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10 Hacks to Write Great Headlines for Improving Organic CTR

August 30, 2017 by Akshata Chandrasekhar Leave a Comment

What makes people decide which articles to read and which to ignore?

How can you improve the CTR of your article?

Most writers will tell you that headlines make or break your article. It doesn’t matter if your article contains the secret to eternal happiness, no one will read your article if you don’t have a great headline.

The infographic given below is designed to help you improve your website’s CTR by making great headlines.

10 Hacks to Write Headlines that Improve Organic CTR

10 Hacks to Write Headlines that Improve Organic CTR

To convince readers to click-through your article, your headline needs to induce curiosity while being honest and simple. This article will guide you through some tricks that can be used to create good headlines that will improve the organic click-through rates for your website or blog.

 1.  Make Sure Your Headline is Optimized

According to search engine people, 75% of Internet users don’t scroll beyond the first page of Google results. This is not surprising, given that Google’s algorithm gives you relevant results to your query in the first page. However, this means that you need to fight harder to put your article out there in the first page.

For this, your headline needs to be search engine optimized. Of course, this applies to the article in general and not just the headlines, but why forego a chance to optimize your article wherever possible?

(You can learn more about SEO and other marketing tips by taking this course.)

Use tools like Answer the Public and check what questions are being asked about the topic you are writing about. Try and structure your headline to answer a commonly asked question. This could help put your article right on top of the Google search results.

Additionally, keep headlines short – preferably below 60 characters. Search engines won’t show the full headline if it is above 65 characters and this may reduce the effectiveness of your headlines.

Take these headlines for example

Headline 1 – Pesky Insects Eating Your Plants? Try These Products to Get Rid of Bugs in Your Backyard

Headline 2 – 10 Tips To Eliminate Bugs in Your Backyard

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the first headline. However, some experts believe that headlines with 8 words perform best for optimizing conversion rates.

2. Use Numbers Within Your Headlines Whenever Possible

Headlines with numbers really do work! Additionally, smaller numbers work better than bigger ones. And for reasons unknown, odd numbers read better than even numbers.

It is possible that people who see numbers in your headlines intrinsically feel like they gain quantifiable value when they read your article. Or maybe they feel like they know what they are getting into when they see a specific number in your headline. Take the headline of this article for example – When you read “10 hacks”, you get a sense of the countable benefits you gain from reading this article.  Whatever the reason, use numbers whenever possible in your headline without forcing it.

According to a survey by Conductor, 36% of all potential readers preferred articles with numbers in them.

Graph for overall headline phrasing for improved CTR

Use this graph as a guide to make headlines that work

 

What’s more, 39% of women prefer enumerated numbers in them as compared to the 32% of men who took the survey.

The study also shared some interesting headlines about the casing-preferences of headlines.

  • 64% of the population preferred headlines with title casing
  • 21% preferred headlines with capital letters
  • Only 7% of the participants preferred headlines in lower-case

Researchers saw an unexpected trend in this study. They found that a lot more people than they had anticipated liked headlines in upper casing. This means that headlines like “10 WAYS TO MAKE ART OUT OF SCRAP” appealed to an average of 1 out of 5 participants.

Headline capitalization preference pie-chart for improved CTR

Headlines in title casing is the more popular choice

 

3. Speak the Language of Your Audience

Most articles are written for a specific audience. If you are writing about troubleshooting code errors, then your article should target people who deal with code. However, if your article is focused on helping beginners learn easy fixes to code errors, then your target audience would be, say, content writers who dabble in basic codes. Your headlines, in this case, cannot be filled with industry-specific jargon.

So, how do you do this?

Think like your audience –

Ask yourself what you would look for if you were in the place of your reader. If you are a beginner looking to make a simple HTML code fix, then you are likely to type “HTML code fixes for beginners.

Construct headlines using keywords that target your audience –

If your article is intended to help beginners fix code errors, your headline could read:

– A  Beginner’s Guide to Fix HTML Code Errors

– 10 Easy HTML Code Fixes Every Content Writer Should Know

– Learn How to Fix HTML Code Errors Without Any Coding Experience

4. Concise and Crisp Headlines are Sometimes the Better Headlines

When constructing your headline, make sure that is clear and concise. If your headline is rambling and long without a concise objective, then it irks everyone who reads it. Think about how your article will be shared in social media websites – in sites like Twitter and Facebook, your headline is often the only thing seen.

