Master the Art of Brilliant Blog Post Titles

Your blog title works to get people to read your blog posts. That’s its main function. With over 2 million blog posts published each day your post needs a title that gets the attention of the right people.

You can read blog title advice about power words or length of title, but take them with the proverbial grain of salt. Your main objective is to choose a title that appeals to the people you want reading your blog post.

Whether your blog post is an everyday subject or a description of the benefits of your business service, the goal of your title selection is to entice people to read your post.

Getting people to click on your title because it is catchy isn’t enough. If people click on your title and discover the post content has little or nothing to do with the title, you haven’t accomplished your goal.

Here are some ideas to come up with a title that makes people want to read your post.

Make Your Title Engaging

Your title needs one outstanding element to catch attention. VerveSearch stresses the importance of one of three attributes in your blog title: a good title should be actionable, intriguing, or emphatic.

You need only one of these elements to capture attention. Examples illustrate the difference between these elements.

How To Be A Successful Blogger When You Hate Writing

This actionable title says you’ll be able to do something. In this case, it’s become a successful blogger. ‘How to’ titles fit in this category. And the emotionally loaded word hate grabs attention for those readers who want to write but don’t like doing it.

The Web Stalker's Guide to Getting a Guest Post

A play on words is often the way to create intrigue in a title. The word stalker implies something a bit creepy. Readers are drawn to the title because they want to know how stalking and guest blogging relate. They are intrigued.

DJI Mavic 2 Pro: The Unboxing is F-ING AMAZING!

This edgy and exclamatory title beats Unboxing My DJI Mavic 2 Pro. The title emphasizes the experience with upper case letters and profanity. Readers will want to learn what is so great about the unboxing experience. These titles work when you use the slang of your target audience. Epic and awesome are more powerful than best or great. Be careful with swearing because it usually doesn’t work. Know your audience.

In each of these examples, word choice accentuates the thrust of the blog title.

Set Expectations

On the web, a blog post title is the first introduction to the blog post. As a search result, it hints at the subject of your post. The title must convey what your post is about.

If a reader goes to your post and discovers the title does not convey the subject matter of your post, they’ll be disappointed and leave without reading. What’s worse, they will feel tricked and not come back to your blog to read more.

And that’s if your reader finds you in search.

Search engines powered with artificial intelligence have the ability to read not just your title but the entire contents of your post. If the title and the content don’t match, search engines will skip over your title to find a title that matches the content.

Keep It Short

Your title is a hint of the main content of your blog post. You don’t need to tell the whole story in the title. Plus, if your title is long, Google may display only some of your title and may miss those power or emphatic words. Moz suggests limiting your title to 60 characters.

Your title appears in search engine results, web browser displays, and social networks. Get your title to display everywhere by keeping it short.

Brainstorm Ideas

Many professional bloggers spend more time on the title than on creating the post content. They realize the power of a good title. Some make a list of 100 titles before they select the one they feel works best for the post.

Create a list of power words that reflect your blog. Pull from these words as you create a title for a new post.

Start by brainstorming 25 titles. You’ll find as you work through the brainstorming process that writing one title will give you ideas for other title possibilities. Don’t judge as you are brainstorming, just keep listing title ideas.

Once you have 25 titles, go through the entire list to choose five titles that match the intent of your post. Then, it’s up to you. Choose the one.

Some content management systems (CMS) allow you to A/B test two titles to find which gets a better response. If you continue to A/B test titles, you’ll have a better idea of the type of title that appeals to your target audience.

Make Every Word Work

The best blog titles that get people reading have three key elements.

1. One topic
2. An emotional hook
3. Limited characters

Modern search algorithms prefer posts that focus on one topic with related subtopics within the post. Take advantage of this search engine preference by limiting each blog post to one topic. This will help you target the one topic you mention in your blog post title.

Use emotions to hook your reader. One emotional word will make a difference. Choose the emotional word that will draw a reader to your post. Don’t overdo it. One emotional word in a short title packs a punch.

Word choice is the key to blog post titles that resonate with your readers. Brainstorm different word combinations to get the most from a short title. Draw your reader to the potential of your post content and enjoy the number of readers you pull. A strong title makes a difference.