Do You Write Great Headlines? Take This Short Quiz And Find Out!

bygjshawk

1.6K followers

4 years ago

We All Know That Great Content Is The Most Important Aspect Of Blogging, Right?

Well, maybe it isn't.

Maybe there's something at least just as important, or maybe even more important.

I'm talking about your post's headline.

Remember CTR? I don't mean Choose The Right, although that's a theme from my church.

I'm talking about Click Through Rate - the number of people who read your title, and then click on through to read your post.

If people don't click through, even though you might have the best, most shining example of a great blog post ever placed on a website, nobody will read it.

To quote Alex Nerney from Create and Go,

Great Headlines = More Clicks + More Potential Fans = More Potential Customers.

So, in the spirit of writing great headlines, here's my quiz. I'll give my answer after each question because this is more of a learning experience and I'm not going to grade you, so no pressure, guys.

1. You should write more than one headline per post.

1. True
2. False

True. The more "possible" headlines you write for your post, the greater the chance you will get the one that will "click" with the clickers (your visitors). According to Upworthy, you should write at least 25 headlines for each post.

2. How many characters long should your headline be?

1. At least 50
2. Less than 70
3. Up to 100

Less than 70. Google will cut off anything beyond 70 characters. Oops.

3. Along the same line, what's the optimum number of words your headline should have?

1. Not more than 8
2. 8 to 12
3. up to 15

If you chose #2, pat yourself on the back.

A study by the Content Marketing Institute found that 8-worda headlines had a 21% higher click-through rate than an average title.

Wait, you say, isn't #1 the right answer then?

It would be, except that 8-12 word headlines got the most Twitter shares on average, and Facebook users gave more likes for 12 word headlines. Gotta take social media into account these days.

Side note: My headline for this post is 12 words.

4. Should you add a keyword or keyword phrase to your title?

Come on, guys. Do I really have to give an answer for this one?

5. Adding numbers is good, i.e.; 3 Ways to...or 5 Secrets of...to your post title.

1. True
2. False

Again, the answer is True. In general, numbers tell the readier that your post contains a list, and lists mean information is organized and, also important, there's an end to it.

It's a bad idea to use "things" in your title when using lists, like 6 Things.... Use words like Reasons, Tactics, Ideas, Tips, Secrets... You know the drill.

"Things" is too boring.

6. Using brackets or parentheses is better than not using them.

1. True
2. False

Again, true. You can use them to clarify what's in your content (video) and to show emphasis, Ex.: 5 (Realistic) Steps to Improve...

Outbrain and Hubspot found from a study they conducted that using brackets or parentheses in a headline can improve CTR by as much as 38%. (I found the original post and was going to provide a link to it, but the URL was corrupted. When I clicked on it I was taken to a different post.)

There are more tips for improving headlines, but I think I'm starting to lose focus. You probably are too. Maybe I'll save the rest for another post.

These 6 questions (and answers) should give you something to consider when you're coming up with stellar headlines for your stellar posts. With better headlines, we'll all get more traffic, and therefore improved chances of success in affiliate marketing.

Thanks for reading, my friends. I hope you will leave me a comment, but I know you're busy and you have about 247 more emails waiting in your inbox, so I understand if you don't.

How about a like then?

I'm Grant.