How to Write a Headline
Stuck on headlines?
Been there.
Ya know what I don’t love? All the articles out there telling you the tricks to get the clicks.
This is a pretty underlying and universal copywriting principle, but I believe that valuable content builds an audience. But they do have to find it first.
The Value of a Good Headline
Your headline is arguably the most important part of your writing. Whether you’re writing blog posts, emails, website pages, or a newsletter article, your headline is what determines if you get readers. It’s where the question, “Was that post even worth the time it took me to write it?” gets answered.
David Ogilvy is known as the “Father of advertising.” He changed the way the industry approached marketing and honed the art of copywriting’s power to communicate effectively.
Ogilvy said, “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents out of your dollar.”
So your headlines should do two things:
Quickly and clearly tell potential readers what you’re writing about
Convert potential readers into a captive audience
Good Headlines Take Time
A headline might only be a couple of words, but based on Ogilvy’s wisdom, I’m led to believe that it’s worthwhile to spend about 80% of your time writing on headlines.
Headlines need to earn their keep. They take up the most valuable space in your business:
↳ top of flyers
↳ above the fold on your webpage
↳ title tags
↳ search engine space
↳ email subject bar
↳ billboards
↳ paid ads
If words are using up this kind of real estate, they need to do their job well.
So keep in mind, this process we’re going to dive into today could very well take longer than the actual writing that follows the headline. And that’s ok.
If it takes you two hours to write a blog post, it isn’t unreasonable to think that an hour and a half of that time could be spent researching, brainstorming, and perfecting the headline for the post.
Ten hours to write your homepage? There’s a good chance eight of those will be dedicated to getting your headlines just right. Worth. It.
Remember, if the headlines stink, no one will ever get the chance to read the rest of it anyway.
The Headline Process
Determine your topic
You have to start with knowing what you’re talking writing about. Get it clear in your head.
I often start with writing out the first draft of the content of the page, post, or article. This helps me be crystal clear on what I’m trying to communicate before I ever mess with the headline.
Research keywords
Figure out what people are typing in the search box. Your priority will be an accurate description of your piece of writing, but it’s worth it first to look at what people are looking for.
Not only will that give you direction for titling a specific page or post, but it will help give you direction for what to write about in the future. If people are looking for something, you can write to meet their needs.
Write a gazillion headline variations
I’m a big fan of pencil paper. Something about the actual act of writing helps you see it, feel it, and be a part of it a little more.
That being said, it doesn’t matter how you write all your headline ideas, you just have to write (or type) them. Write a lot of them.
For heavy-hitting, anchor pages on websites, I like to do 50+. And if none of them seem to click for me, I like to do 50 more.
Sit on it for a while
Hopefully in the 50+ headline variations you wrote, a few will begin to emerge as a cut above.
Highlight your favorites and then walk away. Seriously.
I really like walking away from work. It’s magical. I just sat back down to the computer after a Labor Day weekend filled with manual home labor, and my brain sailed right through the same words that had been holding me up on Friday.
Highlight your favorites and then walk away.
Pick the one that best marries clarity with SEO
After a day or two or more, come back to your previously chosen headlines. It’s not a bad idea to scan the whole list another time or two, but hopefully, your highlighted options sing to your soul.
Look over your keyword research one more time, and pick the headline that best marries clarity with SEO. Remember, we want clicks, but not at the expense of accuracy and clarity.
(Test it, track it, reevaluate and change it if needed)
And, because writing is an art, but copywriting can more resemble a science, this is where you get to let your word-nerd show.
Get into the analytics of your website. Poke around.
Which posts and pages are getting the clicks?
Where are you showing up on search engines?
How much traffic is each page receiving?
What are your bounce rates?
Some of this can help you determine the content that interests your audience. But a lot of this can tell you the power (or lack thereof) of your headlines.
We’ll break down the science behind words on the web in a future post. But if a headline or title tag doesn’t seem to be working for you, try something else - you’ve already got a list of a gazillion options. ;)
Let your inner scientist work with your words to determine the most effective headline.
Happy writing!