3 Tips on Writing Better Headlines

Great headlines are incredibly important! Sorry to shout but I wanted to get the message across because writing a great headline maybe the most important part of your content strategy.

You need to write great headlines, otherwise your blog article is just going to get lost in the great sea of the internet. This blog post will tell you how to do it.

The headline is the one thing that keeps your good article from becoming great.

The headline is what is going to catch your readers’ attention.

It’s what is going to drive a 1,000 readers to your article instead of a 100.

Of course, you’ve put in a ton of effort to come up with compelling content, and you’re raring to publish or submit it as soon as possible. The problem is that you might be stuck with the headline.

You want to get over it by writing down the first thing that your brain processes, but something is holding you back.

After all, you’ve read so many tips from experts, insisting that you must spend as much time as possible in creating the perfect headline. But do you really need to?

The headline has an irreplaceable role in your article. It’s the first thing that catches the reader’s attention.

Having said that, it serves as the basis for a reader to decide on whether to continue reading the article or look somewhere else.

Why Is It So Hard to Write a Headline?

What makes a headline so tricky to write?

Afterall, it’s only made up of a handful of words, isn’t it?

For one, you’re almost duty-bound to come up with nothing less than perfect.

The problem is that “perfect” is as subjective as it gets.

You’re not even sure what tone to use: should it be serious or witty?

Should you go for a long headline or be direct to the point?

With several things to factor in, you could easily get overwhelmed by it.

So, for the question of why it’s so hard to write a headline – it’s because it has to be as short as possible that you don’t have enough room to work with.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It seeks to grab your readers’ attention, giving them a persuasive reason to read the rest of the article.

If you’re promoting or selling something in your content, then you can’t show your target audience the call-to-action inside the article if the reader doesn’t even bother reading it.

That’s how critical the headline must be.

As much as you hate straining your mind with the task of writing a headline, you don’t really have a choice. You can always go for the first thing that comes to mind, but it usually isn’t the best one.

If you’re willing to listen, then here are three tips on how to do it better without stressing yourself out.

1 – Keep It Simple (Stupid)

Medical experts say that overthinking increases the risk of developing mental health problems. To be fair, there’s a remote possibility for anyone to go crazy just because they overthink a headline. But you know what we mean.

The reason why writers end up with bad headlines in the first place is that they feel so much pressure of creating one that’s perfect.

A headline is a product of your creativity, but it doesn’t take a lifetime for your brain to process a phrase of fewer than ten words. Keep it brief yet substantial in meaning.

Don’t strain too hard, or you’ll end up with so many ideas on your head. Now that’s overthinking right there.

Some writers overthink the headline because they try to accommodate many words. Cut out excess words and head straight to your point.

In so doing, be sure that you don’t veer away from the message that you wish to portray.

You don’t want your headline to be misleading or offensive once you omit a word. Strike a balance – decide if the headline works even if you remove a word or two.

2 – Be Versatile.

You may not realize it, but you have this habit of sticking to the same structure or words in crafting your headlines. It’s also a reason why you have a harder time with it.

For instance, you don’t have to stick to a declarative statement all the time.

A headline can either be in a question form or an explanation. Your choice depends on factors like your target readers, what you’re trying to accomplish, and the subject of the article.

Even with a limited number of words to work with, it doesn’t mean that you can’t experiment. People respond to different headlines, which means that there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

You can’t embrace a template for all your articles.

If you do, it won’t be long for your readers to realize how limited you are, at least in writing headlines.

3 – Keep It Real.

Don’t trick people into believing something that’s quite the opposite of what they’ll get once they decide to read your article.

As much as you want to come up with the perfect headline, you still need to keep it real. You use the headline to grab attention.

However, you can’t talk about anything that isn’t found in the content. This is quite surprisingly a tactic used countless times before.

Creating a captivating headline doesn’t mean resorting to false advertising.

For example, you can’t make a bold promise like unlocking a proven way to make money or revealing a secret to getting rid of excess fat in two days when you have nothing to offer.

All it does is damage your reputation as a writer.

Conclusion

We could go on and talk about a hundred more tips on how to write better headlines. But we’ll stop right here.

At this point, you just have to embrace those three reminders to improve your chances of creating strong headlines.

Provided that visual tools are quickly becoming the focal point of web content these days, you may think that headlines in plain text no longer carry the same weight as before.

But when people seek information, they look for it in well-written and relevant articles, not in images and videos. Hence, headlines still matter.

They always will.