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If you want people to read your articles and click on your content in Google’s search results, learning how to write catchy blog post titles is key. However, it can be tricky to stand out from other headlines.

Fortunately, you can apply several best practices 😎 to your headline creation process to make the most of your titles. When crafted carefully, your post titles can take your blog to the next level to attract readers.

👉 By the end of this post, you’ll have a better understanding of how to write blog titles and why they’re so important. You’ll also learn 🧑‍🏫 eight tips for improving your headlines. Let’s jump in!

Here's how to write catchy #blog post titles that will get people clicking 🖱️
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The importance of blog post titles

First impressions are essential, and your blog post titles are your readers’ first impression of your blog. You could have valuable long-form content in every post you write, but it won’t matter much if no one ever reads them.

Titles enable readers to find your posts and make them want to click through to read more. Creating headlines that catch visitors’ attention and spark their curiosity will encourage them to stick around longer and come back for more.

Plus, titles play important roles in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), too. A carefully crafted headline will include elements to help your post rank higher on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). This could help drive more organic traffic to your site.

How to write better titles for your blog posts (8 tips)

An ideal title includes a blend of concrete information, intriguing hints at what the post contains, and qualities search engine algorithms like. Achieving a balance of these elements will make for clickable, optimized blog post titles.

  1. Tell readers what to expect (and deliver it) to prevent confusion
  2. Share a story to make readers want to know more
  3. Provide useful information that solves a problem
  4. Use numbers and statistics to provide clarity
  5. Include your chosen keyword so your title ranks well
  6. Optimize headline length for readability and SEO
  7. Appeal to your target audience
  8. Use bracketed clarifications

1. Tell readers what to expect (and deliver it) to prevent confusion

The internet is full of content, which can lead to information overload for readers. When hundreds of results come up for their search terms in Google, people don’t have time to casually peruse every article on the results page.

Readers want to know what they’re getting into before they click on a headline, which is why you want yours to clearly state what your posts are about. Then your content should deliver whatever your blog post titles have promised so that your visitors don’t feel that they’ve wasted their time.

👉 Take this Buzzfeed article, for example:

A Buzzfeed article headline about the new trailer and release date for Big Little Lies.

Anyone who clicks on the headline can feel confident about what they’re getting into. People who aren’t interested in Big Little Lies know they don’t need to read any further, while those who are get exactly what they’re looking for by clicking through: the trailer, the release date, and a few comments on the upcoming season.

When writing your titles, try to be specific. A vague headline such as “Big Little Lies Season 2” would be less compelling than the example above because it doesn’t promise any benefits to the reader. Telling readers to expect the trailer and release date will get them excited.

2. Share a story to make readers want to know more

Everyone loves a good story. If your blog post titles can convey one without giving too much away, they’ll catch your readers’ eyes. Even if they’re only loosely interested in the subject, a reader may be willing to click on a headline just to learn what happened.

👉 Consider this emotion-based headline:

A blog post title about a priest who rescued relics from the Notre Dame Fire with help from a human chain.

If the title had been something like “Relics Saved from Notre Dame Fire”, the post likely wouldn’t receive as much attention. For casually interested readers, everything they need to know is in the headline – the relics are safe.

However, in the actual headline, a hero is introduced, and details of his heroic acts are promised. Even if readers know the relics are safe, they may be interested to learn more about this central character and the human chain that helped him rescue the artifacts.

Writing these types of headlines requires careful thought. You don’t want to give too much away, but you also want to share enough to draw readers in. Try introducing an important character or object and sharing a little about why they’re essential.

3. Provide useful information that solves a problem

As you may know from personal experience, people often use search engines to find information on how to do things. People have problems, and the internet has solutions. If your articles include answers to common problems, you should make sure your blog post titles reflect this.

👉 For example, here are a few headlines from wikiHow:

Examples of blog post titles from the wikiHow Main Page.

Note that they all start with “How to”. This isn’t just a stylistic choice on the part of the website. Searchers often use terms such as “how”, “why”, and “what” when looking up information in search engines, which makes these titles ideal for top ten spots on SERPs.

Optimizing your blog post titles for search intent by using these terms is a solid strategy. Showing that you have a solution to a problem makes your blog a valuable resource for readers.

4. Use numbers and statistics to provide clarity

Many online content creators have noted that including numbers or statistics in their headlines brings more traffic. It’s difficult to pin down why, but it could be the appeal in the clarity numbers provide. If a headline reads “25 cute pictures of kittens”, you know what you’re in for.

