WordPress Hacks: How To Create Headlines That Convert
It would be fair to say that in our present-day attention economy, headlines are all-important. The title is the first bit of your content that a user interacts with. It is effectively the doorway to your work – and if it’s not appealing, all that lies beyond it is irrelevant.
Naturally, headlines are not the only thing that you should focus on. All of your presentations should be slick and polished. Putting out good content is the key to attracting new audiences and converting them to customers. Getting good creatives on the job and making sure they adhere to the best industry standards will help you achieve that. It is also crucial that the website you use is as appealing as possible. A professional WordPress development agency can set you up with that in no time at all.
However, all of that would be pointless if you don’t master the art of crafting powerful headlines. Here’s how to do that in a nutshell.
Table of Contents
Use Keywords in Your Headlines
This is an evergreen SEO tip – the keyword in the title gives your work a better chance of being placed higher in the search results, especially if it’s at the beginning. Search engines are biassed in favor of this sort of arrangement.
With that said, make sure you put in enough effort, proofread and polish. Do your best to include keywords in the headline, but don’t feel obligated to always start with a keyword. Your headline should be appealing – and the only way that could happen is if it looks natural and professionally written.
Use Numbers
Using numbers in your headlines is a good way to boost their effectiveness. There are many other tactics you can use to boost engagement, but this is by far the easiest one to implement.
Numbers in a title bring visual variety to the mix and instantly makes it more captivating. Odd numbers, in particular, seem to be the most effective – so include them in your titles, if applicable. Don’t overdo it, of course – you don’t want your headlines to become a jumbled mess of words and numbers.
Don’t Try to Be Funny
The title of your article should be in line with your content. There are no strict rules as to what you definitely can and can’t put in it. However, there is something to be said about humorous titles.
Humor is highly subjective, and its effectiveness largely depends on context. As such, most jokes fall flat unless delivered in a very specific format. Short and punchy titles are not a great medium for telling jokes.
The few jokes that can actually fit in a title are not likely to be very good. Any puns and gags you try to put in there are more likely to turn people away than entertain them. As such, it may be a better idea to keep the serious tone in the title, even if the content itself is lighthearted in nature.
Target The Correct Audience
Do some due diligence and use common sense to choose one of the many archetypal title structures. The format you pick should make what you are about and why your content is appealing obvious to the user.
Audiences are looking for valuable content. The format of your headline should clearly indicate that you can provide exactly the kind of value your audience is looking for.
Use Tools to Improve Your Headlines
There are many tools online that you can use to instantly up your title-making game. From capitalization tools to WordPress plugins – the possibilities are endless.
Don’t underestimate the boost in quality this type of utility can give you. Some of them may give you a notable SEO advantage over your competition.
Proofread Everything
Triple-check your content. Research indicates that spelling and grammar mistakes instantly reduce the appeal of your content. Some typos may get glossed over, but in general, users tend to take notice of spelling errors in the bulk of your content.
This goes doubly for the title. A typo is not immediately obvious to all if it is hidden in the middle of an article. However, if it pops up in a 7 or 8 letter headline, the chances of it not being noticed drop down to zero.
Title errors give the audience the impression that you’re not professional or involved enough to proofread your work. If that’s the case, they won’t give you their precious attention. The only way to avoid this is to make sure that your content is not only meaningful but error-free as well.
