Writing content for your blog can be time-consuming and difficult. With all the effort to make your content great, why wouldn’t you spend time developing a title that is click-worthy?
In this post, I am going to cover 9 ways to improve your click-through rates. I will be using titles found in Google searches to explain how these writers are using the method.
To get the best results I recommend trying different approaches and measuring their success. You will find when using the right words your click-through rates will improve drastically.
Here are 7 ways I recommend to improve your blog post titles:
1. Use Numbers in Your Title
Using numbers in titles will give the reader a specific expectation of the content provided or an interesting figure that sparks curiosity. Either way, the reader will be clicking on the title to find out more. Here are a couple of examples of this title in action:
The first example is searching Google for blogging tips. The results page is filled with titles like:
20 Actionable Blogging Tips for Beginners (From Ahrefs)
This second example I pulled from a search of site:problogger.com. This is one of the most successful blogs about blogging. The title I chose was:
15 Questions to Ask Before Publishing Your Next Post (Problogger)
Both of these titles use numbers to provide clarity to the content they are delivering. Another interesting point with these titles is they both give the reader steps to take that will deliver on a goal.
2. Use Powerful Words
Power words are words that elicit a response from the reader. They are words that are used to convey certain thoughts. For example, if you wrote a blog post which of these sentences would make you feel better:
“It looks beautiful!”
“It’s fine”
Both of these sentences convey to the writer that their writing is adequate, but the first packs so much more punch. If you want to motivate your readers use powerful wording in your titles as well as throughout the posts.
Here is a list of 700 power words.
3. Make a Bold Statement
While online I read hundreds to thousands of Titles daily. They are everywhere! Social media, news, search engines, email, and video platforms are all filled with titles.
The biggest mistake a person can make is by using a title that does not separate from the pack. Let’s take Twitter as an example. This is a platform where people are able to send out a very small amount of information (280 characters).
Twitter reports that there are 500 million tweets every day. If you want attention to your post then you will need to do something to stand out. Using a bold statement is a great way to increase the likelihood that someone will actually read your content.
Here are a couple of examples of bold statements about blogging:
Blogging is Dead and Here is Why
Social Marketing will Destroy your Blog
4. Create a Sense of Urgency
A blog post title that conveys a sense of urgency is an excellent way to increase the clickthrough rate of your titles. Urgency gives the reader a reason to click through to your article right now.
A title that suggests a time-sensitive topic or a limited-time opportunity creates a sense of urgency and prompts readers to take action immediately, rather than bookmarking the article for later or simply scrolling past it.
It can also increase the likelihood of social sharing and generate more traffic to the blog, as readers are more likely to share content that they perceive as valuable and time-sensitive. In short, a blog post title with a sense of urgency is an effective way to cut through the noise and make an impact in a crowded online space.
5. The How to Title
This is by far the most common title type on the web. Usually, a blogger will write a how-to article based on keyword research.
To find questions within your niche simply type some keywords into Google. In most cases, Google will have an area called “People also ask”. This is a group of questions that people have about the topic and have researched for in Google.
I typed “blogging” into Google. It generated several questions people ask about blogging. Here are some of the questions that popped into “the people also ask”:
How do bloggers get paid?
How do I start a blog with no experience?
How do I start blogging?
As you can see all of these questions should be within a blog about blogging. Setting up the how-to title is simply turning the questions into a statement. These questions turned into how to articles would be:
How to Make Money Blogging
Starting a Blog With no Experience
How to Start a Blog
6. Creating a List
Lists are another very common and powerful blog post title. List-post titles usually have a number within them.
The reason list posts are successful is they give the reader multiple options for their query. It is always nice when searching for a service, product, or information to have a choice between competing items.
Some examples of list posts would be:
The 5 best blog sites in 2022
10 Best Blogging Sites (in 2023)
7. Offer a Solution
People use search, social sites, and video platforms for several reasons. These can usually be broken down into the broad categories of informational needs, entertainment needs, and commercial needs.
Successful content creators are successful because they fill a person’s need. When developing a blog post’s title, ensure you are clearly stating how the content you are publishing will fill your audience’s need.
Once you have your perfect title, it is time to begin building a blog post outline.