Many years ago, people only used blogs for self-expression and to share information with others. Although blogs still serve these purposes, now blogging is a much more complex concept, and it’s closely related to content marketing. People search for information about various products online, and quite often, block posts turn out to be sources that provide users with the necessary information.

Your blog posts can be a very effective part of your marketing strategy. However, if you want them to fulfill their purpose, you should make sure that people will actually read them. One of the most important factors that influence a user’s decision to read something is the title. In this article, we will explain why having a strong title is important and provide you with some tips so that you can understand what makes a good title.

Why Blog Post Titles Are Important

The title of your post is the first thing people see. It determines the first impression of the whole post and your blog, in general. If you have lots of brilliant content but its titles are not interesting, the quality of your content won’t matter. As Tim Bradshaw, a freelance blogger & professional dissertation writer explains: “Titles enable people to discover your content and to understand whether or not it’s useful for them. If you manage to write titles that catch users’ attention, they will click on your posts when scrolling search results, stick around longer, and maybe, even visit your blog again.”

Besides, titles are important for SEO. If you want your blog to rank higher on search engines, you should pay your attention not only to the content itself but also to all the details, including the title and keywords in it. A perfect title should be intriguing and informative. Search engines like titles that give users some clues about the content of the post. Here are some tips on how to make your titles more interesting for visitors and more effective for SEO, at the same time.

1 Use numbers

Successful titles are specific, and the best way to be specific is to use numbers. According to research, people always prefer headlines that contain numbers, with at least a 15% margin. Headlines with numbers can help you not only attract attention but also establish your credibility. Another interesting thing about numbers is that odd numbers get 20% more clicks. If you have an even number of items, you can always use an odd number in the title. For instance, if your post is about the 24 tallest buildings in the world, you can write “23+ Tallest Buildings.” We could also title this article “5 Tips to Write Catchy Blog Title,” and include a bonus tip at the end.

2 Use questions

Another good approach is to use questions. This approach is quite straightforward — if you start a conversation with your readers with a question, they will want to learn the answer. Therefore, such headlines attract attention, generate curiosity, and are thought-provoking. For instance, if your post is titled “Do You Make These 5 Common Mistakes?” it will certainly get many clicks.

3 Use brackets and parentheses

You can also make your titles more engaging by using parentheses. According to research that focused on more than 3 million paid links, titles with brackets demonstrated a 38% better performance. You can use brackets to simply separate clauses, or you can use them more creatively. For instance, you can include additional benefits in parentheses, or you can use them to generate curiosity. For instance, an article like this one could be titled “6 Tips to Write Blog Post Titles (#5 Doubled Our Click-Through Rates).” In the same way, you can use parentheses to include some evidence that will increase your credibility.

4 Use the right keywords

If you want to SEO-optimize your blog and to get more traffic, you cannot ignore keywords. Keywords are important not only for search engines but also for people who use them. When your post appears in search results, the title and meta description are the only things users can see. We recommend that you always include relevant keywords in your titles and metadata to not only help search engines understand what your content is about but also to clearly indicate its main focus for users. This way, they’ll quickly understand whether or not your post is valuable. We also recommend that you include keywords closer to the beginning of a title.

5 Use colons and hyphens

Parentheses are not the only element that can improve your blog post titles. For instance, colons and hyphens can increase click-through rates by 9%. These elements can make your title look more unique, and they also enable you to write more interesting titles. For instance, a great approach is to start your title with a keyword, add a colon or hyphen, and then provide details or explanations. For instance, this article could be titled “Write Catchy Titles: 6 Proven Tips.” Thanks to this simple approach, you can also play with the structure of your titles, making sure that they are original.

6 Try negative headlines

According to research, headlines that include negative words like “stop,” “don’t,” or “never” demonstrate a 30% better performance than titles without them. Moreover, if you add words like “best,” “amazing,” etc., your title will demonstrate a 29% worse performance. The reason is that positive superlatives are extremely overused. A title with such words will not only lose its originality but also attract less attention. We recommend that you experiment with negative headlines. For instance, instead of using the title “7 Ways to Lose Weight,” you can write “Don’t Do These 7 Things If You Want to Gain Weight.”

Wrapping Up

Titles of your blog posts determine whether internet users will want to click on a link or simply scroll down the page with search results. We recommend that you follow our tips and improve your titles so that they will not only look interesting but also improve your SEO results. Good titles are informative and intriguing. Maintaining a balance between these two characteristics is all about practice so don’t be afraid to combine different approaches and to experiment.