Follow these Tips for a Well-Constructed Headline

— Write to the point; don’t complicate it

— Identify the crux of your article and find a way to phrase that in one sentence

— Use words that convey urgency and purpose like “Stop” or “Eye-Opening”

— If you are writing about hacks or tips, then include the problem and the solution in your headline

For example;

10 Hacks to Get Rid of that Pesky Garden Insects – Identifies the problem of pesky garden insects and the provides the solutions to these problems.

5. Let Your Headline Answer the Questions Your Readers Ask

Trust is an important factor to consider when creating content. One major function of writing articles is to keep readers coming back for more.  This cannot happen if your readers don’t trust you. Avoid creating headlines that create hype without substance to back it. A headline that reads “We didn’t believe it and you won’t either” is vague and most readers know better than to read your content. Readers don’t want to be tricked into reading anything. Remember the instinctive beliefs readers hold – If the headlines are vague, it’s because the content has nothing worthwhile to say.  

An interesting statistics we stumbled on in Hubspot is that 50% of search queries are four words or longer. Which means that when people type in a query, if your headline is a response to the query, then your article might just get ranked higher on the Google search page.

For Example –

Your headline that reads “ 12 Amazing DIY Supply Stores in Seattle” would be chosen by Google as a relevant answer if a user types the query  “DIY Supplies in Seattle”.

Additionally, sensationalism and headlines that exaggerate may work once, but would keep people from visiting your site again.

6. Add a Dash of Mystery to Your Headline

This tip seems contradictory to the previous one, but this method does have its (sparing) use. This is a thin line to follow – the headline must pique the curiosity of readers without making exaggerating claims. While this form of headline structure is used everywhere, it is particularly useful in technology-based articles. Headlines that read “This technology has changed the way NASA looks at space exploration” would be an example of such a headline. This form of headline is borderline overused, so you should take care when using it.

7. Use Punctuation to Add Character to Your Headlines

According to the Content Marketing Institute, headlines with a colon or a hyphen indicate the presence of a subtitle and works 9% better than regular headlines. Headlines with hyphens indicate an extra layer of information present in the article. This serves to increase the curiosity quotient of your readers.

Other punctuation points are also useful. While copy editors cringe at the thought of ending a statement with more than one exclamation point, researchers show that headlines with 3 exclamation points doubled their chances at being clicked when compared to all other punctuations.

8. DO NOT be afraid to Tap into Your Reader’s Emotions

The structure of headlines has changed over the years. While emotionally neutral headlines were preferred earlier, headlines today are structured to appeal to people’s  emotions.

This  headline is an example of the use of emotional appeal –

These 10 mistakes are damaging children’s self-confidence, Are you making these mistakes?

Parents who read this headline are instantly worried and are bound to click the link to check if they are part of the demographic mentioned in the article. 

When Negativity Works its Magic

A study by Outbrain tell us that the click-through rate for negatively headlined articles (The 10 Worst Foods to Give Your Dog) is better than the CTR for positive headlines (10 Foods that All Dogs Love).

According to this study, articles headlined with negative superlatives performed 30% better than those headlines with no superlatives. Headlines with negative superlatives fared 63% better than those articles with positive superlatives.

Psychology has an explanation for this – people are drawn to negativity because it serves to protect them from danger, while positive emotions make them disconnected.

This does not mean that all headlines should ooze negativity. Marketers believe that while the CTR for negative headlines are higher; people are more likely to share headlines with positive words.

9. Construct Formulas that Work for You

No two writers have the same writing process. Play with different headline formulas that could help you create sure-fire ways of making good headlines.

2 formulas to make great headlines

This could be your go-to formula when you have a high-stake article to push

 

One successful formula used by writers is using call-to-action words like “Learn” or “Try”. Headlines with these words invoke a sense of urgency in readers that make them more likely to want to read your article.

For example; People pay attention to headlines like “Stop What You’re Doing and Look at These Mind-Blowing Pictures of Solar Flares”.

