5 Secrets to Mastering Headline Writing

The whole point of writing blog posts is to share them. But what actually gets shared? When people want to share your work on social media, what do they use to do it? Your headline.

2 million blog posts are created daily but 80% of readers never make it past the headline

It's a pretty harsh world we live in for creating the perfect headline. Captivating an audience is getting harder and harder with the amount of content that is being pushed on us every day. But here are some tips that should help.

1. Numbers, lists, a step-by-step. It's true, readers are mesmerized by lists. The simple contrast of a letter to a number naturally draws attention just like contrasting colors. Readers want a quick read, something they can scan through and take away quick tips from. Think about using words like Ways, Tricks, Techniques, Steps, Tips...
2. Define with simplicity. By this I mean clearly articulate what you'll be covering in your post, but keep it as short and simple as you can. Offer something valuable to the reader and let them know your post is worth reading, but do it with few words. Remember, headlines need to be retweetable. Aim for 75 characters or less.
3. Use strong adjectives. Use words that will stick out to people. You want to make your audience interested in your topic. Adding adjectives to your headlines like amazing, best, ultimate, surprising, smartest, could be the difference between a click and a scroll.
4. Focus on punctuation. Headlines that have a colon, hyphen, or question mark are proven to do better than others. Asking the reader a question draws them in. And like numbers, punctuation helps catch the reader's eye.
5. Keywords. The use of topic keywords is specifically good for google. If you have keywords in your headline, and people are searching for these words, your blog post will rank better. Not only that, but it makes it clear to the reader what you'll be discussing.

Once you get used to cranking out headlines, it should get easier and easier. My advice? Write a bunch and choose the best one.