How To Write The Perfect Headline

Last Updated: February 13, 2024, 4:56 pm

It may sound repetitive, but headlines do make a difference whether your content gets read or not.

Here’s an interesting example:

An Upworthy headline generated 59 times more views and engagement than another one.

Although title generators are viewed by many copywriting pros, as funny and useless, their true intention is to generate content ideas (they are funny and useless if you put your name in it).

On the other hand, the a headlines in the title-generator are basic pre-formulated headlines that already worked on so many pages and they are constantly being used as a base.

 

How To “Cr@p Out” a Few Headlines For Your New(Next) Blog Post In 3 Steps

 

STEP 1

 

The first step is pretty simple: plug in your keyword into the title generator and hit the red button.

As soon as you do that and start reading the headlines, you’ll notice one thing: some of them don’t make any sense.

And that’s OK.

Ignore Them.

Scroll down and write down the ones that do make sense.

Tweak them a little so they are grammatically correct.

Now that you have those (you should get at least 25 out of the total headlines), try to look up a secondary keyword or a pain point.

If you think that the already generated titles are in your way, run a search using three underscores or just type in blank.

There you go.

I’ll make it easy.

Headline Generator Results using Underscores

Headline Generator Results using [BLANK]

Write down another 25 headlines (you could also copy-paste them into your word processor; personally I prefer pencil and paper or sticky notes).

That’s already 50 headlines, but it’s not over yet.

 

STEP 2

 

Research the competition and see what they are up to.

Needless to say that Google or Bing will do the job nicely. Look up your keywords in Quora…

What you are looking for are additional keywords and formulas in the description.

If they rank high in the search engines or the articles get social engagement, they must be doing something right, right?

Search for “emotional” words.

You could create your own by inspiring yourself from the 7 capital sins and virtues, although for Chastity is hard to find a use 🙂

Filter down everything and keep 5 headlines.

The ones you like.

 

STEP 3

 

A/B Test It

As in find out which one is the best for your audience.

Your headline is good.

It’s your child.

It’s the best.

It’s PERRRRRFECT!

But that’s your opinion.

Put it to a test.

Install this WP plugin from Title Experiments.

And go with the audience.

They Rule!

Because “Vox Populi, Vox Dei!”

P.S. Avoid click baits – they will kill your audience, eventually.