Posts tagged Title

The title is your sales copy. It makes your readers want to carry on. It is probably the most important bit of real estate when it comes to article writing. Spend time on it. You will find it worth it. The purpose of your title or ‘headline’ is to get potential readers to commit to reading your article, or at least the first paragraph. It’s your hook to start the conversation. The importance of the title is the fact that people have little time to read. The overload of information, especially as presented on the internet, means that the reader has to quickly weed out activities he or she doesn’t want to do in order to allow enough time for what they do want to experience. It’s not only the direct reader that needs to get caught, but it’s also new readers who receive RSS feeds or social media links that you want to attract and hopefully convert into regular readers. Your title may be the only thing that a potential reader sees in order to decide whether to come to your site to read more. Here are some ‘don’ts’. Don’t use all capital letters in your headline. It’s like shouting at somebody and that can be construed as being rude. It could also mean that some site administrators might have to edit your title or might even reject your article outright. Make sure your headline can stand on its own. If your title only makes sense if you read the article then it won’t attract attention because people won’t know what you are talking about. They are not going to stop to find out. Intrigue is good, but confusion is not. Don’t write funny titles that are not funny to anybody else. Insider jokes are exactly that, only useful to insiders. It won’t achieve what you hope to achieve. It will push people away rather than invite them in to become insiders too. Here are some to do tips. One good way to write a compelling title is to offer a benefit. These generally start with words such as ‘How’ or ‘Top 5 ways to. . . In other words your title will promise to meet a need. A good title may create controversy or debate and your reader will want to get involved in the topic. If your title states that Obama did not deliver on his election promises you might want to read on as to why not and see whether you agree or not. Ask a question. In the reader’s mind he will want to answer it especially if you direct the question at the reader. ‘Are you wanting to lose weight painlessly?’ will attract a reader who is battling with weight issues. Use the title to speak directly to the reader. An easy way to do this is to use the word ‘you’ or ‘your’. Titles such as ‘Make your business a success’, or ‘10 fun bath games for your baby’  will get you many readers. Keywords are great to have in your title. These are especially invaluable if you are using your articles to drive traffic through. Search engines particular love keywords. If your keyword is hayfever for instance then your title could be ‘Great ways to prevent your hayfever’. Use some power words and phrases. Find these on magazine and newspaper front pages. Just to give you some to start off with here are a few power words – free, for less, stunning, discover or easy.   Lists are always popular. Use – top 10, the hottest, best ways, reason to. Also try intrigue. Use words such as – secrets, best kept secrets, little known and behind the scenes. Keep your titles short. Many search engines and RSS feeds only display the first 65 characters or even less. You don’t want your titles to be chopped off and not make sense anymore. And finally don’t use any full stops. You don’t want to stop the reader. Punctuation can make the reader think that’s the end. The whole point of the headline or title is to ensure the reader continues into the first paragraph. Your title is your sales pitch. Don’t underestimate the importance. Your title is what draws your traffic. Your content is what will bring them back for more.