If you have a blog, your focus will typically be on writing high-quality content.

This means that coming up with the title of the blog can be an afterthought, but for a successful blog, this shouldn’t be the case.

Blog titles play a large role in SEO, as an effective title will make your blog show up on search engines when users are looking for specific results.

A vaguely named blog won’t be shown to anybody searching for exactly what you could provide.

It’s also important for your blog title to be attention-grabbing, so users are inclined to click on it when it does show up.

This is why giving your blog a title can be so difficult, it needs to be accurate, descriptive, catchy, and to the point.

Understanding the Importance of Effective Blog Titles

Your click-through rate (CTR) describes how many users click on your website after it shows in the search engine results.

This is why you want the highest CTR you can have, and having a well-titled blog article will help with this, as a catchy title will make them more likely to click.

Once the user is on your website, you can use call-to-actions (CTAs) to get them to look through the products and services you are selling.

A blog’s main goal is to raise awareness and traffic, in the hope of improving sales, so a higher CTR and reader engagement are key.

Effective blog titles also greatly improve your search engine optimization (SEO), as using keywords and phrases will make your articles and website show in search engine results.

Paid traffic, such as Google Ads, can be a great tool, but organic traffic is always something to work on, as it costs nothing!

The more people coming to your website organically, the better your website is ranking, so it will keep showing up to potential customers.

This is why you should carry out keyword research and incorporate your keywords into blog titles when it’s relevant.

Lastly, organic traffic doesn’t just come from search engines, it can also come from social media shares.

A compelling blog title will make engagements and shares on social media much more likely.

The hope is that after seeding the blog online, users will see it, read it, and then share it.

When others share it, more people will see it and be encouraged to click, increasing your organic traffic, reputation, and social media engagements!

Top Tips for Writing Blog Titles

So, what do we recommend doing?

Keep in mind that these aren’t strict rules, just best practices and ideas you could consider.

Best Practices for Writing Blog Titles:

1. Understand your target audience.
2. Research trending topics.
3. Use numbers and statistics.
4. Create a sense of urgency.
5. Keep it clear and concise.
6. Spark curiosity.
7. Avoid clickbait.
8. Test and analyse.
9. Optimise for SEO.
10. Be consistent with your brand.

Technical Tips for Writing Blog Titles:

1. Incorporate relevant keywords.
2. Use powerful words and emotional triggers.
3. Optimise title length for different platforms.
4. Enhance readability through proper capitalisation and punctuation.
5. Address the reader's needs and provide a clear value proposition.

Creative Tips for Writing Blog Titles:

1. Craft intriguing and unique titles that stand out.
2. Utilise humour, storytelling, or suspense to captivate readers.
3. Experiment with different formats, such as lists, questions, or controversial statements.
4. Incorporate strong adjectives and verbs to create a compelling narrative.
5. Make use of wordplay, puns, or metaphors to add creativity and intrigue.

If you use a combination of technical and creative tips, you can begin to create stand-out blog titles to inspire readers to click.

How to improve basic titles

Look through your blog titles so far and look at blogs from competitors in your market/industry.

You’ll start to notice some common themes, and you can also pick up on titles you like, and ones you don’t.

If you analyse your own, and others, you can identify areas which you would like to improve on.

Add more specification and relevancy to any generic titles.

Users are much more likely to click on your blog if the title is specific to their problem.

If you make sure your blog title is descriptive and relevant, it can greatly improve your engagement.

You can also think about adding numbers, statistics, or data to your titles.

We know it seems super common, and we have all seen the “Top 10 Reasons to ______” blogs online, but it does work.

It makes the content seem more official, using numbers, statistics, and data, can help build trust and credibility.

Finally, consider testing your titles.

A/B testing can be great for figuring out which titles work best for you, try using different keywords or formats in the two title variations of the same blog.

Once you have your data, analyse it, and use the results for your next blog article.

Next steps

It’s not an exact science, and there isn’t a perfect formula for creating bog titles that will bring traffic to your website, but there are things you can do to help your chances.

Creating attention-grabbing blog titles will improve your CTR and audience engagement, to drive results and sales.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with blog titles and find what works best for your audience.

If you need extra help running your blog and/or website, the team at PageNorth can help you.

Get in touch and see how we can help you.