How to Write a Catchy Title [Your Ultimate Guide to Click-worthy Titles]
This guide covers five easy steps to create catchy titles. Read on for details.
Lucy Kariuki
Contributing Writer @ Quorage
To write a catchy title, start by understanding your target audience to tailor titles that capture their attention. Then conduct keyword research to identify phrases that resonate with your audience. Focus on promising outcomes and invoke urgency, uniqueness, or specificity. Finally, continually test your titles to measure their effectiveness in attracting and engaging readers.
The title (or headline) is the first thing people notice when they see your content online. And it can make or break engagement with your target audience.
No one will read your post if the title is too general, bland, or vague. So it takes a catchy title to convince people that your content is worth reading.
Writing compelling titles will attract readers and increase your article’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). It will also boost your content’s conversion rate.
But how do you write an eye-grabbing title?
Below is your ultimate guide to writing titles that will make your target audience click and read your content.
How to write a catchy title in 5 easy steps
Writing catchy titles can be overwhelming. But you can simplify the process by following these 5 steps:
Step #1: Understand your target audience
Knowing who you’re writing for will help you craft specific titles that grab their attention.
You could write a great article, but no one will read it if the title doesn’t resonate with them. Content creation involves satisfying the search intent of your target audience. So you want to craft content that matters to a specific group of online users.
Therefore, ask the following questions before drafting your article title:
- Who am I targeting with this content?
- What have they been searching for?
- What are their pain points?
- What solution (or benefit) can my article offer?
If you’re targeting content writers looking to grow their organic traffic, you could write a title that solves their pain points. For example, “5 Proven Ways to Grow Your Organic Traffic in 30 Days.”
Step #2: Conduct keyword research
Keyword research is vital since your article or blog post should have a keyword you want to rank for.
A keyword gives purpose to your content. Hence, you’ll write an article that meets your target audience’s search intent. You also want to balance that with search engine optimization (SEO) to make it rank higher.
Keyword research involves finding what your target audience is looking for. To start your search, type in any word or phrase on Google and check the results. For example, if you’re in the parenting niche, you could search for ‘potty training.’ Google’s SERPs will give you an idea of what people have been asking about that topic.
So you might find keywords like ‘how to potty train,’ ‘what age should a child be potty trained by?’ or ‘best potty training methods.’ These keywords give a general idea of people’s search intent. Deeper research will help you find more details or keyword insights.
You can use a keyword research tool to get specific, long-tail, and less competitive keywords. Most keyword research tools also give metrics like keyword density, search volume, and cost per click. From the results, narrow down your choices by picking one or two keywords to write on.
Then, include this keyword in your title and play around with the wording to grab your target audience’s attention.
For example, “How to Potty Train a Two-Year-Old in 3 Days Without Losing Your Mind.”
Step #3: Focus on the outcome, not the method
A catchy title hints at the benefits, solutions, or results that searchers will be interested in.
According to David Ogilvy, a renowned marketing executive, a headline will work best if it “promises the reader a benefit.”
But your title will fail terribly if you concentrate on the method only, not the outcome. For instance, if you’re writing about a newly released oven, don’t just tell readers that the oven uses the pyrolytic cleaning method. They will probably not care much about the oven’s techy side.
Instead, they’ll be interested in the self-cleaning oven if it solves a specific problem or offers a benefit. For example, a self-cleaning oven saves cleaning time since you don’t have to scrub the oil and grease after cooking. And the user isn’t exposed to harsh cleaning products; they only have to wipe off the produced ash.
Therefore, let a potential reader know that this new product will offer a specific result by including the benefit in your article title.
For example, “Save Cleaning Time by 50% with Bosch’s Pyrolytic (Self-cleaning) Oven” will be more appealing than “Buy Bosch’s Pyrolytic (Self-cleaning) Oven.”
Step #4: Call for readers’ attention
Let your title grab readers’ attention immediately and convince them to read the first sentence of your article.
The online space is flooded with all types of content calling for people’s attention. And users’ attention span has reduced dramatically in recent years. So a reader may not waste time on boring or invaluable content when they can look elsewhere.
But you can make your target audience notice your article title among dozens of similar content. Stir their emotions, convincing them to click on it to read more.
One proven way to call for readers’ attention is by using the four rules (the 4 U’s) of copywriting.
They include:
Create a sense of urgency in your title
Let your title make potential readers feel an urgent need to click and read your content.
If someone is looking for a solution to a problem or helpful information to satisfy their curiosity, they’ll be ready to read content that meets their intent.
For example, if a mom-to-be starts bleeding heavily during pregnancy, she’ll be anxious to know the cause and how to stop it. So she can look up answers on Google and type in something like, “Is it normal to bleed during pregnancy?” Or she could write’ “What causes bleeding during pregnancy?”
Suppose she finds an article online titled, “Here are 3 Least Known Causes of Bleeding During Pregnancy.” The mom-to-be won’t hesitate to click the title since it promises to answer her question instantly.
You can also create a sense of urgency by including a deadline or timeframe in your title. With this approach, you’ll make your target audience not want to miss out if they don’t read the content.
Here are a few examples of ‘urgent’ titles:
- “Save Up to 40% on Energy Bills by Buying these Solar Panels“
- “Here are 5 Ways to Lose Belly Fat in Less than a Month“
- “Increase Your Monthly Income by 50% with These Proven Money-making Principles”
Craft a unique headline (title)
A title that stands out from the rest will definitely grab readers’ attention.
Crafting a unique title is challenging with millions of creative writers and AI (artificial intelligence) in the digital space. But you don’t need to be a genius or super creative to create an original title. You only have to craft something that has yet to be used.
