How to Optimise Article Titles to Attract More Traffic
Without writing a compelling article title that grabs attention and provides a solution to people's problems, your content may never reach your target audience. In this article, you will discover the best ways to optimise your titles that attract more traffic.
The internet is the most powerful selling medium today, and you have just a few seconds to make your point, or your visitor will click elsewhere. The headline is practically an essential part of any article. So, if your title doesn’t attract attention, no one will read your article.
Having an eye-catching headline will increase the readership of your content greatly. Whether you're writing articles like this one or an ebook, if you fail to make your title beneficial and clickable, every other marketing step that you take will be a total waste of time.
Do you spend countless hours every day trying to write article titles to increase your traffic? But no matter how hard you try, they are not just producing the SEO results you desire?
In this article, you can discover the best ways to optimize your titles and attract more traffic.
1. Make the Headline Simple and Direct
As you know, today users want information in a hurry and in a way that it is easily digested. However, supplying what they need simply and directly would be highly valued.
A direct headline works well because you're telling the reader the bare bones of the article on the spot. In fact, studies show that once you make your headline simple and direct, a reader is more likely to take action. Examples of a direct headline could be: "25% Sale On All Items This Month" or "Grab This Free Health Ebook Right Now". It should be as easy and concise as that.
Whenever you're trying to write your article title, don't beat around the bush. It should clearly state your offer while allowing readers to quickly assess the value of the content about their needs.
2. Use Buyer-Intent Keywords
Selecting the most appropriate keywords to attract the attention of buyers is the primary goal of creating posts. Without a proper understanding of buyers’ intent, you would generate keywords that are not converting and also waste your precious time researching.
Using tools like SE Ranking would help you succeed in picking the right keywords. The tool would enable you to discover many things about your keyword that you won't see while searching normally. With this tool, you would enjoy other benefits such as:
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Assessing keyword competition;
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Thoroughly analyzing any keyword;
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Finding new keyword opportunities;
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Keyword rank tracking.
Buyer intent keywords are what potential customers search for when planning to make a purchase. With buyer intent keywords, you can easily write content that attracts people to your page, and enable them to decide on your page.
3. Include Words like "Guide," "Tutorials"
Usually, when someone goes looking for help with something on the internet, they will mostly type in a search that starts with "how to." In a real sense, this means whoever is about to read that article knows exactly what benefit they intend to get. They are willing to learn exactly how to do something.
Including words like “tutorials”, “guide”, “how-to” will help you convince them that you're an authority in your field and have what it takes to coach them on how to improve themselves or succeed in their endeavors.
Let's say, you decide to write an in-depth guide on fishing, you can compose a headline like, "How to start a fish pond - 10 things you need to know." A headline like this will help your audience find out what your article is all about and the questions it intends to answer.
4. Ask a Thought-Provoking Question
If your article title is a question that makes readers contemplate the answer, chances are high that they would click your post to keep reading. People always want to know if they are right, after all.
Since you are planning to write a post to educate your audience, testing their knowledge by quizzing them in the headline makes total sense. This makes the reader intrigued to learn something new, especially if they are unfamiliar with the topic.
For instance, you could ask the question like in this post "Should I Call 911 After a Car Accident in New York City??". If the reader doesn't, they are more likely to click your link to find out why, hoping they could make a clearer decision after reading your article.
5. Use Numbers in Your Title
Numbers attract and convey that your article will have detailed information that can be skimmed while giving your audience the answers they want.
According to statistics, headlines with numbers can generate close to 75% more social shares and engagement. Most readers love numbers, mainly because it is assumed that list posts are professional, promising a wide range of informative content and a series of insights.
Some examples of list posts include:
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7 Ways of Preserving Food
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8 Techniques to Get 2000 Blog Subscribers Monthly
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5 Tips to Reduce Back Pain Faster
Though the right usage of numbers is more likely to stimulate a reader's curiosity and get them to click on your post title, the improper use may disappoint the readers and put your credibility at stake.
6. Include Power Words
Power words are words that generate a strong impression on the minds of the readers. Replacing an ordinary word with a power word can change your most common sentence into a more convincing one.
According to research carried out by CoSchedule, headlines with power words (higher emotional value) get 10 times more social shares than those with a lower emotional value.
Learn to use magnetic power words like fast, limited, reveal, surprising, technique, smart, easy, free, etc. People love to learn with simple steps and fast. Combine it with an amazing benefit, and you will wow your readers at every chance you get.
7. Focus on the Most Important Problems of Your Audience
Your headlines are useless if your potential audience doesn't care. Most people will judge your ability to help them solve their problems through the content on your website.
If you want them to consider you as an expert in your niche, you must be willing to offer them in-depth, expert information. You can share with them tips that help them reach their goals or solve their problems quickly.
Does your article solve a problem? Always try to design your title to answer the question and not only ask.
8. Do A/B Testing
A/B testing or split testing is a great way to know which headline format resonates properly with your audience. To do this, you need to test each title by creating two versions and measuring the number of clicks that each yield.
This may sound difficult, but technology has made everything better, and headlines are no exception to that. Using Finteza, you would be able to perform activities such as:
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Analyzing your headline based on main variables;
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The frequency of clicks and the number of purchases depends on the location of the buttons;
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Improve user engagement;
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Providing feedback on your strengths while pointing out improvement areas.
A/B testing is vital for effective analysis of your title. Make sure to use tools like Finteza to measure the efficiency of your changes and make your testing stress-free and accurate.
Final Words
Millions of articles are published on the internet every day. Standing out by creating an attention-grabbing title is the most important thing in getting readers to click your article and traffic to your website.
Without writing a compelling article title that grabs attention and provides a solution to people's problems, your content may never reach your target audience.