How to Make a Headline More Compelling

5 Steps on How to Make a Headline More Compelling for an Attractive CTR

You have probably heard the saying that “the headline is the most important part of an article.” This is especially true when it comes to online content, where readers are bombarded with choices and need to be able to quickly and easily identify which articles are worth their time. Whether you are rewriting a headline or creating a new one, we’re sharing 5 steps on how to make a headline more compelling!

We’ll discuss the definition of a headline and why nailing it is essential. Next, we’ll cover how to successfully improve your headlines by taking into consideration what your user wants, brainstorming ideas, putting those improvements into action and finally measuring their effectiveness.

What is a Headline?

A headline is the most important element on a page. Headlines are what draw people in and give them a reason to keep reading. A good headline will make people want to learn more about your topic, while a bad headline will turn them away.

For blog posts and web pages, your headline is the H1 tag. This is the largest and most important headline on the page, so it’s important to make sure it’s compelling. There should only be one H1 heading on your page or post so that google understands what the most important topic is.

Importance of Engaging Headlines

The goal of many blogs and articles is to earn money through various means to support the business and the content creators.

A good headline is one of the most important elements in achieving that goal because it can make or break whether someone will read your content. A well-written headline can mean the difference between getting clicks and shares or being ignored entirely.

In the data shared by Backlinko, we can see that headlines in the #1 position have a CTR of 27.6%, which is 10X more clicks than headlines in the 10th position.

CTR by google position
CTR by google position

And 10X more clicks could mean 10X more revenue!

Now let’s look at some factors related to improving an existing headline or starting from scratch.

Rewriting an Existing Headline

Can you change an existing headline? Of course you can!

Simply go into your blog post or page and change the H1 title tag to your new and improved headline!

You don’t need to change the URL (aka slug or permalink) unless it no longer reflects your content. It’s best practice to keep your url clean and concise so that you won’t have to keep adjusting it whenever you want to test out a new headline. There is a great article on Hubspot on this topic!

Some reasons for improving a headline include:

  • It’s not attention-grabbing enough (low CTR)
  • It doesn’t accurately reflect the content
  • It’s been used too many times before and is now overused/cliche
  • It’s not SEO-friendly
  • It’s too long or too short
  • You’re simply not happy with it

Not sure if your headlines are up to par? Keep reading and we’ll tell you how to test them so that you can get the best CTR possible.

Creating a Headline For a New Blog Post

Some content creators like to write their blog posts first and THEN come up with a title. While others (like myself) like to come up with an attention-grabbing headline FIRST and then write the blog post around that.

I prefer the latter because I feel like it allows me to better focus my content and stay on topic. What’s more, it allows me to fulfill the promises made in the heading (such as “7 Ways to….” or “How to…”.)

The choice is yours! Experiment with each method and see which one you prefer.

Subheadings Can Be Compelling Too!

Subheadings can follow similar rules to make your content engaging. After you’ve written your headline, you can add subheadings (H2, H3 tags) throughout your post. Google loves content that is well-organized with headlines and subheadings because it makes for a great user experience.

Your subheadings should be related to your main headline and give readers a sense of what to expect in the section below.

Steps to Make A Headline More Compelling

1. Know your reader

Your #1 priority when writing an article or blog post should always be your reader. Keep their interests above all else, including making money. Making a headline that is inspiring enough for readers to click is key if you want to make any sort of profit.

Content needs to cover a specific need for the user, whether it be for learning, being inspired or being entertained.

Reflect on the perspective of your buyer persona – think about what you solve with your content and what value proposition it offers. 

Perhaps you offer a solution to balancing fitness goals with a busy family life, how to stand out in the digital marketing world or how to travel the world on a budget.

2. Generate Ideas

Start by brainstorming a list of words and phrases related to your topic. Be sure to include your keywords for SEO. Once you have a good list going, try to put them together in a way that’s both attention-grabbing and accurate.

As we’ve learned, your headline is critical to increasing your CTR. And generating a compelling headline isn’t always easy. Writer’s block is the bane of every writer’s existence!

