Are you still struggling to get traffic to your blog even though you’ve done everything right? The problem could lay in your headlines… Having catchy blog post titles can make or break your traffic to your blog.
Do you know that 8 out of 10 people will read your blog post title, but only 2 of those 8 will continue to read the rest? That means a BAD blog post title can lose 60% of potential traffic! (Source: QuickSprout)
Are you guilty of spending all the time and effort producing an amazing piece of content, and at the last minute just slapping a title on it before you hit that publish button?
I totally was! Even though I knew the importance of having a catchy blog post title, I just didn’t know what IS or IS NOT a good one. So I was shooting in the dark and hoping for the best. Over time, while I hit a couple of jackpots, I missed a ton.
If that sounds like you, I have good news for you!
Writing irresistibly catchy blog post titles doesn’t have to be hard.
Today I am going to share with you 10 Easy tips and formulas that you can use, so you can too, write irresistibly catchy blog post titles that will get the most clicks.
To make your life easy, I have created a FREE template for you at the end, so you can use it to create your next catchy blog post title.
Disclosure: Some of the links in the article contains affiliate links, which means that if you make a purchase through one of the links, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support the blog and allows me to continue to make free content. I will only recommend products that I use and love. Thank you for your support!
#1 Include your key phrases in your blog post titles
Hopefully, this is just a reminder…
By now, you probably know the importance of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to help with your google ranking. Including your key phrases in your blog post titles will massively help your blog ranking high in the search engine.
The best tool that I recommend for key phrase research is Jaaxy.
Try it here for free:
#2 The “LIST” Formula for catchy blog post titles
Who doesn’t love a list?
Because it tells readers EXACTLY what they will be getting. To make it more irresistible, a good catchy blog post title not only should start with a number, but it also needs to include a superlative and the keyword phrase.
According to an experiment Conductor did on overall headline preferences, blog post titles that start with a number are the most preferred type of all headline titles.
The List formula looks something like this:
Numbers:
Not all numbers work equally well here. In fact, a study from Content Marketing Institute analyzed over 150,000 of most successful blog post titles shows that odd numbers have 20% more clicks than the even numbers.
Superlative (Positive & Negative):
Superlative is a strong adjective that’s used at the beginning of the title for extra emphasis, which can boost your clicks.
POSITIVE superlatives make strong emotional titles, whereas NEGATIVE superlatives draw fear and doubt like nobody’s business.
Here are some highly clickable positive and negative superlatives:
POSITIVE superlatives:
Amazing
Astonishing
Best
Daring
Easy
Effortless
Enticing
Essential
Extraordinary
Free
Influential
Inspiring
Irresistible
Miracle
Most
Life-changing
Proven
Powerful
Remarkable
Surprising
Successful
Unique
Ultimate
Uplifting
NEGATIVE superlatives:
Abnormal
Abolish
Alarming
Awful
Badass
Brutal
Catastrophic
Confusing
Devastating
Disappointing
Dreadful
Dumb
Embarrassing
Fatal
Horrible
Horrific
Miserable
Outrageous
Ridiculously
Scary
Sceptical
Terrified
Worrying
Worst
Deliver a promise with your keyword phrase:
The aim here is to be ultra-specific because the readers are often searching for something specific. If you can provide them with the very solution and make it clear on the blog post title, the audience will want to click it.
Examples:
#3: The “HOW TO” formula
How many times have you searched on Google by typing in “How to…”?
The “How to” formula works as a great catchy blog post title because people like us go online to search for how to do things, how to make things, how to get to places etc…
However, the secret to separating your “How to” titles from others’, is to be VERY specific with “a desired outcome” with a tangible “Promise”.
Here’s the formula:
To put the formula in action, here are some examples:
#4: Use YOU / YOUR to grab attention
Use You/ Your where appropriate to address the reader in the blog post title to make it catchy for attention.
The statistic is showing by Buffer (Right) that You/Your is the 2nd most popular words/phrases while the List post being the most popular.
“How to” also made the 4th popular on the list.
So if you can insert You or Your in the “List” formula and “How to” formula where appropriate, this can give your click rate an even bigger boost.
Examples with “List + You” formula:
21Great Social Media Marketing Tips YouNeed to Know to Get the Most Follows
50 Smart Ways to Segment Your Email List Like a Pro
“How to” also ranked high on the popular list.
