How to Write Eye Catching Headlines: 8 Easy Steps

You only get one chance to make a first impression. So as a writer, creating eye catching headlines means everything.

If you don’t know how to write killer headlines, 80% of users will overlook your blog, content, or article, and look for a headline that catches their interest.

As a writer, here are some key stats on headlines you should know:

8/10 readers will never make it past your headline.
Only two of those ten will actually click it.
Website traffic can vary up to 500%, purely depending on the quality of a headline.

That being said, headlines can be the difference between

Ranking and not raking.
Traffic and no traffic.
Leads and no leads.
Sales and no sales.
The growth or death of a business.

This is what makes writing eye catching headlines a critical skill for every writer.

There is a lot of work, skill, and practice that go into penning eye-catching headlines. But by the time you finish reading this blog, you’ll have all the tools you need to craft irresistible and highly-clickable headlines in no time…

What is a Headline?

A headline is the most important part of your article. It’s the first thing people will see of your writing, and that alone will determine whether or not readers click your headline to read the rest of what you have to offer.

Headlines can be

Email headlines or subject lines
Blog post headlines or titles
Article and news article headlines and titles
Sales page headlines
Social media posts
Press releases
Ad headlines for Google PPC, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, YouTube, etc.

In any of these scenarios, a powerful headline will make people stop in their tracks, want to know the rest of the story, and click through to your content.

A bad headline will cause people to keep scrolling, regardless of how great the rest of your content is.

Why Headlines are So Important?

I can’t emphasize this enough: headlines are the first thing web users read.

If it doesn’t get a reader’s attention, it doesn’t earn their click. If you miss the click, you miss out on traffic, SEO, ranking-up, leads, and sales for you and your freelance writing clients.

“But my writing is good! I’m just an okay headline writer. Doesn’t that count for something?”

Not as much as you’d like. You’ve got a good foundation. You just need to put the finishing touches on your skills so your writing can perform better –– a metric ton better.

*Refer back to headlines can make a 500% difference in traffic.

Plus, you need to be able to write great headlines to create great pitches, sell clients, deliver results, and get high-paying work as a writer.

Awesome! So where do we get started?

The Anatomy of a Good Headline

There are a few fundamental elements of eye catching headlines. Headlines must be:

Evoke an emotional response from the reader.
Be intriguing and engaging.
Be relevant to the content your audience is looking for.

Through data and testing, we have seen that outstanding headlines:

Leverage Emotion. Emotion is everything to great headline writing. Eliciting an emotional response from your readers motivates them to click through and read the rest of your content. Excitement, joy, curiosity, fear, humor, sadness, suspicion, frustration, and anger are all valuable tools at your disposal.
Use Action. Headlines should always use a subject and an action that the subject is doing.
Are Positive. Top-performing headlines tend to be positive in nature or lead a reader to a positive action or outcome.
Show a Clear, Concise Benefit to the Reader. If you’re a blogger, content marketer, or copywriter, you always need to paint a picture of how your content piece, page, product, or service will benefit the reader.
Use Numbers. This could be “X Unusual Tips to have the Best Vacation of All Time” or citing an interesting stat that catches the eyes of your audience. People love listicles (numbered list posts and content) as well as hard data backing up your content or claim.
Are Short and to the Point. You’ll find varying data, studies, and opinions on this, but depending on the audience or niche, the ideal headline is generally 6-12 words long.

*Read more on this at https://coschedule.com/blog/best-headlines

How to Make Your Headlines Stand Out

Elements of great headlines include being emotive, eye-catching, relevant, positive, and benefit-driven.

But what else can you do to make your headlines irresistible?

1) Use Power Words

Use powerful words. Some words will stop readers in their tracks every time. These words are called power words. They’re useful in headlines because they go above and beyond at evoking an emotional response.