And it’s pretty easy to rate your title’s uniqueness on Google. Draft a title and enter it on Google’s search button. However, you should enclose it in double quotation marks, as shown below:
If you get a “No results found” response, your title is unique, or no one has used it yet.
Be ultra-specific
Being precise with your title will attract readers with a specific search intent.
Most people ignore generic titles because they don’t get straight to the point. On the other hand, they’ll be attracted to ultra-specific headlines that meet their hunger for knowledge or offer specific solutions.
For instance, a title like “Communication Skills You Need” is so broad that you can’t tell its target audience. Therefore, it will hardly attract readers seeking communication skills in a particular area.
But “7 Skills Every Doctor Needs to Succeed in their Career” is more specific. And it goes without saying that the title will grab a doctor’s attention, especially if they’ve been struggling with communication.
Offer something useful
Show that your article offers value by preempting the benefits in your title.
You don’t want potential readers to brush off your content after a second of encountering it. Even if your title is unique, ultra-specific, and creates a sense of urgency, your target audience will only be convinced to read it if it offers something.
Hence, promise your potential readers that your content will do either of the following:
- Inform them
- Offer them solutions
- Teach them something new
- Address their pain points
- Entertain them
But don’t offer a promise you can’t fulfill in the rest of your article if you want to engage your readers and earn their trust. Creating valuable content is one of the best ways to build your authority and credibility as a content writer.
Here are some title examples:
- “How to Generate Passive Income Without Leaving Your House”
- “11 Unpopular Places to Find the Best Burger in Nairobi”
- “9 Effective Ways of Disciplining Your Kids Without Yelling”
- “Create Eye-Catching Infographics for Your Content Using this Tool.”
Step #5: Test your titles
Measure your title’s performance after learning how to write catchy articles and implementing the four steps above.
Did it increase traffic to your site? Or has it boosted your engagement with readers?
Testing your titles will answer these questions (and more), clearly showing whether your ‘title improvement’ strategy has worked. But how do you measure a title’s performance?
You can test how good your titles are by:
- Using CoShedule headline analyzer – this tool gives your title an overall score and offers suggestions on improving it.
- Checking engagement statistics – how many likes, comments, or shares did your content earn?
- Analyzing traffic metrics – how many people visited your website after uploading a specific article?
- Checking inbound links – how many links has your content received from other domains?
5 tricks to craft compelling titles
Crafting catch titles isn’t a walk in the park. It would help if you had all the tips to ease the process.
Here are five tricks to help you craft clickable article titles and boost your site’s authority:
1. Use numbers or symbols to grab readers’ attention
Using numbers (especially odd ones) in your title shows how your content offers tangible value. And symbols, such as parentheses, can grab people’s attention.
Examples:
- “Top 5 Honeymoon Destinations in Italy”
- “7 Ways to Paint Your House”
- “9 Best Side Hustles for Stay-at-Home Moms”
2. Use questions to create curiosity
Crafting your title in question form is one of the best ways to grab people’s attention. Question titles create curiosity, pushing potential readers to click on your content.
Examples:
- “How to Win More Clients? Here are 3 Strategies You Should Use”
- “Is your Online Business Making Losses? Try these Tips to Increase your Revenue
3. Use ‘power words’ to evoke emotions
Using ‘power words’ in your title will trigger readers’ emotions and prompt them to act a certain way.
Words like ‘incredible,’ ‘breathtaking,’ ‘exclusive,’ ‘eye-opening,’ ‘spectacular,’ ‘life-threatening,’ etc., are emotionally impactful and can make your content appeal to readers.
Examples in titles:
- “Incredible Ways to Deal with Procrastination”
- “5 Life-threatening Habits You Should Stop in 2023”
- “Eye-opening Opportunities for Kenyan Students to Study Abroad”
4. Use a unique rationale to make your title stand out
Give potential readers a rationale (justified reason) to click, read, or even share your content.
Here are unique rationale and examples that you can use to write catchy titles:
- Reasons: “Top 7 Reasons to Have a Kitchen Garden in Your Backyard”
- Tips: “3 Tips to Make Your Content Rank Higher on Google”
- Facts: “Here are 3 Least Known Facts about Intermittent Dieting”
- Lessons: “5 Powerful Lessons to Learn from Nelson Mandela’s Life”
- Strategies: “9 Strategies that Have Helped Content Writers Find High-Paying Clients”
5. Apply a proven formula
Using a tried-and-true template can help you write better titles.
A formula shows that many people have used it over the years and proven it works. So you don’t have to struggle to invent a new strategy.
Here are proven formulae to spruce your titles:
- [Number] Secrets of [Something] – “11 Least Known Secrets of Copywriting”
- Who Else Wants [Something] – “Who Else Wants to Earn a 6-Figure Salary Working from Home?”
- Get Rid of [Something] in [Time Frame] – “Get Rid of Bedbugs in 24 Hours with this Solution”
- Here’s How [Someone] [Does Something] – “Here’s How Google Ranks Your Content in Seconds”
Final thoughts
Your title is the most critical part of your article, so don’t make it an afterthought. Try the strategies in this blog post to craft catchy titles to impress your target audience. But don’t stop there; consistently create valuable content, and readers will flock to your site.
FAQs
Why should a title be catchy?
A catchy title attracts readers and compels them to read the rest of the content. Hence, it increases your site’s organic traffic and ranks your content higher on search engines.
What are the characteristics of a good title?
A good title has the following characteristics:
- It’s simple and precise
- It creates curiosity
- It’s specific and uses concrete language
- It evokes emotions
- It promises a benefit
- It includes the keyword
How do I know if my title is good?
You can measure your title’s performance by using the CoShedule Headline Analyzer. Also, analyzing your content’s engagement, inbound links, and traffic growth will help you know if your titles are good.