Here are examples with “How to + You/Your” formula:
How to Optimise Your Site for a Successful Holiday eCommerce Season
How to Write Your Next Perfect Catchy Blog Post Title In 2 Minutes
How To Move Up And Not Get Stuck In Your Boss’s Shadow
#5 The SCARCITY formula to play on fear
This is an old trick that has been well-used by insurance companies. The truth is, it works! We’ve been scared into buying insurance policies for years.
Using negative superlatives can be even more attention-grabbing than positive superlatives.
Take my own post for an example, I tested 2 titles for the same piece of content on Pinterest.
Here are more catchy blog post titles with the scarcity formula:
11 Worst Things that will Destroy Your Business
7 Reasons that I didn’t Click Your Post
Are You Still Wasting Money On These Popular Trends?
#6: The most clickable 3-word phrase
In 2017 survey by BuzzSumo, out of 100 million headlines, the 3-word phrases that gained the most Facebook engagements was…
While this was a surprising one as this phrase doesn’t start or end a blog post title, it uniquely links between the content to an impact or outcome. And when it calls “YOU” out, not only its attention-grabbing, but it also gives an emotional effect.
Here are some irresistibly catchy blog post titles that contain these 3-word phrases:
24 Pictures That Will Make You Feel Better About The World
6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person
“Who Wore It Better?” Pics That Will Make You Laugh Out Loud
13 Travel Tips That Will Make You Feel Smart
Other high ranking 3-word phrases are:
This is why…
This is how…
This is the…
The reason is…
__ talking about it
___ are freaking out
Can we guess___
#8: Optimise the length for the catchy post titles
The same study on Facebook by BuzzSumo shows that 12 -18 words (80-95 characters) in the headline get the highest number of engagements on average. By going shorter or longer than that, the engagements decline.
While this is true for Facebook, Google search results only display the first 63 characters of your blog post titles.
For Pinterest, I found short titles with big fonts display much better, therefore, getting more clicks than long-winded titles.
So what is the optimal length for your catchy post titles?
The take away here is, there is no one size fits all length. Depends on where the majority of your audience hang out, you want to tailor your blog post title length for that platform.
TIP: Why not try a few different title variations with different social platforms for the same piece of content?
#9 Use Sentence Case for your catchy post titles
Sentence case for the blog post title is where the important words are capitalised.
For example:
Sentence Case => How to Write Irresistibly Catchy Blog Post Titles that Will Get the Most Clicks
Capitals => HOW TO WRITE IRRESISTIBLY CATCHY BLOG POST TITLES THAT WILL GET THE MOST CLICKS
Lowercase => How to write irresistibly catchy blog post titles that will get the most clicks
Phew, that feels like we covered quite a bit, but I really think these are some golden nuggets to help you create your next kick-ass catchy blog post title.
To help you implement all these tips and formulas, I have created a FREE Catchy Blog Post Title Template, so you can print off and reference it when you are writing your next post.
Subscribe & Get your FREE Template here:
Catchy Blog Post Title FREE Template
Troubleshoot other reasons that you are not getting traffic:
SEO related resources & tips for boosting blog traffic:
Writing is so valuable. Since I have gotten into blogging myself, I find myself critiquing all of my writing. Second guessing my writing has been frustrating and slowed me down when I create posts. I feel like my mind is thinking 5 ways at once on how to articulate a whole paragraph of writing. Do you have any help for this problem?
I totally know how you feel. I was exactly the same way when I started blogging. I feared that my writing is not as good as others, and I was being a perfectionist when I couldn’t decide THE BEST way to put a point across.
Here are a couple of things that I did to help with my fear and being perfectionist when it comes to writing:
1. Practice, Practice, Practice. The more you write consistently, the easier it gets.
2. Don’t worry about the PERFECT way to articulate something. An OK way is good enough, keep on writing. I also try to write everything down, even they are multiple ways of saying the same thing. When I read it back to myself, I can choose which way sounds better.
I did this consistently for 2 months, and I started really see a difference. I don’t find myself debate in my head as much, and as a result, I can write much more efficiently.
I feel that creating a catchy blog post title is the biggest struggle for my articles and website as a whole. While I do feel confident in creating great content, it is an entirely different matter when it comes to creating a title that will capture a person’s attention and interest. Thank you so much for your article! This has been very helpful for me and gives me confidence I can create catchy titles going forward. I want to utilize the How To formula a lot because going back through my blog posts, I realize that I don’t have ANY how to titles! Thank you for the free template you created and I signed up to receive it through email. Has your traffic exploded since you’ve followed your own template as well as those 10 tips?
