Relevance is important because it helps readers ascertain very quickly if your post is worth reading. Remember, people’s time is scarce and they are very selective about what they’ll take the trouble to read, so if it’s not immediately apparent to them that the content on the page is exactly what the headline implied it would be, or that there is a clear benefit, reward or other worthwhile reason for reading your post – they probably won’t.
2. BE SPECIFIC ABOUT THE SUBJECT MATTER AND THE INTENDED AUDIENCE.
When you promote a piece of content, your aim shouldn’t be for the whole world to read it, because let’s face it – it’s not going to interest everyone on the planet. Rather, your aim should be for the headline to appeal to YOUR desired audience, and one way to appeal specifically to them is by being super precise about who the post is for in the headline itself.
FOR EXAMPLE:
“Felix” might write a post titled “The Most Incredible Discovery since Sliced Bread!” and get a HUGE click-through rate, because who wouldn’t want to find out about such an incredible discovery, right?
The problem is, that the bounce rate on that post would likely be phenomenally high, because most of the clickers have no interest in learning about newly-discovered attributes of yeast that can cut the production time of bread by half (yes, “Felix” in this example – owns a bakery). It might be super interesting for baking enthusiasts or chefs, but the non-bakers and non-chef readers would realize within seconds that the post isn’t interesting to them at all, and move off the page faster than you could say “sourdough” (and be quite deflated about it too).
But had the headline read “Bakers rejoice! Newly-discovered yeast properties stand to halve bread production time”, it’s highly likely that only people who care about baking bread would bother clicking through to read the post, and undoubtedly “ooh” and “ahhh” with excitement while reading it.
HERE’S ANOTHER EXAMPLE:
If you came across a post titled “What you need to know about the top 5 fish everyone loves to eat”, there are several possible angles that may have been used to write the post, but not all of them may apply to you based on your specific interest. For example, it may be about:
1. How to prepare and cook these five types of fish (which would interest people searching for recipes or cooking tips).
2. Tips on how to catch these five types of fish (which would interest fishing enthusiasts).
3. Health benefits of eating these five types of fish (which would interest people who are looking for tips on health, nutrition or dietary information).
4. Interesting trivia about these five types of fish (which would interest people searching for scientific/trivia about fish).
If you write a headline that’s too general, it might be overlooked by the audience it was intended for, because its specific relevance to them wasn’t specified clearly enough in the headline. Or, certain people may click on it because they think the post might interest them, but bounce right off as soon as they realize it doesn’t, which isn’t great for your website’s SEO.
A more specific way to word the headlines so that each audience would instantly know whether the post is relevant to them would be:
1. For the cooks: “Mouthwatering recipes featuring the top 5 fish everyone loves to eat”
2. For the fishing enthusiasts: “Everything you need to know about where and how to catch the top 5 fish everyone loves to eat”
3. For the health conscious: “Nutritional benefits of the top 5 fish everyone loves to eat”
4. For the trivia buffs: “Interesting facts you may not know about top 5 fish everyone loves to eat”
3. BE TRUTHFUL: MAKE SURE YOUR CONTENT DELIVERS ON THE HEADLINE’S ‘PROMISE’ IN ORDER TO MAXIMIZE DWELL TIME.
People are curious creatures by nature, so a sensationalist or ‘juicy’ headline that plays on our psychological fear of missing out (FOMO) on something that’s potentially a ‘must-know’ (a.k.a. clickbait) may well earn the writer a click. But most of us also hate being fooled into doing something we might have otherwise avoided had we been presented with truthful and accurate information, so using clickbait in headlines is generally counterproductive for two main reasons:
1. It almost always backfires, with readers bouncing off the page feeling annoyed and misled, resulting in high bounce rates and low dwell time, which can reflect very poorly on your site’s ranking in SERPs.
2. It can damage your online reputation, because if you consistently write headlines that fail to live up to their promise in the post itself, people may eventually avoid clicking on any headline that is attributed to you as its author or to your blog, ruining your credibility as a reliable source of content.
The more accurately your headline describes the content that awaits readers once they click on it, the less chance they will be disappointed by the content they actually find and the more inclined they will be to spend time engaging with it.
SIDE NOTE: IS CLICKBAIT ALWAYS A BAD THING? (TL;DR: Yep).
Writers, journalists and reporters have always tried to craft headlines that make people want to read beyond the headline to the article itself. It’s not a new phenomenon that began with the advent of the internet or blogging, and there’s nothing wrong with crafting clickable headlines. On the contrary, knowing how to craft highly-clickable headlines is actually more crucial now than ever before, which is the whole point of this post.
But there’s a difference between writing an irresistible headline that delivers what it implies it will within the article or post, and writing a headline that’s as juicy as possible just so people click on it, but then lets them down with content that’s either totally irrelevant or really bad.
I have personally seen cases where marketers used the term ‘clickbait’ to describe headlines that ‘get clicked’ almost as a badge of honor, ignoring what the word really means and using it nonchalantly as a term that’s synonymous with ‘highly clickable headlines’. But although the term does imply high clickability, it’s wrong to use it to describe a standard we should aspire to, because by definition – it’s a term that implies a shady approach to writing.
The reason clickbait is always bad is already mentioned in the word itself – because it’s about baiting people to click on something that they may not have clicked on otherwise, had they known the content that awaited them didn’t satisfy their expectations or search intent post-click.
Just because clickbait is so prevalent throughout the internet doesn’t mean that it should be tolerated as an acceptable and irreversible aspect of our reality. Just as marketers need to continue to condemn email spammers who taint the reputation and perception of the email marketing industry as a whole – email being such an effective channel for most modern marketers (and a ‘preferred method of communication’ for consumers) – so too must content creators continue to work towards discouraging the use of clickbait as a writing tactic to lure readers to a piece of content that over-promises, under-delivers or blatantly misleads.
