or beginning of a new year.
• Comparisons. Compare your services or products to a competitor. Or two similar products you’ve used.
• Call out a specific group that is your ideal target market. Hey bloggers!
• Offer facts and figures. Statistics are credible and can create curiosity.
• Action verbs. They’ll inspire people to take action (read your blog post).
• Avoid passive voice. This makes it sound less important.
• Use numbers or facts. According to CoSchedule, this will increase traffic by 206%!
• Use powerful Power words. Guaranteed to make readers take notice. 😉
• Use promises. But only ones your blog post can help them realize.

Also Use Sub-Headlines In Your Post

Using sub-headlines as well will break up your content and make it easier to read. No one wants to read long paragraphs of text all crammed together. And it makes your post easy to skim. Only about 20% of people will read your entire post. The rest are skimmers!

Sub-headlines will help your copy flow smoothly. They can be used to emphasize important points. Just remember that they should be able to stand alone and make sense. You might even be able to use some of the headlines that you didn’t use. 

See here on this post how I’ve used sub-headlines to break up the copy? Breaking up your text and using sub-headlines to break up your content makes it easier for the reader to keep reading.

Because isn’t that what you want?

Conclusion

Again, your headline is as important as the rest of your blog (if not more important). It’s what will cause your reader to want to read the blog post. Good headlines will increase your traffic, help your search engine optimization (SEO), and provide value to your readers.

Your blog headlines should be short, simple, and clear. They should reflect the topic of your post. The main goal of the headline is to get the reader to read the next line.

You can use news and magazine headlines for inspiration. Write and test several modifications of your headlines. You should write 20-25 different headlines for each post. Don’t forget to track your open rate, click-through rate, and shares. That way you’ll know what’s working and what isn’t.