I am so pleased to hear that you found this article helpful to write catchy blog post titles. It is a completely different skill when it comes to creating titles vs. writing content, however, I always believe that there are tricks for everything =).
The tips and templates I have created are experience and research over time, and not to mention lots of try and error. It made a real difference in my blog traffic!
Hi, it is a great and nice feeling to know that someone will create a great website like this and also create a write up on an article like this. At the initial stages of my blogging I was unable to get traffic to my website because of this issues and it affected my business a lot. Thank you for this post
Thank you for demystifying the process for coming up with titles thats SEO friendly, increase user curiosity and makes them read the article. Some of the titles of my earlier blogs did not follow the recommended syntax and unsurprisingly the page ranking and consequently page views from organic searches were not as high expected. I am wondering if its ok for me to tweak those titles now (some of them have been online for over a year) and align them to the formulae you mention. What are your thoughts? Thanks again for the informative and well researched article.
Re-work your titles for old posts (with keyphrase) that didn’t perform very well, is a great way to attract more traffic and help your SEO ranking. All the best.
I truly need to initially value your exertion in assembling this incredible site and composing this article. To me, the biggest struggle for a post or website overall is to create a post title. Because the title of the post is not attractive then it is very difficult to bring traffic to that post. It has been very helpful to me and I am confident that I’ll create interesting titles going forward. I’ll follow these tips/formula to Write my Blog Post Titles and then I’ Will Get the Most Clicks for the blog post, Wow. Expectation soon I will get marvelous outcomes from your specialty article. You are doing amazing work for individuals like me to enable them to develop. A very good article with useful information, one of the best I have read. Thanks again for this post and the guidelines. If you don’t mind, I will share this article on my social media account. Thanks
Thanks so such kind words… it truly touches my heart knowing what I created can help someone like you.
Appreciate you spreading the words by sharing on your social. Hope this can help more people to reach there fullest potential for their online business.
This is a very great and informative article. This article has improved my expression more on blogging. I have been blogging for so long but haven’t achieved nothing from it due to low quality blog post. I usually copy from other sites and paste on mine. So please I’ll love to know the most important tips that can help improve my blog site. Thanks for sharing
I’m glad to hear that you found specific actions you can take to modify your old blog post titles. You will be surprised how much a difference it will make!
You are correct, definitely focus on Quality over Quantify!
In terms of how long it will take to get traffic from SEO strategies, this depends on how old is your blog. You will see result much quicker if your blog is 6 months or older and you have been publishing high-quality content consistently.
A more instant way to get blog traffic is through Pinterest. I followed this eCourse to learn how to accelerate my blog traffic and make money. I’ve written an in-depth review about it too. Hope you find it helpful too.
Wow this was a really fantastic post and I like what you said about using superlatives and numbers because you are right in saying that they do generate the most clicks usually. Pinning for later!
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Writing is so valuable. Since I have gotten into blogging myself, I find myself critiquing all of my writing. Second guessing my writing has been frustrating and slowed me down when I create posts. I feel like my mind is thinking 5 ways at once on how to articulate a whole paragraph of writing. Do you have any help for this problem?
Hi Eric,
I totally know how you feel. I was exactly the same way when I started blogging. I feared that my writing is not as good as others, and I was being a perfectionist when I couldn’t decide THE BEST way to put a point across.
Here are a couple of things that I did to help with my fear and being perfectionist when it comes to writing:
1. Practice, Practice, Practice. The more you write consistently, the easier it gets.
2. Don’t worry about the PERFECT way to articulate something. An OK way is good enough, keep on writing. I also try to write everything down, even they are multiple ways of saying the same thing. When I read it back to myself, I can choose which way sounds better.
I did this consistently for 2 months, and I started really see a difference. I don’t find myself debate in my head as much, and as a result, I can write much more efficiently.
Hope this was helpful.