Simplify Your Job

It is often difficult for writers to think of the best-possible adjectives to use in headlines. It is more likely that they think of good adjectives when they are working on something else. For this reason, it is suitable to make a list of adjectives and add to them whenever you think of new ones.

10. Use Terms in Your Headlines that are Commonly Used while Speaking

It is best to make content that is adapted to new trends like voice searches. 

Let’s look at the statistics given below (Courtesy, Hubspot)

— 19% of people use Siri at least daily

— 37% use Siri, 23% use Microsoft’s Cortana AI, and 19% use Amazon’s Alexa AI at least monthly.

— 20% of search queries on Google’s mobile app and on Android devices are voice searches.

— 43% of mobile voice search users do so because they say it is quicker than going on a website or using an app.

People using voice searches are more likely to search for “Best restaurants in London” than they are to search for “Spectacular Restaurants in London”. When writing headlines, use words that are commonly used. These words may bore you as a writer,  but for readers, they act as a link to familiar emotions and meanings. With several headlines vying to get their attention, readers aren’t going to spend more than a moment’s time in trying to decipher the intent behind your headline.

In a nutshell –

There are 10 tips to remember when making great headlines

  • Optimize Your Headlines for Search Engines
  • Include Numbers When Possible
  • Make Headlines Relatable
  • Don’t be Afraid of Keep it Simple
  • Construct Your Headlines to Answer Potential Questions
  • Use Terms that will Pique Your Reader’s’ Curiosity
  • Don’t Shy Away From Punctuation
  • Tap into the Emotions of Your Readers
  • Find the Perfect Headline Formula That Works for You
  • Use Words That are Commonly Spoken

At the end of the day, it is important to have fun with headlines, if you aren’t having fun with it, then your readers won’t either.

If you have any other points to add, hit us up in the comments section. We’d love to hear from you!

 

 

Filed Under: Discipline: Content Marketing, Online Marketing Tagged With: Click-Through-Rate, content marketing, CTR, Headlines, search engine optimization, SEO, social media

New Content: SEO Foundations Course

March 10, 2015 by Andy Coffaro 1 Comment

SEO Foundations CourseIn this SEO Foundations Course, Danny Dover will take you through everything you need to know to be able to “talk the talk” of SEO.

This new course will teach you traditional on-page concepts to the importance of keyword research to site architecture, link-building, SEO measurement, and more.

At the end of this course you should understand all the key components as well as implement some initial SEO tasks.

SEO Foundations Course Materials Includes: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Discipline Specific, Discipline: SEO Tagged With: New Content, search engine optimization, SEO

Free Webinar: Crushing the Competition with Competitive Analysis

February 23, 2015 by Andy Coffaro 1 Comment

Date & Time: Tuesday, March 31 @ 11:00 am Pacific

Want to Crush the Competition?
Copy Them… Then Better Them.

Finding the leader and building on their strengths is a great way to work your way up the rankings.

Discover how to explore your competition’s backlink profiles, on-page tactics, content strategy, and much more, to improve your own site’s SEO efforts.

Join Todd Malicoat, SEO Faculty Chair at Market Motive, and Fernando Angulo, Head of International Partnerships at SEMrush, and get the tips, tricks, and tools you need to uncover and improve on your competitor’s strategies.

About The Instructors

todd malicoatTodd Malicoat (aka stuntdubl) has over 10 years of experience in internet marketing and consulting on search marketing management at an executive level. He’s consulted and created training documentation for the Public Broadcast System (PBS.org), Meredith Corporation, Thomas Industrial, Rasmussen College, Real Networks, and other large brands.

Fernando AnguloFernando Angulo is the Head of International Partnerships at SEMrush Inc., developing digital & social media strategies. Fernando organized and implemented the Social Media Strategy for numerous companies including SEMrush, and established the first Opinion Leaders department in SEMrush. He specializes in SEO, International SEO, Blogging, and Entrepreneurism.

Learn more about SEO certification Course here

Filed Under: Discipline Specific, Discipline: SEO Tagged With: search engine optimization, SEO

Keyword Research Q&A with Todd Malicoat

January 20, 2015 by Todd Malicoat 1 Comment

keyword research market motiveFrom the Market Motive Forum: A student has questions about keyword research. Todd Malicoat has the answers.

