Blogging 101: How to Write Blog Titles That Work

Today’s post, as the title suggests, is going to be all about writing blog titles that get you views. If you’ve clicked through to this post, you were most likely enticed by what the blog title was telling you and that is the first key lesson. Ensure your blog title accurately represents what your content will be, and make it engaging to your audience. 

Before I go too much into tips about writing titles, I am going to explain exactly why blog titles are important though. If you already know they’re important or you just want to get to the good stuff – skip to the next heading. 

Why Your Blog Title is Vital

Blog titles are the first impression for any blog post you write. For this reason, they need to be sharp and to the point to capture your reader’s attention, and tell them exactly what the post will be about. Your title is basically selling your content to the reader, to the search engine, to the PR person etc. It shows off the kind of content you’re making, and it highlights whether it’s unique and useful for the audience. 

Blog titles don’t just appear on your blog either, they’re often shown on social media and search engines, as well as being what people will use if they share with someone else. This means your blog title will often be working in multiple ways on many different people, of which only a handful will actually click-through. So, you need to take some time to cater your titles to fit multiple platforms. 

The Basics of a Blog Title

Before you get too worked up about your title, create a “working title” which you head the post with as you write it. As you work through the post, you may start to think of new ideas which link with the topic you’re writing about, and you can start to jot down possible title candidates. For example, the working title for this blog post was “Writing Blog Titles”. 

When you’re writing blog titles you should be accurate. Whilst clickbait is an ever-increasing part of the internet, as a small blog you will suffer more if you’re straight up lying in your heading. For example writing a blog title as “X is a terrible product” and then writing a positive review with purchase links probably won’t go down well with your readers, and could reduce future views. 

Your blog title should also include keyword research. What are your audience actually looking for (and of course make sure the content answers this!) and then cater the title to meet that need. My thought process was – are people searching for “writing blog titles” or are they looking for “how to write blog titles” and this works a lot better. 

How to Write Titles that Catch Your Reader’s Attention

I’ve covered the basics, but now you need to try spicing up the title to make it more eye-catching and encourage readers to click through. 

Power words

First up is to try adding in some power words. Power words are tried and tested words in the copywriter world which trigger a response from the reader. They’re often persuasive and entice the reader to click through. 

I have created a full PDF which includes 1000+ Power Words for you to save and peruse when you’re writing your blog titles:

Sentiment

Sentiment and emotion are key factors in what motivate people every single day. So of course, using sentiment and emotional words in your titles are going to be more eye catching to your audiences. I covered emotional words in the power words PDF so let’s talk more about Sentiment. 

Increasingly, there’s a trend for titles to have a negative sentiment as it encourages more curiosity  because readers want to know why it’s negative. For example, rant reviews are very popular. However, when using sentiment to encourage readership, remember there’s a balance of positive and negative. Using only negative sentiment all the time can change perceptions of your brand to be negative – plus, this is a “trend” and it may change so keep experimenting with sentiment in your titles. 

Be Short and Sweet

It’s said that your blog titles should be short and sweet to ensure your audience reads them. If they look at a title that’s already 3 sentences long… they may not click through as they assume there will be a lot of text to read. So keep it short, ideally around 60 characters long. Research has also stated that titles between 8 and 12 words are shared on Twitter most often.

Numbers

Research has actually been done around headlines, and tiles that include numbers and statistics often entice more people to click through. Often these stats give a more quantitative edge to content, which shows higher reliability and credibility for the content itself. Basically, if you can back it up with numbers people are more likely to believe you (but please make sure you’re telling the truth). 

Changing Your Titles

What most bloggers forget is that the blog title that is on your website does not have to be the same blog title that possible readers will see on search engines or on Pinterest.

SEO Title

For search engines, you can use a plugin like Yoast or RankMath which allows you to write in a meta title which changes the appearance of your post. This is useful for those posts which have a long-tail keyword as you can utilise it in the SEO title, but use a more sentiment focused title on your blog which works better for social sharing. 

Pinterest Title

What I love about Pinterest is that you can make multiple pins that direct your audience to the same blog post. This means you test different blog titles on the pin itself or in the copy, and see which title gains more clicks. Not only does this give you more opportunity to reach your audience – you can use your learnings to improve your writing over time. 

Common Questions

How long should my blog title be?

Short and sweet is key with approximately 60 characters being the stated ideal length of a title, specifically for SEO titles. For social sharing you should aim for between 8 and 12 words.

What words should I use?

You should include your keywords for the post alongside power words to amplify the potential for readers to click through. Using words that have strong sentiment and emotion often helps entice readers. 

What words should I avoid?

Avoid consistent use of negative sentiment words as this can negatively impact your brand perception. Also avoid using the same keyword over and over again in your titles as this can reduce the effects of your SEO efforts.  

Should I optimise for search or for social?

You can optimise for both search and social by using meta titles to your advantage, however if you only choose one – make an informed decision based on which of them you currently gain more traffic from. 

Questions to Ask Yourself about your Blog Title

This has been quite a lot of information, but here are the key questions you should ask yourself about each title you write.

Would I click on a post titled this?

Be completely honest with yourself, if you saw this post pop up on your Twitter feed… would you click on it? If the answer is no – then you need to re-word it! If you’re not even interested in something you’ve written a whole post about, then why would your readers be?

Is it clear what the blog post is about?

Make sure that your blog title is accurate. Ensuring it naturally and effectively communicates exactly what your blog post is about will ensure your readers know what you’re giving them. Constantly click baiting or lying in a headline can reduce click-through as people will realise you’re not being honest with your titles. 

Does it have a positive or negative sentiment?

Question whether your blog title has a sentiment and whether this sentiment matches your content. A negative title with a positive review is not accurate and vice versa. Also make sure you haven’t been overly negative with many of your previous posts, as negativity can affect the perception of your blog.  

Have I used power words?

Make sure you use power words as they work to encourage click through and interest in the blog post. 

Is this optimised for search engines?

Ensure your meta title is ready to go with the keyword you want to be found with. This is a small part in the overall SEO strategy, however it’s helpful to keep on top of it.