How to Write a Headline: The #1 Writing Skill

How to write a headline is everything to a writer. In fact, it’s been said that you have just 8 seconds to capture a reader’s attention with your headline before they move on to the next piece of content.

If you want ANYONE to read your content, you have to write compelling, click-worthy headlines.

In this step-by-step guide, we’ll walk you through how to write headlines that will capture readers’ attention and get them clicking through to your content.

What is a Headline?

A headline (or title) is the most important part of an article, blog, ad, or any written piece of online content. Any piece of written content needs a great headline.

Headlines are how people decide whether or not to read an article. A headline should be attention-grabbing and make the reader want to learn more. If you can write irresistible headlines for your audience –– you win the game of writing.

Types of Headlines

There are different types of headlines you can write, depending on the type of content you’re creating.

Here are some of the most common types of headlines:

Blog posts: A blog headline should be catchy and give readers an idea of what the blog post is about.
News articles: The headline of a news article should be informative and tell readers what to expect in the article.
Ads: The headline of an ad should be attention-grabbing and make people want to learn more about the product or service being advertised.
Sales pages: The headline of a sales page should be persuasive and appealing to a target client or customer. It should make make people want to click-through to and buy the product or service being sold.
Web Content Pages: A web page title should be descriptive and tell visitors what the page is about.
Email campaigns: An email headline should be catchy and make people want to open the email to learn more.

Anatomy: How to Write a Headline that Sticks

Now that you know the different types of headlines, let’s look at how to write a headline that gets clicks.

Regardless of the medium or platform, great headlines are composed of certain key components:

Solve the reader’s problem: The best headlines are those that solve the reader’s problem.
Evoke Emotion: Headlines that evoke an emotion (anger, fear, happiness, FOMO, etc.) tend to perform well.
Empathize with the reader:
Use a Number: Use numbers and statistics to reinforce your headline, make it more believable, or make it actionable.
Are short and sweet: Don’t lose or confuse your audience. Great headlines are short and direct.
Use power words: More on this below.
Balance words wisely: Use strong words that accurately reflect the content of your article. Don’t overuse complicated words (and alienate your readers), especially in places simpler words would do.
Incorporate Keywords: The headline should include keywords people are searching for on Google and other search engines.
Illustrate a Benefit: The headline should tell readers what they will get from reading your content.

How to Write a Headline: The Process

Now that you know what goes into a great headline, let’s put it all together and write one. Use the rules above to start writing some headlines.

1. Brainstorm Potential Headlines

Write down as many headline ideas as you can think of.

How to Write a Highly Clickable Headline

Think about these questions:

“If you were your audience, what would you want to see?
“What would make you click on it?”
“What’s the key problem or challenge your audience is facing?”
“What’s the benefit of the solution they’re looking for?”

Brainstorm at least 10-20 headline ideas.

2. Narrow it Down

Next, narrow down your list to what you believe are your 3-5 best headlines.

3. Can you Make Your Headlines Better?

Then, take a look at your headlines and see if you can add any of the following: numbers, power words, benefits, and emotionality.

What will make your headlines more enticing, intriguing, and compelling?

What could you cut out or add to it to make them better?

4. Which Are Most Clickable?

Finally, choose the headline that you think is the most clickable and use it for your content.

Could you picture your headline going viral?

Do you think it will get a lot of likes, comments, and shares on social media?

5.Check Your Score

Use a headline analyzer tool like CoSchedule to score your headlines and see how they compare to the best headlines around your subject.

How to Write a Headline: Do’s and Don’ts

Now that you know how to write a great headline let’s take a look at some things you should do – and some things you shouldn’t do – when writing headlines.

Do:

Write headlines that are clear and direct.
Use keywords in your headlines.
Make sure your headlines are SEO-friendly.
Write attention-grabbing headlines.
Use numbers, power words, and emotions in your headlines.
Use strong verbs and adjectives
Test different headlines to see which ones perform the best.

