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My friend Kim, a brilliant sales consultant (who loathes and does not recommend cold outreach), requested I write about how to improve your blog with better titles and headings.
This is actually one of my favorite topics. I spend a lot of time thinking about titles and headings for my blog posts (and of course, my clients’ blog posts). A great title is like an email subject line – it makes or breaks whether someone is going to read your stuff. Or in the case of an email subject line, click to open your email.
The good news: Writing better titles and headlines is not complicated. In fact, headlines are pretty darn easy to get right.
The bad news: It can take some trial and error to write great titles.
But first, let’s talk about:
What makes a blog post title “meh”?
Blog post titles that elicit a shrug either lack excitement or are too broad.
Here are some examples I wrote by editing my own past blog post titles:
“How to write a professional bio”
This one lacks excitement and instead feels like an assignment that I will avoid at all costs.
“Measuring marketing ROI”
This one is really broad. What aspect of marketing are we talking about? Social media? Tradeshows? Email?
If it’s about ALL aspects of marketing, this is going to be novel length. I’d want to know that ahead of time before I open a 10,000-word blog post.
How to improve your blog with better titles
A good blog post title has people scrambling to read it. It is clear, it is energizing, and it speaks directly to a question or need. Have you ever come across a blog post or article in a Google Search and thought, “Yes, this is exactly what I was looking for!”? That’s what we’re going for here.
There are a number of tricks and tips I use when writing titles that work really well. This is not a comprehensive list, of course, but it’s a great start.
Include a number in your blog title
A blog post title that starts out with “8 simple ways…” tells you the exact number of things you are going to learn. It sets expectations and makes the content sound digestible.
Ask questions that people want answers to
Write a great, real-life question that people want the answer to, and you are pretty much guaranteed to attract lots of readers.
Use phrases that tap into fear of missing out
What can your reader not miss out on?
- Insider secrets …
- Myths about…
- Lies about …
- [Thing] I swear by
- Everything you need to know about …
- The ultimate guide to …
Cover “how to” do the things you’re an expert on
This is a perennial favorite because it works. People want to learn how to do things. Teach them how to do the things you know about.
Try this handy title formula
I can’t remember where I came across this formula, but I’ve been sharing it for years:
Number or trigger word + adjective + keyword + promise
And don’t forget to include one keyword
Search engine (Google) bots will only understand what your blog post is about if it includes a keyword. This is the first thing a bot will scan.
How to write great headings
It’s easier to write a great heading than a blog post title, so this section is short.
Headings need to be full thoughts
First, you want to write a heading that is a full thought or sentence. It needs to contain enough context so people who skim through blog posts (ahem, all of us) can find the one specific tip or piece of advice they are looking for.
If your headings are short phrases and lack specifics, your reader will get frustrated – and bounce right off your blog post to another source.
Here’s a heading from this blog post:
Cover “how to” do the things you’re an expert on
Now, imagine if it just said, “How to”. If I’m quickly skimming this blog post, I might wonder, “How to what?” But I probably won’t read the explanation below it.
Headings need to be formatted properly
Do not, under any circumstances, write headings in “bold” and call it a day. Google bot will not know your heading is actually a heading unless it’s formatted using heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.).
Here’s what WordPress says about headings:
“… [Headings] are not just about appearance. They also help search engines to find the page. Google scans your post for content relevant to the searched words and looks within the heading tags to see what the content is all about.”
If your headings are not formatted properly, Google will only partially know what your content is about. And it won’t get ranked very well. Which means it will basically be invisible in an online search.
Heading tags follow a hierarchy: H1 > H2 > H3 > H4.
You can go from H3 > H4 and back to H3, but you cannot jump from H1 to H4. Google bot won’t understand what the heck is happening. And if I haven’t made it clear, we don’t want to confuse the bots.
I haven’t always been good at titles and headings
If I look back at my early blog posts, I cringe at some of the titles. Here are three gems:
“How to break into freelancing”
What kind of freelancing? Of course, I meant freelance copywriting, but I somehow did NOT say that! Duh.
“The cobbler has no shoes”
Um, what kind of keyword was I going for here? I am not a shoe designer, shoe store, shoe influencer (I’m sure that’s a thing), or shoe manufacturer. Instead, I used the concept for the blog post as the title. Bad Monika.
“Your proposal is not a novel”
This has the same issue as the title above. It’s the idea for the blog post, not a clear, optimized title that someone can find in a Google search.
As for headings, well, they followed the same mistakes I outlined above: They were not full thoughts, nor were they formatted with heading tags. Live and learn.
Related: Top Social Media Marketing Best Practices to Amplify Your Efforts