👉Here’s a better example from Buzzfeed:

An article headline from Buzzfeed about stressful television scenes, which is a perfect examples of blog post titles that use numbers to provide clarity.

Using numbers is a fast way to give readers an idea of how long a post will be – in this case, at least long enough to list 31 scenes from television shows. They can also spark readers’ curiosity. People may not want to read an article about stressful moments in TV shows, but they might want to know how many of these 31 scenes they’ve watched.

While you certainly don’t want to start stuffing numbers into every one of your blog post titles, using them where they make sense is wise. If you’re going to offer any kind of list within your post, adding a number to the headline is an easy way to increase your chances of getting more clicks.

5. Include your chosen keyword so your title ranks well

Titles are key factors in your posts’ SEO. For starters, your title and your meta description will appear in the SERPs. It’s important that these elements are optimized to get readers to click through to the full article.

👉 However, it’s also essential that your title includes the keyword you want your post to rank for. Take this Buzzfeed post:


We can’t be sure exactly what keywords Buzzfeed was targeting here. Still, we can make a pretty good guess it was something similar to “Beyonce’s Homecoming Documentary.”

👉 Sure enough, this article makes it onto the first Google results page for the search term:


According to Moz, titles still play a role in SEO. Including keywords in your blog post titles can help your content rank better for related searches. If you’re using an SEO plugin such as Yoast SEO, you’ll notice this is a common suggestion.

Yoast SEO

Author(s): Team Yoast

Current Version: 20.7

Last Updated: May 9, 2023

wordpress-seo.20.7.zip

96%Ratings5,000,000+InstallsWP 6.1+Requires

6. Optimize headline length for readability and SEO

Another title-related aspect of SEO is your title’s length. Headlines that are too short risk lacking the information necessary to get the attention of both search engines and readers. On the other hand, readers may lose interest in lengthy titles.

Plus, long titles won’t fit within the character limit set for SERPs. If your blog post titles are too wide, readers won’t even be able to see the entire headline when browsing search results.

👉 Here are a few blog post titles from our own site:

Some of the blog post titles from Themeisle

While it’s hard to set a defined character limit on headlines, it’s generally best to keep them around 60 characters long. This should give you enough space to provide adequate information to entice readers but remain readable (though there are always exceptions).

7. Appeal to your target audience

You’ll also want to make sure that your titles appeal to your target audience. They should contain elements that are specific to your readers.

This approach can help distinguish your articles from the competition. While other blogs might use formulaic or generic post titles, you can aim for original headlines to catch the eyes of your target readers.

Try to adopt the tone of your target audience. If your readers are typically younger, you might use casual language and slang terms to reach them more effectively.

👉 Buzzfeed does this well, with headlines that take on the latest slang, pop culture references, and trends:

Another example of a BuzzFeed headline.

Additionally, if your blog is highly niche, you might consider using industry-standard terms in your titles. Enthusiasts and hobbyists will see your content as relevant to their interests and experiences.

Go to top

8. Use bracketed clarifications

Finally, it’s worth including bracketed clarifications in your blog posts. Essentially, this means showing the reader ahead of time what kind of content to expect, like video, interview, or gallery.

According to HubSpot research, bracketed clarifications in titles can help posts perform 38% better. This suggests that readers are more likely to click on headlines that provide additional information from the outset.

This makes sense when you consider that many readers are looking for a particular kind of content. If they would rather watch a video than read a long article, they may feel more drawn to a title that advertises this preferred medium.

👉 Check out this example from Yesware:

An example of a bracketed clarification in a blog post title.

That’s not to say that you need to include a clarification for every headline you write. However, adding them to different content types can help your videos, interviews, and photo posts stand out in the search results.

Start writing better blog post titles today! 🏁

Enticing, optimized headlines are key ingredients for any successful blog. Hobbyists and professionals alike will benefit from writing intriguing blog post titles designed to rank well with search engines.

Here's how to write catchy #blog post titles that will get people clicking 🖱️
CLICK TO TWEET 

⚠ When you’re working on your next blog post, remember these tips for creating better titles:

  1. Tell readers what to expect (and deliver it) to prevent confusion.
  2. Share a story to make readers want to know more.
  3. Provide useful information that solves a problem.
  4. Use numbers and statistics to provide clarity.
  5. Include your chosen keyword so that your title ranks well.
  6. Optimize headline length for readability and SEO.
  7. Appeal to your target audience.
  8. Use [bracketed clarifications] to improve click-through-rate.