Your headlines need to be enticing enough to grab the reader’s attention within the first few fractional seconds on the search engine results page. According to Matthew Davies Stockton, this may seem really impossible when there are thousands or millions of articles on the internet with similar content and all the authors have tried their best. However, there are some easy techniques that can help you frame that perfect headline.
The Techniques
1. Use positivity and happy thoughts
According to research done with samples of over 5 million headlines, your headlines work if they have a positive tone and convey a happy thought. This may be caused due to the build-up of emotions and positive benefits one might expect from sharing such content in their social circle.
When it comes to anticipation, emotions really play a massive role and dictate the way you respond to satiate your curiosity. Moreover, due to the stress-induced by fast-paced jobs, a happy and positive headline may get more shares and retweets if it cheers up your audience, even for a moment. Make sure to frame your headline with common, emotional, and powerful words that are simple to understand, but aren’t really used in daily conversation.
2. Keep it concise and simple
Your readers should be able to know about the topic of your blog or article by reading as many as 5 words of your headline. Nowadays, most people consume news or online content on their mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
So, they may have a small real estate for reading your content. With short and simple headlines, you can make use of larger font sizes to grab the attention of your reader, especially if you are able to convey clearly about the topic within just 5 or 6 words. You can also use numbers and statistics in your headlines since they work better for some topics.
3. Tease the story
In the competitive journalistic and blogging space of 2020, click-baiting has become really common. While websites and bloggers have gained more hits due to such headlines, they have lost reputation as well.
Instead of going that route, you can build anticipation in your audience by structuring your headline in the form of a mind-blowing Hollywood movie trailer. That means you have to build the suspense, tease the story, and do it all within just a few short words without giving away the story.
4. “How to” and lists never fail
“How to” articles and blogs with lists really work well as headlines since they work well to grab the attention of your readers since they offer valuable information and also keep your readers hooked to your content. With a brainstorming session and numbered lists, you can really capture and grow a wide audience base if you are able to deliver on well thought out digestible content.
Conclusion
Matthew Davies Stockton suggests that you use and implement the above-mentioned tips to create your next catchy headline. You can also take into account your reader’s suggestion to create the most powerful headlines.