“Don’t waste time waiting for inspiration. Begin, and inspiration will find you.” 

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Here are a few ideas to jump-start your headline writing:

Headlines in the Industry

Check out other headlines in your industry. See what’s working well for them and adapt it for your use. Just be sure not to plagiarize!

ADD MORE HERE

Headline Idea Generator

There are a few headline-generation tools out there that can help you come up with compelling headlines (or even ideas for your next piece!). With the use of these tools, you can see how to mix numbers and emotion with power words to make your headline enticing for clicks.

Keep in mind that these tools aren’t perfect! Sometimes the headlines it generates don’t even make sense. These headline idea generators are meant to give you some ideas – take these and make them better with the tips you’ve learned above.

Best (FREE) Headline Idea Generators:

Content Row Headline Generator
Content Row Headline Generator
Content Row Headline Generator

Content Row’s Headline Generator is not only effective for creating clickable headlines, but it also ranks the headings with scores that reflect their effectiveness.

Once you enter your topic, it generates a list of headlines. You can filter headlines by score, but you’ll need to sign up first to use any filters.

Here are the headlines that Content Row generated using the word “headlines”:

  • This Will Fundamentally Cange the Way You Look at Headlines (Score 55)
  • 14 Hilarious Tweets About Headlines (Score 80)
  • Everything You Need to Know About Headlines (Score 55)
  • 7 Ways Marketers Are Making You Addicted to Headlines (Score 60)
  • Looking AheadL The Future of Headlines in 2023
Portent's Content Idea Generator
Portent’s Content Idea Generator
Portent’s Idea Generator

Head over to the Portent Idea Generator and type in the topic of your article or blog post. Click to see what it generates! If you don’t like the headline, you can click “See Another Title” as many times as you like!

Here is a sample of the headlines it generated for the topic “headlines”:

  • Warning: You’re Losing Money by Not Using Headlines
  • 18 Reasons Headlines are Sweeter than Christmas Morning
  • 18 Insane (But True) Things About Headlines
  • The Complete Beginners Guide to Headlines
  • Why Headlines are Harder than Acing the SAT’s
  • How a Top Model Makes Headlines Work
  • 20 Reasons You Should Be Talking About Headlines
  • What Everyone is Saying About Headlines
  • 13 Least Favourite Headlines
Hubspot Idea Generator
Hubspot Idea Generator
Hubspot Blog Ideas Generator

Hubspot is typically an excellent resource however, their blog topic (headline) generator was less than stellar. It only generates 5 ideas and requires your email address and contact details to unlock 250 more ideas.

After some testing, we found it generated the same 5 titles regardless of the topic you use. To save you time, we’ve compiled a list of other great headline generators for you to try (above).

Here is what Hubspot generated:

  • Great Headlines: Expectations VS Reality
  • Will Title Ever Rule the Word?
  • The Next Big Thing in Headlines
  • Headlines Explained in Fewer than 140 Characters
  • This Week’s Top Stories About Headlines

Take a Break For Fresh Ideas

If you can’t seem to think of a catchy headline, go do something else for a while! Sometimes the best way to come up with an idea is to take a break and allow your mind to reset. So go for a walk outside, meditate or complete another task that doesn’t require too much thought.

When you’re ready, come back and continue brainstorming. You might be surprised at the ideas that come to you when you least expect them.

“If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to ­music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, don’t just stick there scowling at the problem. But don’t make telephone calls or go to a party; if you do, other people’s words will pour in where your lost words should be. Open a gap for them, create a space. Be patient.”

Hilary Mantel

And there you have it! With a headline now in mind, let’s explore how to make improvements so that people will want to click on it.

3. Make It Better

Include Your Keyword

More for SEO than anything else, make sure to include your focus keyword in your headline. This not only helps with ranking, but it also gives the reader an indication of what they can expect from reading your article.

Since people generally look at the beginning of a headline first, it’s best to place your keyword closer to the start. Otherwise, you might chance having your keyword cut off if it appears near the end of the title.

Numbers & Parenthesis

You’ve probably noticed that a lot of headlines include numbers or are written in parenthesis. And there’s a reason for that!