A great content creator is one who can not only create great, worthwhile content (obviously!) but also write a headline that sums it up and “sells” it both irresistibly and accurately – so there’s no chance readers could ever feel like they were duped into clicking it.
Instead of aspiring to write clickbait headlines that almost always get clicked but cause readers to drop like flies once they realize the destination page is a sham, it’s far smarter to write FOMO click-worthy headlines that deliver on the readers’ expectations or search intent with content that’s relevant and useful.
4. USE A RELEVANT KEYWORD OR SEARCH PHRASE TO HELP YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE ZERO IN ON YOUR BLOG POST.
The use of keywords in headlines is arguably no longer as essential as it once was, because Google’s algorithms now look at the content on the page itself as well to determine its relevance to a particular search query. But in some cases, using a keyword or a highly searchable phrase that’s trending among your target audience can work wonders if you want to attract a very specific niche.
5. BE ENTERTAINING BY UPPING THE LEVEL OF INTRIGUE, HUMOR OR WIT.
Many copywriting experts warn against trying to be ‘clever’ when writing headlines, suggesting that using metaphors, analogies, cuteness or cryptic nuances is not as effective as writing something straightforward. But there’s a difference between trying to do all those ‘clever’ things badly (resulting in cringe-worthy headlines that actually turn people off) and doing all of those things really well.
Perhaps inexperienced writers might struggle with this technique (which is totally understandable), so they should stick with other effective techniques instead. But if you’re a seasoned writer who can pull it off with relative ease, then go for it!
A genuinely creative or entertaining headline is a welcome breath of fresh air in a sea of repetitive, dull and predictable titles. Just be sure to keep the intrigue, wit or humor – honest and relevant so it can’t be misconstrued as clickbait.
6. LEVERAGE URGENCY, TRENDING TOPICS AND NEWSWORTHINESS.
There are always new happenings and fads popping up in the news or in popular culture, and if they’re relevant to your brand or business, you could potentially leverage those trending topics by creating new posts or (even repurposing old ones) that tie back to your own offering, and generate renewed interest thanks to the timely relevance of the headlines.
7. SOLVE A PROBLEM OR TEACH SOMETHING.
Another way to boost the appeal of a headline for a post that offers a solution to something is to highlight a clear (and ideally unique) benefit. For example you could write something like “How to cure a headache with Acme pain relief tablets”, which is relevant to someone who’s got a headache but may not compel them enough to click on it if they haven’t heard of (or have any inclination to buy) Acme pain relief tablets. Or, you could explain the advantage of using Acme pain relief tablets in the headline itself, which may be more compelling because the person with the headache would want to find out more about that unique advantage. For example: “How Acme pain relief’s fast-acting formula can cure your headache with absolutely zero drowsiness”.
9. POSE A QUESTION, USE CONTROVERSY, OR TRY TO TRIGGER AN EMOTIONAL REACTION.
Posing the headline as a question or a statement that suggests controversy or intrigue can really make a reader sit up and take notice, especially if it happens to strike a chord. This tip isn’t always appropriate because not all topics lend themselves to stirring emotion, but if it is appropriate to write a headline that triggers emotion, then it stands a good chance of being clicked by someone who feels strongly about it. For example: “Five experts weigh in on why the Game of Thrones finale was the worst ending to a TV series (ever)”, or “Why the world would be a better place if we all quit social media immediately” etc.
10. ADD AN IRRESISTIBLE HINT OR BENEFIT.
There’s a right way and a wrong way to use this technique. The wrong way is the classic clickbait-style headline that opens with something dramatic or sensationalist, and continues with a shameless hook like “you won’t believe what happened next” or “what happened next will blow your mind”. While many people still succumb to this type of headline, more savvy readers know better than to click on something that will most likely be a predictably trashy read.
But the concept of writing a ‘regular’ headline and then adding a mini-teaser or ‘bonus’ at the end can be extremely effective at piquing people’s curiosity. As long as your ‘irresistible teaser’ refers to something specific in your post without being too cryptic or overly sensationalist, then your headline will be deliciously intriguing while remaining perfectly respectable. For example, “How to bake the ultimate chocolate brownie (HINT: Chocolate has nothing to do with it)”.
12. CONSIDER THE HEADLINE’S LENGTH.
People don’t just scan blog posts, they scan headlines too.
There have been many studies on how the length of a headline impacts on its effectiveness, with research showing that people scan not just large chunks of text but also headlines, and that the parts of the headline that resonate most with readers when they’re in ‘scanning mode’ are the first and last three words, suggesting that the ideal length of a headline is six words. But obviously it’s not always possible to limit a headline to just six words, and in any case, recent studies suggest that very long headlines outperform short ones quite significantly:
Although headline length matters, the way it’s written matters most.
In my humble opinion, although headline length ‘matters’ in the sense that you don’t want to make it excessively long because it will look and sound ridiculous – and in general “less is more” – what matters most is the way it’s written, because in the end what compels people to click (or not click) is the psychological effect of the technique used to write the headline. It also doesn’t matter whether you see that headline in your social feed, as a subject line in your inbox, or in search results. Humans react instinctively to something that truly interests them so a headline can be highly compelling whether it contains six words or 16.
As Copy & Marketing coach Bnonn Tennant suggests, ”rather than focusing on counting the words, you should focus on “making each word count” (advice I wholeheartedly agree with!).
Next time you publish a post, make sure you aim not only for your headline to turns heads, but also for the post itself to be worth the effort for those who clicked on it.