The first thing the reader looks at is the headline. This rule works, regardless of what the text is about and where you post it. These 6 ideas will help you write a great headline for an article.
Identify the Audience
Headlines that identify a specific audience are good at weeding out unsuitable readers and attracting interested ones. You can identify the latter by naming them directly or by describing their characteristics. For example, those who play at the Canadian online casino are often young people who enjoy taking risks and value their free time. Having this description in mind, you’ll create a catchy headline easier.
Highlight the Issue
If readers see a relevant problem in the headline, they will go to the text for a solution. The problem should be specific – to make a catchy headline, don’t mix several topics at once, choose the most important one.
Ask a Question
When a person reads a question headline, he unwittingly begins to look for an answer and goes for it in the text.
If the topic is of concern to many, the question in the headline can be general. But it’s better when both the topic of the article itself and the question are specific and meet the needs of a particular audience.
Share Your Experience
One cool trick to attract readers with a headline is to talk about a personal experience. Write a headline that makes it clear what the article is about, and supplement it with an unusual fact or lesson that the hero has learned. You can also give a spoiler about what the personal experience of the narrator led to.
Show the Numbers
Headlines with numbers give the reader specificity. This works well in articles about training, jobs, and businesses. The headline can show both performance and perspective – for example, a possible salary.
Numbers can also be used in articles of summaries or instructions, when you list a few items or a sequence of actions.
Add a Comparison
It’s suitable for texts where you want to show the benefits of a product. It could be anything: a comparison of cities, tools, cat food or cosmetics. Use the words “compared, what’s different, what’s better, what to choose” for your headline.
General Tips on How to Write a Good Headline
- Try to make your headlines shorter. It’s optimal to use up to 6-8 words. Longer headlines take longer to read and are harder to comprehend, so they work worse.
- Don’t use the technique where Every Letter is Capitalized. It doesn’t work and only annoys readers. From the point of view of the Russian language, this is wrong.
- Try to put the main words related to the topic of the text at the beginning of the headline.
- Use intrigue carefully. The headline should explain to the reader what the article is about. If it’s not clear, they won’t read the content, no matter how intriguing it is. Examples of bad headline intrigue include, “Everyone should know this!” or “You’ll know about it tomorrow, but it’s better to know today.” What is meant by that? It’s not clear and you don’t want to read it.
- Consider the target audience of the site where the article will be posted. For business people, it’s better to use some techniques, for a youth audience, others. For example, it isn’t always appropriate to use slang.
- Write in simple and clear language. Use terms, the meaning of which may be unknown to the audience, carefully.
- When you optimize the title for the search engine queries, try to make the text meaningful, and the written requests are imperceptible to the readers.
Always come up with at least 3 options of the headline, pause, and evaluate which one is better. This variant should be finalized and included in the article.
Sometimes it’s useful to come up with several options, pause. Then come up with a few more options. Pause again. And at the second iteration, choose the best title for the article and use it.
Now you know how to write proper headlines. Combine different approaches to creating them to get the most appealing one.
