These 5 Headline Practices Can Boost Article Views
Want to reach more people with your content? If the answer is yes, reconsider your headline practices.
It’s easy to forget just how important headlines can be for your business when you’re counting on content marketing. After all, headlines are simple to write, right? Well, not exactly. Just remember what attracts you the most in a book when you have no idea what it is about. In the end, it’s all about the title (and presentation, but the title is the initial spark of connection). That being said, you should definitely put a bit more thought into crafting the perfect headline for your articles and even e-books. In the end, this may make a huge difference in the number of clicks and views you get, which will consequently make a huge difference in your business success. The following headline practices can improve your views, shares, and backlinks — can you make them work in your favor as well?
1. The magical number 8
When it comes to magic numbers, 8 may be the last on your list. However, it seems that headlines that are made up of 8 words get clicked and shared more. In that respect, this may be one of the effective headline practices you can start thinking of incorporating into your content marketing. Unfortunately, there’s no definite research or study to back this up — it’s just something that seems to work more and more but the reason why is still unclear. It may be that you simply get to express your thoughts and benefits of reading the article in 8 words better, but it may be something completely different. Whatever it is, it tends to work in boosting your article views for around 20%, which is a great way to start climbing the success ladder.
2. A short description is better than none
So, what does it mean when we say that you should include descriptive terms into your headline? Basically, the whole point is to instantly tell the potential readers what they should expect by clicking on your article. For instance, the words inforgraphic and template fare the best when it comes to the click improvement simply because people can rely on getting a solution example from the template or an easy-to-understand visual of the needed solution with an infographic. Moreover, stating the number of ideas shared in the article body also marks a slight increase in the views since you’re basically telling people that they’ll be able to scan through the ideas quickly. In that respect, it’s important to keep your headlines clear and straight-to-the-point.
Of course, descriptive terms, as well as some wittiness, is always appreciated but not at the cost of complete straightforwardness when it comes to the understanding of what your article is about.
3. Refrain from promising too much
Don’t make no promises your article can’t keep! Otherwise, you risk leaving your readership disappointed, which is truly unfortunate if your goal is to actually boost clicks and views for your blog content. There are some words that need to be carefully used because they simply throw off the readers these days. For instance, tips and tricks worked amazingly well before, but these days the power of these words has started to diminish. Of course, we still use tips in our headlines, and you can too, just don’t overuse these words too much. The same goes for how-to articles; a how-to article is still valid and you can use this to craft your headlines, but only if you’re absolutely sure that you’re actually giving advice that clearly states how to solve a certain problem.
In a similar vein, words like simple and magic can also be problematic — an oversimplification and a hyperbole — if you truly don’t offer simple or magical advice for something. See the pattern here? Just don’t tell your readers to expect one thing in your headline and then surprise them with something completely different in the article body.
4. Direct your headlines to a friend
Every move you make will depend on your business niche and target audience. Therefore, you don’t have to use every single one of headline practices mentioned in this article. For starters, this is because the practice we’re going to describe next involves the use of mild profanity. Essentially, the tone and choice of words you’d use when talking to a close friend in a friendly environment. You may be surprised but more and more brands are starting to use mild profanity and jargon in their headlines, in order to create their brand image and engage the target audience more.
This can work exceptionally well for a target audience demographic that doesn’t include kids and the elderly. Of course, there are other factors you need to take into account, but when it comes to business and tech-related topics, a bit of mild profanity and a playful tone can actually make a huge difference in attracting the views, clicks, and shares.
5. Let the headline speak to the audience
It’s very important to distance yourself from overly salesy and cold headlines in this day and age. As much as it’s possible, try your best to come up with headlines that will engage the audience and make them relate to the content by having it seem completely directed to them — as if you were literally speaking to each and every individual. Of course, this won’t be possible in some cases nor is it necessary to push the limits too much when it comes to a good, clear title. But, if you can, make sure that the audience feels relevant enough to click on your article. Use the tone and pronouns in a way you would ask questions and talk to someone whom you sincerely want to help. No false promises or forcing the sale — just a personal initiative that can make the readers really think and carefully consider your proposition.
Keep in mind that not all of the above-mentioned headline practices have to work for your particular business and content strategy. Also, you don’t have to sweat over incorporating all the five tactics in one headline at once. However, make sure that you reevaluate your headline strategy and spend more time coming up with the perfect title for your articles in regards to your target audience.