Earlier this week over in the member’s only forum, a student said, “I’ve been watching your keyword research videos, and I could use clarification in understanding the research topic as a concept.”

Below are the answers to her questions that I hope you might find helpful as well.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Discipline Specific, Discipline: SEO Tagged With: Forum, search engine optimization, SEO

Problems Building and Fixing Local Citations? Learn How From Our SEO Expert

November 18, 2014 by Todd Malicoat 5 Comments

From the Market Motive Forums: Fixing Them NAPs

The other day in the member’s only forum, a student came to me looking for advice and insights into a particular local citations problem she’s facing.

She’s a marketing consultant for a local company that has just one office location. She investigated their current listed citations using the Whitesparks Citation Finder tool and discovered some pretty glaring errors and problems with their name, address and phone number (NAP). Beyond some egregious company name misspellings and wrong phone numbers, a previous SEO consultant also built citations for this very same company for about 10 virtual office locations, which are no longer in use, but the citations still exist.

Long story short, the company has a cacophony of incorrect citations, duplicate citations, and outdated NAPs that need removal ASAP.

What is our marketing consultant to do? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Discipline Specific, Discipline: SEO Tagged With: Forum, search engine optimization, SEO

How To Solve The Riddle Of Multiple Duplicate Websites

November 4, 2014 by Todd Malicoat Leave a Comment

market motive seoFrom the Market Motive Forums: What’s Up With The Dupes?

Recently on the Market Motive forum a student asked a question regarding duplicate content and the pair of e-commerce websites she’s working on. Website #1 is a general site that sells all of the products in her inventory. Website #2 is a specialist website selling only about a third of her products.

As you might expect, she’s concerned there’s an issue of duplicate content since all the product pages of website #2 appear on site #1. (Note: The layout of the pages are different, including the brand at the top of the page, but otherwise they’re identical.)

Website #1 has a Moz domain authority of 35 while #2 comes in at 22.

What is the best way for our student to deal with this tricky situation? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Discipline Specific, Discipline: SEO Tagged With: Forum, search engine optimization, SEO

This Is Why Search Results Change Between Browsers

October 30, 2014 by Matt Bailey 8 Comments

Why search results change between browsers

From the Market Motive Forums: Different Browsers Give Different Results. What’s the Deal?

If you use Google regularly, you may have noticed an interesting phenomenon: Search results often change between browsers. This means that the browser you use impacts what pops up on the first page. While it’s easy to chalk this up to being one of those “weird tech things” that no one ever seems to understand – except perhaps the mighty algorithm gods who reside at Google – this is actually just a direct result of Google’s search algorithms and how they try to interact with your browser.

Why Search Results Vary With Different Browsers

It’s important to understand how and why Google search results differ between browsers so that you better understand which variables you do and don’t have control over when performing searches. This can – and rightfully should – have a direct impact on the search terms you decide to target in your marketing campaigns.

Enroll in our DMCA course today and learn how to conduct your very own marketing campaigns.

So why exactly do different browsers show different results? What sorts of variables impact what search results in your browser displays?

Google’s search algorithms are a well-guarded secret, so nobody knows exactly how they choose which results to show. It’s probable, however, that a few different variables effect which results in your browser displays, which we’ve outlined below.

VARIABLE 1: Device Type
Desktop vs. mobile search results
(image courtesy searchengineland.com)

Google and other search engines store cookies in your browser’s history. These cookies allow Google to maintain information about your previous searches, profile information, and language preferences. The type of device you use will change the results you see while browsing, which plays a role in why different browsers show different results. After all, it’s highly unlikely that you’re conducting the same exact searches on your desktop computer as you are on your mobile device… all the time.

Equally important to understand is that your mobile search results will be different from what pops up on your PC. After all, mobile devices handle cookies differently than desktops do.

If you’re hoping to attract both mobile and desktop users to your site, it’s important to understand these differences.

Oh, and let’s not forget that over half of all searches are now conducted on a mobile platform. So if you still haven’t adopted a mobile strategy, now would be a really good time to do so.

