03.07.06

Writing good headlines will grow your traffic

Posted in Blogging for Profit at 12:14 am by admin

Believe it or not, people do judge a book by its cover. The headline and first sentence are the cover to your blog; they decide whether the reader will click the link and read the rest of the article, or just skim over it like all of the rest. This will not be news for those of you who are experienced web editors or who work in the media, but writing a good headline is one of the most important parts of successful blogging.  

I have written this phrase in many articles: Traffic = Money. Take a look at a screen capture of this Google search. In search engine results, the user is presented with the headline of your article and the first sentence. This is all that you have to grab attention to your blog, out of the 23 million other blogs out there. A good headline will grab the user’s eye; use keywords for searches, and write a lucrative first sentence leading up to your article to bring them to your site. A great headline will convey a message to the reader and leave them wanting to read more.

There are many different formats of a successful headline, and choosing the right one for you is a matter of personal preference, and context. A few formats which you may wish to experiment with are:

The Direct Headline: Going straight to the topic of the article with minimal BS.
This strategy goes straight to the heart of the matter with no beating around the bush. They also make no attempt to mislead the user as to the content of the article.
“65% of men don’t shut the lid”

The Indirect Headline: Using words with possible double meanings in order to raise curiosity.
This strategy uses a play on words in order to raise curiosity in the reader. The problem with the indirect headline is that it usually requires more thinking power from the reader and is usually not as effective as the direct headline.
“Double your website earnings by following these steps”

The Question Headline: This strategy uses a question as the headline in order to interact and empathize with the reader.
“Do you want to make money from your blog?”

The Action Headline: This headline gives the reader an instruction which they must follow.
Present this headline with a sense of urgency and reinforce why the user must read your article. Place action words in the beginning of the headline to reinforce this effect.
“Subscribe to the CyberWyre RSS feed and always be up to date”

The How-To Headline: For obvious reasons, this headline is only useful to describe an article which will actually teach the user something. This headline is one of the simplest to write because it simply states what is being taught.
“How To Increase Your Website Earnings”

First impressions do count. Your average Internet surfer will spend less than five seconds evaluating your article before moving on, and even less when scanning through dozens of search engine results. Make sure your site shines amongst the rest!

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