Headlines either make a user click your link or read (or not) if he is already on your page. Let’s take the example of this headline and go brick by brick. One reason you are reading this is because you saw this post on a social media website and the headline seemed intriguing, so you thought, “Why not check it out?” or “This seems interesting”. That forms the first premise for a catchy headline:
1. Make it Intriguing:
Things like “Know How it’s done”, “Did you know about this?” where it and this are the subjects of your content. Intriguing should be to you but keeping in mind the perspective of the user group you are going to share it with. Suppose you are writing a post about Denim pants, your demographic (the buyer and the seller) has to be intrigued and interested. Of course, you will receive other traffic as well but there has to be prioritizing your demographic first hand.
2. Use Numbers:
10 things to do, 5 ways to not- Such headlines have captured more than 50% of Social Media traffic to websites. A reason is that it falls back to the first one, such headlines are intriguing. People like to know how they could lead a happy life in just 10 ways. Another tip is to use an obscure number; nowadays, 10 doesn’t really catch an eye, but surely 13 would.
3. Interesting and Asserting adjectives
Powerful and interesting adjectives should be there to supplement your headline. Words like Absolute, Essential, Imperative and Incredible are such examples. You could find out more and try to use such words.
4. Answer Questions
When your headline is about answering a question, it persuades or enables the reader which is when they will like to definitely read on. Now do not make the odd mistake of using numbers and questions in the same headline, it could look weird and nonsensical sometimes.
5. Structure
Not a rule of thumb but a simple suggestion could be to open with either answering a question with what, why, when or with a number or an assertive adjective. Then could follow your keywords and it could end with another.
One example that I read that which makes a lot of sense is this. You could either write “How to Bath an Elephant” or “Why I Love Bathing Elephants.” Which one gets more reads doesn’t need much explanation.