When you see a number in a headline, your brain automatically processes it as a listicle (i.e. an article with a list). People love lists because they are organied, easy to read and have a defined ending.

Numbers can also be used to let the reader know that the article has been updated for this year.

Content Marketing Institute found that odd numbers in headlines are 20% more likely to be clicked on than even numbers. https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/headline-click-through-rate/

While Buzzfeed found that the number 10 in a headline listicle outranked the second most popular number, 15, by 142%.

Content Marketing Institute has gone a step further to recommend using 2 numbers in a headline.   Like this example from Hubspopt: “11 Conversion Copywriting Tips That Grew Our Revenue by 240%”.

The first number is inviting to the reader, while the second number tells the reader what they stand to gain.

Examples of Headlines Using Numbers:

  • 7 Tips to a Happier Life
  • 5 Steps to Mental Wellbeing
  • The Top Facebook Updates You Need to Know in 2022

Parenthesis are also effective in getting people to click because they make the headline more clickable. By adding context or an explanation, you’re essentially giving the reader a preview of what they can expect from the article. And if it’s something that interests them, they’ll be more inclined to click.

Evidence supporting parenthesis comes from research done by Outbrain in 2013/2014. They analyzed Hubspot’s data from 3.3 million paid link headlines. Here is their finding about brackets:

“Headlines with bracketed clarifications (eg., [photos], [interview], , [slideshow], etc.) performed 38% better than headlines without clarificationhs, suggesting readers are more likely to click when that have a clear picture of what lies behind the headline.”

Hubspot & Outbrain

Examples of Headlines Using Parenthesis:

  • How To Write Better Blog Headlines (Even If You’re A Complete Beginner)
  • How to Create Content That Gets Traffic and Makes You Money [Free Training!]
  • 11 Workouts That Don’t Feel Like Exercise [Video]

Power Words

You want to make sure your headline packs a punch. And the best way to do that is by using what are known as power words. Power words are words that evoke an emotional response or create a sense of urgency.

They should be useful to the reader and read naturally to avoid becoming a clickbait headline that under-delivers.

Headline Length

The ideal length is about 55 characters. When titles are too long (beyond 60 characters), they tend to get cut off in search results which can make them less effective.

Once you’ve made improvements to your headline, you can take some time to analyze it before publishing it.

4. Headline Analyzers

Once you think you’ve come up with the perfect headline, it’s time to test it out! Several different headline analyzers can help you see how effective your headline is.

Here are a few of our favourites:

CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
CoSchedule Headline Analyzer

CoSchedule Headline Analyzer

The CoSchedule Headline Analyzer is a great tool that analyzes your headline and gives it a Headline Score and SEO Score out of 100, as well as feedback on what you can improve.

The Headline Score, evaluates factors such as word balance (power words, emotional words, common words, positive words and negative words), word count, character count, headline type, reading grade level, sentiment, clarity, and skimmability.

The SEO Score, evaluates the keyword, quality, keyword density, average monthly searches, search competition, keyword trend, search preview, and headline competition.

We tested it out on the headline “7 Ways Marketers Are Making You Addicted to Headlines” and here are the results:

All in One SEO (AIOSEO)

This one is similar to CoSchedule’s headline analyzer, but with the added benefit of a WordPress plugin. You can evaluate your heading right in WordPress!

5. Testing Your Headline

One of the best ways to see if your headline is effective is to examine how it performs once you’ve published your post or page. One method to evaluate the headline is to calculate the click-through rate (CTR).

CTR is calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions.

CLICKS ➗ IMPRESSIONS = CLICK-THROUGH RATE (CTR)

*to find the CTR percentage, multiply the CTR by 100

You can find this information using Google Search Console. It’s FREE and easy to use, and it will show you if people are finding your site and clicking through to it.

To get started, add your website to Search Console and click on “Performance” in the left sidebar. Next click on “Pages”. Here you will see a list of all your pages with the corresponding clicks and impressions.