Don’t:

Write headlines that are too long.
Write misleading headlines.
Use too much jargon in your headlines.
Write boring headlines.

Now that you know how to write a great headline put these tips into practice and see how they can help you get more clicks and traffic to your content.

Examples of Powerful Headlines

Here are some examples of headlines that use the tips above to be powerful and clickable:

How to Lose Weight Fast: 3 Simple, Science-Backed Steps
Make Money Online: 7 Ways to Earn an Extra $1,000/Month
The Ultimate Guide to Buying a Used Car (Without Getting Scammed)
8 Shocking Ways Your Bank is Ripping You Off
5 Better Conflict Resolution Tools for Workplace Disputes

Headline Writing Formulas

As commercial writers, we’re lucky we live in an age where we never have to start with a blank slate (or screen). There are thousands of useful headline writing formulas you can source from Google, and customize to make your own.

Just run a Google search for “headline writing formulas.“

There are hundreds of them you can deploy in your writing. Clip your favorite headline writing formulas, articles, or links to Google Docs or Evernote so you can add them to your writing tool kit.

How to Write a Headline: Tools and Software

There are dozens of great tools online that can help you write better headlines, and analyze the performance of your headlines.

How to Write Better Headlines: Tools, Links, and Resources

Note: Also, be sure to read How to Write Eye Catching Headlines for more pointers on how to write a headline.

Here are a few tools, links, and resources to help you write better headlines:

1) See What Topics are Trending

Use these tools to see what topics and headlines are trending.

Google Trends: You can use Google Trends to see what topics are trending and how those trends are changing over time. This is a great way to develop ideas for new content or to see how you can repurpose old content to fit current trends.
Google AdWords Keyword Planner: This is an excellent tool for finding popular keywords and phrases to use in your headlines.
Quora: This is a great place to find questions people are asking that you can answer with your content.
Reddit: This is a great place to find questions people are asking that you can answer with your content.
Social Media: Check out what people are talking about on social media to get ideas for new content. Test different search queries and hashtags on social media to see what topics are trending.

2) Optimization: How to Write a Headline

Use these tools and software to help you write better headlines.

AI Writing Software: This is a fabulous tool for writing eye-catching headlines, outlines, and entire paragraphs of AI-written content. Check out AI writing software like Jasper.AI, Copy.AI, Peppertype.AI, and never face writer’s block again.
CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer: This is a superb tool for analyzing your headlines and getting feedback on how to improve them.
BuzzSumo Headline Generator: This is a great tool for generating headline ideas based on keywords and topics.

3) Analyze Your Performance

Use these tools to evaluate your headlines’ performance.

Google Analytics: Indicated what content on you or your client’s site is getting the most clicks, exposure, traffic, and time users are spending on each page of your website. Find out what content is trending and what’s not.
Google Search Console: This is an industry-standard tool for analyzing how your content is performing in Google search results by showing you what keywords your content is ranking for and where that content is ranking. onGoogle.
Google Ads Platform: You can use the Google Ads platform to track how well your headlines perform in terms of click-through rate (CTR), cost per click, and much more.
Social Marketing, Analytics, and Advertising Platforms: There are dozens of great social media marketing, analytics, and advertising platforms like Hootsuite Insights, Sprout Social, Facebook Insights, LinkedIn Analytics, Instagram Analytics, Twitter Analytics, etc. that can help you track how well your headlines are performing on social media.
Email Marketing Platforms: Email marketing platforms like Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, etc. offer great insights into how well your headlines perform. They show you critical data like clicks and open rate. They also allow you to split-test your headlines (test two different headlines for the same email campaign) to see which performs best.
Content Management Systems Analytics: Content management systems like WordPress, SquareSpace, Wix, Drupal, etc., offer great insights into how well your headlines perform.

To track these metrics, you can use Google Analytics or native advertising platforms on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, etc.

In Closing

Writing great headlines is an essential skill for every content creator and marketer. Following the tips in this guide, you can write headlines that will get clicks, conversions, and sales.

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