VARIABLE 2: Personal Search History


Your browser’s cookies keep track of your previous searches. Google uses this search history to offer you results based on your previous searches, since these are more likely to be relevant. If you repeatedly search for a certain phrase or keyword, your results are more likely to include these phrases or keywords. This means that if you suddenly switch browsers and start using a browser that does not have those cookies, your search results are going to be different.

VARIABLE 3: Links You’ve Previously Clicked On

If you repeatedly search for the same terms or phrases, and then wind up clicking on this same search results, Google will prioritize these links in future searches. What this means is that links will show up more frequently, and with a higher page rank.

75% of all users never go past the first page of results, and links you’ve clicked on before are more likely to show up on that all-important first page. If you’ve been clicking on certain links in one browser and then suddenly switch to another one, the results in your second browser will be different because you haven’t been clicking on those links with that particular browser.

VARIABLE 4: Geographic Location

Google search results are influenced heavily by location services, so your search results will be targeted at the geographic area defined in the device you’re using. For example, if you search for “theaters,” movie theaters close to your location will pop up.

Also keep in mind that browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox have their own location services built in. If they don’t have location data for you, or have the wrong location data, you can expect your search results to be drastically different.

VARIABLE 5: Your Google Account

If you’re logged in to your Google account, Google will use the information it has about you personalize your search results. Google will refine your search results based on your past behavior, like past purchases and reviews. If you are logged into your Google account on one browser but not another, your search results will vary, with the browser you are not logged on displaying less personalized results.

Key Takeaways

At the end of the day, much of this comes back to cookies. The way your browser interacts with cookies will have a substantial impact on which search results you are shown. If you want proof of this:

– Do a quick Google search for something
– Clear your cookies and browser cache,
– Run the same search again

Your results are probably night and day different.

Whatever the reasons are that your search results vary between browsers, please keep this one very important piece of information in mind: they should not be relied on to get an idea of which search terms are bringing visitors to your site.

Rely instead on Google Analytics to determine which search terms and keywords you should focus on. The SEO section under Acquisition shows Search Queries (you need to have Webmaster Tools enabled). This gives you the search terms leading visitors to your website for the past month, and the average page ranking for each term as per Google’s view of this. At least this tells you which of your search terms are generating the most traffic from an SEO perspective and how you’re doing with them.

Along with award winning training courses and weekly live webinars, our members find guidance and insight every day in the Market Motive forums. This post is based on a student/faculty exchange, and we invite members to join the conversation.

Want access to this kind of training and support?

Get Access to our Search Engine Optimization Course here!

Filed Under: Discipline Specific, Discipline: SEO Tagged With: Forum, search engine optimization, SEO

Is Cookie-Based Personalization The Way To Go?

October 9, 2014 by Matt Bailey 1 Comment

From the Market Motive Forums: When Is Cookie-Based Personalization The Right Choice?

SearchAre you thinking about ramping up your personalization program to potentially personalize website content to specific visitor groups? By doing so varying content would be presented to different visitors in hopes of delivering them a more personalized experience.

Seems like a total no-brainer.

But what if this tactic negatively affects your SEO efforts? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Discipline Specific, Discipline: SEO Tagged With: Forum, search engine optimization, SEO

Should I Use WordPress or Blogger for a Free Blog?

September 3, 2014 by Todd Malicoat 2 Comments

From the Market Motive Forums: Is WordPress or Blogger better for a free blog?

The question that comes up a lot is the value of WordPress vs Blogger. As far as SEO goes, it doesn’t matter. I started with Blogger, moved to WordPress, and I now use a self-hosted version of a WordPress install. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Discipline: SEO, Discipline: Social Media, Online Marketing Tagged With: Forum, SEO, social media

What If My Favorite Domain Is Unavailable?

August 20, 2014 by Todd Malicoat Leave a Comment

From the Market Motive Forums: Should I settle for a “.info” domain or add dashes to get the domain I want?

wwwIf you think all the good domains are taken, you may be headed toward obscure work-arounds, like sacrificing a Top Level Domain (TLD) for an alternative suffix or adding dashes between your words.

Don’t give up. The effort you invest at the beginning will pay out in the long run.  [Read more…]

Filed Under: Discipline: SEO, Online Marketing Tagged With: Forum, SEO

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