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When it comes to driving more traffic to your advisor website, creating strong content and blog posts is a great way to do this. When doing this, don’t forget about the importance of a strong title.
Titles are what sell the content. They represent it in search engines, in email, and on social media.
So, how do you write titles that “sell” your content and draw in an audience? We’ve got 10 ways below!
10 Ways to Write Strong Blog Headlines
Make sure you are putting a lot of thought into your headlines, as these are what really grabs the attention of your reader. The 10 tips below will help you to write killer blog titles!
1. Use Language That Makes Your Readers Take Action
Want to entice your readers to continue reading the blog? Use language that entices and makes them want to find out more. What benefit will your readers get when they check out your blog post? That’s a good starting point, so ask yourself that question and then go from there. Every word you use in your title needs to show the value of your blog and what the reader can get if they click on it.
2. Put In The Year
This helps your readers know that the blog post is up to date. If you have a blog post entitled “Website Design Trends for 2017,” your readers will assume that this information is not up to date. However, if it has 2020 in it, then it will be more enticing for readers to check out what they should be doing with their website in the present time.
Twenty Over Ten client Gary L. Watts, CFP®, EA has written a blog, “Tax-Saving Tips May 2020,” so you know this is up to date as these tips were recently written in May of this year.
3. Use Strong Keywords
As we have said in other posts about optimizing, try to use keywords that pertain to your niche or the subject of your blog. Using these will help your content and therefore your website to rank higher in searches.
Using keywords is so important because they communicate to top search engines like Google what information is on your website, so make sure you are including keywords that reflect your firm and your mission in the title and the blog post.
4. Use Adjectives That Pique The Reader’s Interest
Using words like “Insanely Good,” “Best” or “Fantastic” or words like “FAST” and “Now” are all great options.
From the Lead Pilot blog, using the word “Fast” in the headline shows that when implementing these tactics, you can get results sooner rather than later.
5. Use Identifier Words
When using an identifier word, you can better understand and get a comprehensive look at the consumer journey. These words can help you better see how customers and prospects engage with your brand. Additionally, you can organize individuals into customized segments based on relevant actions.
6. Tailor The Title to Target Your Niche
Just like your blogs should be tailored to your niche, so should the titles to your posts. It’s essential that you are tailoring your content to your niche audience. After all, that’s who you are trying to attract, so when you include your niche in your blog title, it not only grabs the attention of your targeted readers but can really boost your SEO.
Twenty Over Ten client C.L. Sheldon & Company offers fee-only financial planning and wealth management for active and retired military members, and that is made evident in their recent blog posts, “Military Finances 101…”
7. Include Numbers In Your Titles
You are probably asking why this matters, but when someone sees numbers in the title, it often signifies a list, which will be a quick read for your audience. When a reader sees a number in a title, they know how much information they’re getting and generally how much time it will take them to read the blog post.
Lists provide useful information in an easy to read and digestible fashion, so include these in your headlines to entice more readers.
Twenty Over Ten client Safe Harbor Retirement Advisors, Inc. blog, “Working Remotely? 7Tips for Making Your Life Easier.” It’s easily broken down in 7 easy-to-read, digestible tips and that is made evident clearly in the title.
8. Ask A Question With Your Title
Questions can really get your readers thinking and they help you to connect easier with your audience. When leads see a question in a blog title, they’ll read the question and apply it to their own life. If they find the answer can benefit them and their business, then they will probably give the article a read.
Twenty Over Ten client FCA Retirement asks a question about taking social security in their blog post above. It makes your readers start thinking about what they would do and reading on to find out more.
9. Use CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer Tool
At Twenty Over Ten, we’re a big fan of useful tools, especially when they are free! CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer Tool can help you to write much stronger headlines that will boost your content creation and marketing strategy.
With this tool, you can simply type in the title and then it will begin to analyze the headline. It also offers tips on how to write stronger headlines that will attract more readers.
10. Keep It Short And Sweet
Your readers are busy, so they are often just skimming titles, so make sure it’s catchy and gets the point across quickly. According to HubSpot, headlines between 8–12 words in length got the most Twitter shares on average. When it comes to ranking well, you should try to keep the title under 70 characters so that it isn’t cut off in the search engine results.
Remember that it should be long enough to clearly articulate what you’re covering in the blog, but short enough to not lose your readers’ interest.
Do Your Blog Titles Have What It Takes?
You don’t have a lot of time to grab the attention of your readers, so make sure you are capturing their attention quickly with a strong blog headline. Coming up with good headlines takes work, and it’s not something that is going to change overnight. You can check out your analytics and see what is driving the most traffic and what is not so that you can tailor your headlines accordingly. Creating strong content is crucial to sustaining a strong marketing strategy, so make sure you are giving this part of your content marketing a lot of thought, as it will be necessary to ensure that your readers continue to read your blog content that you worked so hard to create.
Related: 7 Website Metrics You Need to Be Tracking NOW as a Financial Advisor