The blog post title is the first thing, and oftentimes the only thing, that a reader or web visitor will see of your blog post. How do you engage them with just a headline? How do you get them to read more? The key isn't necessarily what you write about, but how you communicate the substance of your blog post in those six, eight, or ten words (blog post headlines should not be any longer than that). Here are the six crucial components to great blog post headlines:
- Actionable - An actionable blog post title means one that tells the reader what they will be doing, or what they will know how to do once they finish reading your blog post. Readers want to learn something, or at least have something to take away from your blog post once they read it, so an actionable blog post title will let them know that this particular post is for them.
- Keyword-Conscious - Of course, you can't forget keywords in your blog article headlines! It's possible to include them in your title and throughout your post without ruining the density or the quality of the content. For best SEO results, try and put your keyword in the beginning of the blog post title, but we understand that this isn't always possible. Also, try to keep it to one keyword per title, even if the post has the possibility to rank for several keywords.
- Brief - Although anywhere between six and eight words is a great guideline for blog post titles, you essentially want your headlines to be short and punchy. They should be concise and to-the-point, not wordy or complicated. Another good rule of thumb is to shorten your title where possible. For example, use 6 instead of 'six' or '&' for 'and', or remove articles such as 'the', 'an', and 'a' (like in the title for this post, as it's not 'the 6 crucial components).
- Clear - Great blog post titles make is very obvious to the reader what the article is about. They are not vague. They are not confusing. They do not include a play on words (as you only risk confusion, as clever as a play on words can be). For example, the blog post title,
- Definitive - One of the main purposes of business blogging is to develop and to maintain thought leadership. You are not going to do that if your blog post titles are not definitive, if they do not convey confidence in the ideas that are communicated. Avoid questions as blog post headlines, and use strong, confident language in your blog post titles.
- Intriguing/Interesting - Let's face it, "Components to Writing Blog Post Titles", is an incredibly boring title. Including words like 'crucial' and 'great' make this post that much more intriguing, and do a better job of communicating how awesome it would be to read this blog and to come with great blog post titles. Great blog post titles beat confusing and vague titles, and they also beat boring and bland titles that don't show how interesting the blog post really is.
Related Links:
How to Make Your Blog Article Titles More Search Engine Friendly
Blog Article Headlines: A List of Some of the Worst Out There