Chloe
I feel that creating a catchy blog post title is the biggest struggle for my articles and website as a whole. While I do feel confident in creating great content, it is an entirely different matter when it comes to creating a title that will capture a person’s attention and interest. Thank you so much for your article! This has been very helpful for me and gives me confidence I can create catchy titles going forward. I want to utilize the How To formula a lot because going back through my blog posts, I realize that I don’t have ANY how to titles! Thank you for the free template you created and I signed up to receive it through email. Has your traffic exploded since you’ve followed your own template as well as those 10 tips?
Hi Brian,
I am so pleased to hear that you found this article helpful to write catchy blog post titles. It is a completely different skill when it comes to creating titles vs. writing content, however, I always believe that there are tricks for everything =).
The tips and templates I have created are experience and research over time, and not to mention lots of try and error. It made a real difference in my blog traffic!
All the best my friend,
Chloe
Hi, it is a great and nice feeling to know that someone will create a great website like this and also create a write up on an article like this. At the initial stages of my blogging I was unable to get traffic to my website because of this issues and it affected my business a lot. Thank you for this post
Thanks for the kind words Benny. I am so glad to hear that you found this post helpful!
Thank you for demystifying the process for coming up with titles thats SEO friendly, increase user curiosity and makes them read the article. Some of the titles of my earlier blogs did not follow the recommended syntax and unsurprisingly the page ranking and consequently page views from organic searches were not as high expected. I am wondering if its ok for me to tweak those titles now (some of them have been online for over a year) and align them to the formulae you mention. What are your thoughts? Thanks again for the informative and well researched article.
Sandeep
Hi Sandeep,
Re-work your titles for old posts (with keyphrase) that didn’t perform very well, is a great way to attract more traffic and help your SEO ranking. All the best.
Chloe
I truly need to initially value your exertion in assembling this incredible site and composing this article. To me, the biggest struggle for a post or website overall is to create a post title. Because the title of the post is not attractive then it is very difficult to bring traffic to that post. It has been very helpful to me and I am confident that I’ll create interesting titles going forward. I’ll follow these tips/formula to Write my Blog Post Titles and then I’ Will Get the Most Clicks for the blog post, Wow. Expectation soon I will get marvelous outcomes from your specialty article. You are doing amazing work for individuals like me to enable them to develop. A very good article with useful information, one of the best I have read. Thanks again for this post and the guidelines. If you don’t mind, I will share this article on my social media account. Thanks
Hi Sabrina,
Thanks so such kind words… it truly touches my heart knowing what I created can help someone like you.
Appreciate you spreading the words by sharing on your social. Hope this can help more people to reach there fullest potential for their online business.
Chloe
This is a very great and informative article. This article has improved my expression more on blogging. I have been blogging for so long but haven’t achieved nothing from it due to low quality blog post. I usually copy from other sites and paste on mine. So please I’ll love to know the most important tips that can help improve my blog site. Thanks for sharing
Glad to hear that you found it helpful!
A well-wriiten article that made me realized few things why my blogs can hardly get traffic.
First, my blog post title doesn’t always start with a number. It instead ends with a number always.
Second, I never use Sentense Case for my blog post tittle. I usually use Capitals instead.
3rd, I never have even a single ‘how to’ article.
It’s time perhaps to revisit my published articles and make some changes particularly on every tittle.
Thanks for publishing this article that holds me back from prioritizing the quantity rather than the SEO quality blogs!
With these SEO strategies you specified, how many days do you usually wait before getting a real traffic?
Hi Julius,
I’m glad to hear that you found specific actions you can take to modify your old blog post titles. You will be surprised how much a difference it will make!
You are correct, definitely focus on Quality over Quantify!
In terms of how long it will take to get traffic from SEO strategies, this depends on how old is your blog. You will see result much quicker if your blog is 6 months or older and you have been publishing high-quality content consistently.
A more instant way to get blog traffic is through Pinterest. I followed this eCourse to learn how to accelerate my blog traffic and make money. I’ve written an in-depth review about it too. Hope you find it helpful too.
Chloe
I loved reading this. It was thorough yet so simply explained. Thanks for the tips.
Great post, thank you. Lots of specific information.!
Thanks for this super detailed post, I’m going to work harder on my titles now!
Glad you found it helpful. Thanks Lisa =)
Wow, so many great actionable tips. Thank you!!
Gald it was helpful. Thank you!
Wow this was a really fantastic post and I like what you said about using superlatives and numbers because you are right in saying that they do generate the most clicks usually. Pinning for later!
List posts are my highest performing posts too. Glad you found helpful!