80% of your readers will never make it past reading your headline. It’s a scary statistic but on average, 8 out of 10 people will read the headline copy but only 2 out of that 10 will start to read the rest of your blog.
At this time of writing, there have already been over 2 Million blogs published on the web today and we’re only approaching lunchtime! With such a large volume of content out there, do readers have time to read through your blog to see if it’s of any relevance to them? No! They tend to scan the headlines and if they don’t see any benefit to them, they will move on.
The secret to any blog is the importance of the headline. Use your headline to sell the benefits of your blog by summing up how you can affect the reader.
As a Cheshire web-design agency, we always advise our clients on the best ways to help your website grow, so by putting our preaching into practice, we are going to show you 4 secrets behind writing the perfect headline when submitting your content.
Why your business probably needs a blog
According to statistics provided by software developers Hubspot, local businesses that commit to regular blogging will receive 55% more web traffic and up to 70% more leads than local businesses that don’t. By consistently using keywords with realistic traffic, by submitting a weekly blog, chances are you will see an organic increase in local search as Google tend to favour local businesses for local search results.
However, it’s one thing to write a brilliant blog each week, if nobody is making it past the headline then you might as well not bother wasting your time and energy.
1. Tell your audience how they will benefit from your blog
Let’s take a closer look at the title of my blog as an example;
“4 Secrets on Writing the Perfect Blogging Headline”
Inside the first two words, the blogger not only outlines the intentions of their blog, they also suggest that if you are reading this, you may just learn something new. From a visitor’s perspective, I gain a clear indication on what I might take away from this and a rough idea on what kind of length it may be.
The word ‘Secrets’ is the inviting word here. There are a whole host of different words that you can use to draw the visitor in. For example try facts, lessons, ideas, ways, tricks or even reasons, all of which I have used in previous blog entries.
Moving into “Perfect Blogging Headline” we can dissect what the benefit or reward of reading the blog will be. If you have continued past reading the headline then I guess my headline really did work.
2. Numbers
I can’t quite put my finger on it but using examples such as “5 reasons why we are the best Cheshire web-design agency” clearly works to draw the visitor in.
If you look at any magazine, you will see headlines that contain numbers from the front-page right through to the very end. By using numbers, visitors are far more likely to remember the points made and the number will also give them a rough idea on how long the post will be.
There isn’t a definitive number that I can recommend, usually 3-5 are the most common but using random numbers such as 23 or 47 will catch the attention of the reader.
3. Keep it short and sweet
Honestly there isn’t one definitive answer on how long or short the title should be for your blog.
If you are looking to rank really well in local search, then the suggested length is to try and get the title under 70 characters which includes spaces. The reason why I picked 70 is because after 75, Google tends to cut off any extra characters in search results.
If you are looking for visitors to spread your message across a wave of social media, consider the character limits that that social media outlets may enforce. Let’s use Twitter for example; a typical tweet has a limit of 180 characters. If we use roughly 100 as the target, this allows you to add a host of other features such as the URL, an image or even hash-tags containing keywords.
4. Optimise the title using SEO focused keywords
Of all the secrets listed in this blog, this is probably the trickiest. Sometimes you can have a list of SEO keywords but they just don’t fit into the title without it looking strange. My biggest tip would be not to compromise the clarity of your message by adding keywords.
Be realistic with your choice of keywords. There is no point targeting keywords that are generic such as “hairdressers” because the competition will be so high, you will never come close. Using generators such as ‘Google Keywords’ provide you will useful information on the number of search terms per month which will give you a realistic estimate on how easy it is to reach page 1.
Let’s say we have our keywords, so let’s put an example together using the local hairdressers
“4 reasons why you should give Knutsford Hairdressers a try”
We have our keyword in the title with Knutsford Hairdressers and we have an interesting choice of topic by using the 4 reasons why the visitor should visit your blog.
Call to Action
It takes time to better understand the importance of blogging and the keys to a writing a successful headline. Try writing and experimenting with different headlines and look to monitor the interactions and visits to each blog post. If you would like to discuss the art of growing your website in more detail, why not get in touch with the Cheshire web-design experts. Give us a call on 01565 613606 or why not pop into the office over a coffee.