6 Tips for Writing Eye-Catching Headlines

Headlines always seem to be on the lines of “10 Things –Blank– Did, But When I Looked Closer, My Jaw Dropped” or “20 Things So Funny, You Can’t Help But Laugh”. Statistics show that 80 per cent of people read the headlines, but only 20 per cent end up reading the actual content. That makes the headline your ultimate moneymaker. But what are the odds of that happening?

Here are 6 tips for writing eye-catching headlines.

1. Practice

You know your audience and that’s why you painstakingly created the content in the first place. Now don’t take the headlines for granted. To get your headlines to be just as persuasive, if not more, you need to come up with more than a dozen titles for your article before you zero-in on one.

2. Keep it short

You can write a meta title that is just about 60 words, to be seen in search results, but the absolute ideal length of any headline is 6 words only. Six! The way most people read newspapers, people only scan headlines. Therefore, the least number of words gets you more attention.

3. Personalise

You have more chances of a reader avidly flicking through your content if they can actually relate to the article on a personal level. So consider adding “you” and “your” kind of possessive pronouns in your headlines. When you reference the reader, the reader is engaged instantly.

4. Use adjectives

Add interesting, eye-grabbing adjectives like essential or effortless. Such positive words tend to excite people and in that rush of adrenaline, they click through and want to read your content.

5. Use negative words

When you use negative words in your headlines like “no”, “don’t”, “stop” and others, it actually gets more attention than you think. Such words, in fact, bring out people’s insecurities to the fore, which then incentivises them to find the solution to those insecurities in your article.

6. Use numbers

People just don’t have any time to do anything these days. So, if they come across an article that says “6 ways you can –blank”, then they have a perceived notion that it’s going to be a short article or it’s going to be very efficient. The numbers should be written out in actual digits, not in words.

Conclusion

Remember these 6 tips to optimise your headlines to yield better traffic. Happy writing!

SOURCE: Freelancers Union