Rory Stobo, Chief Copywriter at Sookio, writes:
Eighty per cent of people, when confronted with any piece of writing, read the headline and nothing else. So, surely, it logically follows that 80p of every pound you spend on marketing should be going on crafting a winning title, along with 80% of the time you spend writing.
Is that the case for your blog?
Thought not.
In most cases, this just isn’t feasible. But that oft-quoted stat from Uncle Og demonstrates how critical it is to nail a title which commands the reader to engage with the bulk of what you’ve written.
Until they come up with an algorithm to enable AI to write our headlines for us, all we’ve got is good old-fashioned copywriting know-how which, as always, we’re happy to share with you.
Get to the pointYou love what you do, and you’re excited about the topic you’re addressing, that’s what makes a great blog. But first, you’ve got to get someone to read it. Most casual readers, in the course of their browsing, will scan over dozens of blog titles before they see something that tickles their fancy.
Your blog title needs to be that fancy-tickler.
What is a reader supposed to be getting out of your blog? Put that right at the front, before any fluffy subtitles, and don’t hide your selling point behind flowery language.
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People give the tabloids a bad rap when it comes to shoehorning puns, but look at this example from the Daily Mirror. No nonsense, just a straight declaration of what the piece is about to catch as much of that sniffly November traffic as possible.
Length mattersHow long should a blog title be? Some people say ten words, some eight, some 12. Others count characters instead of words. In reality, titles need to be long enough to get the job done, and not one full stop longer.
Be ruthless when condensing your titles. If you think something is particularly clever or witty, but it isn’t doing the job of driving traffic; either drop it or move it to the body copy.
Read your title out aloud, ideally to a colleague. If it sounds cumbersome on the tongue, it’s going to sound cumbersome in someone’s head.
Remember also that different social media platforms prioritise different lengths. Twitter likes eight to 12 words, while Facebook prefers a more discursive 12-14, according to Hubspot. If you rely heavily on one platform for traffic, tailor your titles to keep the almighty algorithm happy.
Vice is awesome when it comes to short, snappy titles which capture the feel of a piece without giving the game away. This example right here is a titillating self-contained tale which ends on a cliffhanger. What’s a happiness museum? Why did it make the author sad? You’re drawn in beautifully, and it’s all done in the space of ten words.
Sod SEOOk, we’re all grownups now. We can admit to ourselves that those years spent bending our content around the latest SEO rumour only ever resulted in weird, inhuman-sounding copy. Cheeky attempts to game the system are never a substitute for knowing your audience, and producing useful, informative, or entertaining content for them.
User behaviour is vital to your site’s health, and it’s only going to become more important as time goes on and Google’s creepy journey towards AI Overlord status reaches its dystopian climax.
You should be including a keyword in your title because it interests your audience, not to tick a box with the Big G. Conversely, you should avoid stuffing your title with keywords because it’s bad writing, not out of fear of being penalised.
Read the rest of this post on the Sookio blog.