I wrote an effective title for this post and managed to get your attention, this is good it is not as easy as it might seem at first glance.
Only about 20 percent of the people who read the title of a post will actually read the article.
If you are a small business owner and have read some of my posts on the importance of writing quality content for your website, this fact can be discouraging.
To spend so much time writing a quality post only to have eight out of ten people reading the headline alone decide that the content is not of interest to them.
I know, it’s frustrating. What can you do about it?
Focus and spend more time writing great headlines.
Things not to do
Mistake No. 1: Using the first title that comes to mind
Very often we ignore the importance of the title.
We concentrate on writing, on choosing the most ironic and catchy images, and spend very little time on choosing the title of our article using literally the first one that comes to mind.
The problem is that without a proper title, all the time and work you put into writing the content will be wasted.
Our goal is to get views, comments and shares of our content and necessarily, we need to make sure that our headlines are effective and that readers are motivated to read the articles.
Mistake No. 2: The clickbait
From Wikipedia:
Clickbait (or clickbaiting, lit. “click bait”), in Italian acchiappaclic, is a term for web content whose main function is to attract as many Internet users as possible in order to generate online advertising revenue.
Generally, clickbait makes use of catchy, sensationalist headlines that incite the user to click, appealing to the emotional aspect of those who access it. Its goal is to attract those who open these links to encourage them to share its content to increase its reach, through sharing on various social networks, thereby exponentially increasing its advertising revenue.
It is common on the part of many sites to make pseudo-information by narrating certain facts in an instrumental way, distorting their reality; to counter this phenomenon there are debunking sites where what is reported in these links is debunked, highlighting their lack of reliable information sources[7].
As a business owner, producing quality content is about building trust in your audience in relation to your business.
If you write quality content for your niche market, people will turn to your website or blog when they need information about the products and services they need and that your business can provide.
The best way to lose people’s trust is to write ‘sensational’ headlines just to get a click.
You’ve probably seen dozens of headlines like ‘…you won’t believe what happened.’
The problem is that these headlines work, people click excitedly to see what it’s all about only to realize that their click only produced a waste of time, and as a business owner you know never to waste potential customers’ time.
Always.
Things to do
A good headline improves SEO
Headlines are crucial for search engines because they help them understand what the topic of the article is.
That is why it is recommended to include the ‘keyword’ in the title, which will help both Google and people identify from the title what its content is about.
Try to be specific when thinking about a title in SEO function.
If one of your articles is dedicated to SMEs, including ‘SMEs’ in the title makes it easier for Google to show your content to people searching for small and medium-sized businesses.
Tip: Sometimes it can be effective to start with a title and build your content around it.
Think about this when you write your next post.
Spend at least 20 percent of your time in writing the title
Writing an effective headline, as we have said, takes time.
If you want your efforts in writing quality content to be rewarded, you must be willing to spend more time writing the title.
If you want to prevent your fantastic content from going unnoticed, of devote at least 20 percent of your time to writing a good headline.
Practical tips for writing a good title
Write the first headline that comes to mind, let a quarter of an hour pass, and write another one. Eventually you will get a list of headlines, some of them even ridiculous, but you will probably find one among them better than the others.
Take a break.
Study the headlines from media, bloggers and influencers in your niche.
Brainstorm with your colleagues. Creating and sharing a Google document with your colleagues and co-workers, getting suggestions and advice, is a great idea.
A good title is specific, unique and has a sense of urgency, follow this advice and you are on the right track.
Conclusions
On average, the attention span a person has in reading a post is seven seconds.
In seven seconds, people who start reading an article decide whether to continue reading or not.
Frustrating, I know.
Seven seconds is not enough time to read but it is a perfect amount of time to read a headline.
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