Next, follow the formula above to determine the CTR for your headlines to determine which ones are working and which ones aren’t. Keep in mind that the CTR decreases the further your headline appears down the search list.

For example, if you’re in the #1 position on a google search you can expect a 27.6% CTR, while a #10 position would yield a 2.4% CTR.

TIP: to easily examine ALL of your headlines, use the export feature in Google Search. It will export various reports so you want the one labelled “pages”. You’ll find a full list of all your URLs with impressions, clicks as well CTR calculated for you.

Keep in mind other factors that affect the CTR including the meta description, image and more!

Now that we know the steps to make a headline more compelling, let’s talk about current research on headlines for social media and clickbait headlines.

Rewriting Headlines for Social Media

What about headlines for social media? Should they be different? According to research, yes!

Did you know that journalists rewrite some headlines specifically for social media platforms in order to generate more engagement?

“The findings revealed that the routine of rewriting or adapting headlines on Facebook in contemporary journalism is rather common and that this rewriting is done with an eye toward injecting elements that better align with the social media logic, consequently magnifying its impact on engagement.”

Sage Journals

This study examined 10,579 headlines from 5 media outlets. Of this data, 3,163 articles were repurposed for social media, with half of the headlines being rewritten.

The data showed that the headlines which were rewritten were significantly different from the original, but with only subtle changes. These changes increased performance on social media by 52%!

Here are some of the differences they discovered when headlines were rewrtten for Facebook. The headlines were:

  • simplified
  • less characters and words
  • lower word length
  • more exclamation marks
  • preference for negative headlines
  • preference for question-based headlines

The headlines that contained one of the features below resulted in an INCREASE of Facebook interactions by 5% to 53%:

  • using emotive words
  • containing numbers
  • containing exclamation marks

The headlines that contained one of the features below resulted in a DECREASE of Facebook interactions by 25% to 38%:

  • question words
  • question marks
  • mention of organizations

As you can see, headlines in social media are just as important and deserve your attention! By spending a little extra time on your social media headlines, you can significantly increase the engagement of your post by making them more compelling.

Clickbait Headlines

You may have heard the term “clickbait” before. But what is it?

Clickbait is defined a headline or title that is deliberately written in a way that encourages people to click on a link to an article, especially when the article is not necessarily worth reading. In other words – it misleads people!

Clickbait headlines are often used in social media, where platforms like Facebook and Twitter use algorithms that favor engagement. This means that the more people who click on and engage with a post, the more likely it is to be seen by others. As a result, publishers often use clickbait headlines to get more clicks and likes.

Clickbait headline exaggerates for clicks
Clickbait headline over-exaggerates for clicks

The term “clickbait” has changed a lot since it was first coined. This research from 2017 discusses how clickbait is created as a result of the switch from paper-based news to digital content.

“For news read on the internet, the headline of a news article has obtained a new function. Nowadays, a headline is often the primary way of getting a potential reader interested in an article. This has led to something known as clickbait. Clickbait can be seen as a specific style of writing, aiming at inducing the curiosity of the reader and to lure that reader into clicking and opening the article. Often attributed to clickbait is the use of questions, numbers, forward referencing, spectacularization, and negativity.”

Taylor & Francis Online

Today, the term clickbait is much more negative. It is often used to describe content that is misleading, shallow, or not worth reading at all.

Interestingly, people are so frustrated with clickbait that they want to save others from being tricked by misleading headlines. This study from November 2022, used a browser extention to enable readers to change headlines on news articles.

“…we observed a desire to help others stay away from inaccuracies or hyperbole. Participants used the tool in a variety of ways, including to correct headlines that were misleading, had a mismatch with the article, were sensationalist, teasing, etc.”

ACM Digital Library

Since we know people don’t like clickbait, let’s move on to learn how to write headlines that avoid being misleading.

How can you avoid writing clickbait headlines? Here are some tips:

– Write headlines that accurately reflect the content of your article (duh!)

– Avoid using excessive punctuation or capitalization

– Avoid making promises that your article can’t deliver

In short, just be honest! Write headlines that accurately reflect the content of your article and don’t try to trick people into clicking.

Similar Posts