Here are some examples of power words and phrases you can use in your headlines:

Secrets
Exposed
Revealed
Confessions
Shocking
Surprising
Incredible
Astonishing
Mind-blowing
Startling
Stunning
Baffling
Crazy
Hilarious
Hysterical
Entertaining
Adore
Outstanding
Unlikely
New
Innovative
Exclusive
How to
Hack
Tricks
Effortless
Easy
Time-saving
Strange
Transform
Better
Best
Thrilling
Unparalleled
Essential
Critical
Vital
Fundamental
Practical

There are thousands of power words. For more on this, check these out:

The Complete List of Power Words in this article – Over 1,900 of them
401+ Ridiculously Useful Power Words To Increase Conversions

Use these resources as a reference when you’re writing and practicing writing eye-catching headlines.

2) Write Eye Catching Headlines and Learn Copywriting

If you’re learning headline writing (which you are) you’re already learning an essential skill of copywriting.

Learn Copywriting to become a headline writer

I highly recommend adding learning Copywriting and SEO copywriting to your to-do list so that you can learn how to write headlines that will leave readers dumbfounded, starstruck, bum-fuddled, face-melted, and desperate to click your headline.

3) Use a Headline Analyzer

Use a headline analyzer. A headline analyzer is an online tool that scores your headline on a scale of 0-100 and tells you what elements you’re missing so you can make it better.

One of my favorites is the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer. It’s free to use, and it gives you a detailed breakdown and score of your headline. All you have to do is enter your copy, and it does the rest.

4) Write 25 Headlines, Then Pick the Best One

Brain dumping is one of the best ways to create and pull some great headlines. Sit down and write 15-25 headlines without stopping. Don’t edit as you go.

Then pick the best one. This is a method used by some of the best writers in the world. It’s simple, effective, and gives you a large pool of options to just from.

5) Write Headlines for Your Readers, Not Search Engines

This is a mistake new writers and overly SEO-conscious writers can make. They think they need to write headlines just for Google when their readers are the ultimate deciding factor if you will earn the click or not.

Writing headlines for search engines (especially website content) is important. But your headline also needs to be eye-catching and relevant to your target audience, reader, ideal client, and the end-user, in order to be maximally effective.

6) Test Your Headlines

The only way to know for sure if a headline is eye-catching and effective is to put it to the test. See how effective your headlines are getting clicks and conversions in your

Email campaigns
Google Ads
Social media ads
Social media posts
YouTube ads
And blog or content titles

With advertising platforms and email campaigns, you can also A/B test your headlines (test two different headlines simultaneously) to see which ones get the most impressions, clicks, engagement, and conversions. This is a great way to fine-tune your headlines and make sure they’re as compelling as possible.

7) Track Your Results

Once you’ve test-driven your eye catching headlines, it’s important to track the results so you can see which ones are performing and which are not. Analyzing the data is critical as you continue to refine craft of writing eye catching headlines.

What metrics should I be looking at?

Data you’ll want to pay attention to (depending on what platform you are tracking on and with) for your headlines are:

Impressions
Views
Likes
Clicks
Click-through rate
Shares
Comments
Conversions
Goal completions
Conversion rate
ROI (if you’re running ads)

8) Keep practicing

Keep practicing. Like all things in writing, the more you practice writing eye-catching headlines, the better you’ll get. And the more you write, the faster you’ll get there.

keep practicing writing eye catching headlines

Pro Eye Catching Headline Formulas

We’ve covered some effective ways to create powerhouse headlines. Luckily, there are about a million different headline formulas you can use, and about 10,000+ great blogs online that cover how to do it

No need for us to reinvent the wheel here. Why not use recipes that are already work so you can start writing and kick ass?

Check out these resources for more eye catching headline formulas and add them to your bookmark bar ASAP!

In Closing

You now have the tools you need to write eye-catching headlines that will grab your readers’ attention and make them want to click. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start writing some headlines!

And if you’re interested in jumping into your freelance writing career right now, be sure to get access to my FREE ebook on the 20 Highest Paying Jobs for Freelance Writers.

20 highest paying jobs for freelance writers

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