Tips for Creating Headlines that Get Attention

Photo by Anete Lusina

Killer headlines do the trick.

I believe this to be true – you need to have a killer headline for your content to get the attention. A compelling headline gets the audience to read the following sentence. If your headline does not get the audience and tugs on his emotions, the audience will not bother to read the content.

As I had mentioned before, the audience skims through online content, and most of them follow the F-pattern for reading web content (there are other scanning patterns, however). Your headline must capture the attention of the audience.

There is only one goal – have the following sentence after the headline read.

Remember these tips while crafting your headline:

Your headline should have a promise.

You think of how a commitment makes the audience feel from the headline alone. The audience would always want to reap the benefit. This persona desires to make things easy or better and be happy. Let’s take, for example, this headline:

9 Ways To Build Wealth Fast (That Your Financial Advisor Might Not Tell You)

by Jeff Rose of Forbes

What promise do you see in the above headline?

Your headline should have a keyword.

This tip is not for search engine optimization purposes only. Keywords in your title should answer specific niches. It gives a chance for your content to be read. Let’s take an example:

Tips for Taking Care of Your Skin

by Patricia Hyde of TeensHealth

What keywords do you see?

Your headline should speak the language of the audience.

You are writing for your audience. If your audience does not understand what your headline is telling, how can you capture the audience’s attention? Check this example:

How to Give Your Children Extra Iron — These 3 Delicious Ways

Does the headline speak the language you are familiar with?

Your headline should demonstrate your expertise and authority.

Headlines that list numbers show that you are a master of the topic. A mixture of ‘how to’ and a list in a headline makes it more powerful. Let’s take this example:

Do You Recognize the Seven Early Warning Signs of Hypertension?

Did you expect the author to explain the warning signs?

While practice does not make perfect, it makes what you do almost perfect.

Learn how to write great headlines. The ones that grab attention and let your audience want to read more of your content.

Let the experts speak more about headlines:

• How to Write Magnetic Headlines by Brian Clark of Copy Blogger
• The Definitive Guide to Writing a Headline that Doesn’t Suck (Tips, Tactics & Tools Included) by Neil Patel
• 52 Headline Hacks by Jon Morrow
• 55 Easy Ways To Write A Headline That Will Reach Your Readers by Kelly Smith of CoSchedule
• 9 Tips for Writing Great Headlines in 2017 by Margot Whitney of WordStream