The document outlines 17 effective strategies for creating catchy blog titles that drive traffic, emphasizing the importance of headlines over content. Key tactics include using numbered titles, clarity in messaging, optimal word counts, and emotional power words. Additionally, the text highlights the need to avoid pushy language and the benefits of tools like headline analyzers and title generators for crafting engaging titles.

1. 17 Ways
to Create Catchy Blog
Titles That Drive Traffic

2. Having a catchy blog title plays the largest role in how much traffic your blog post will
get. It determines where the post will rank in Google, how many social shares the post
will get, and if your email list will even take a chance on your latest featured post.
The mistake that most bloggers make is spending all of their time on
the content of the post and just a couple of minutes on the headline
copy. The headline is the most important piece of the post. If you fail
to create a compelling headline, then your great piece of content will
rarely get seen or shared.
Neil Patel identified the key statistic why bloggers need to focus more time and energy on headlines.

3. Over the past three years, I have crafted over 5000 post titles. Collectively, those article titles
have driven over 58 million visitors to read those posts.
Are you ready to find out the statistically backed strategies I use
to create top-notch blog titles every single time?
Let’s dive right into it.

4. Numbered titles that lead to list formatted blog posts move up the rankings faster
than any other type of blog post. The reason behind this, is that people prefer to scan
through the key points of articles.
#1 Use a Number At The Beginning of Your Blog Title
To Move Up The Google Rankings
If they see the number 11 at the beginning of the title, then it is clear
to them that they will be able to quickly scan through the eleven key
points that are listed within the post.
This psychological preference drives more clicks and keeps them reading numbered posts
longer than the other competing Google results. Google’s algorithm recognizes this and
rewards the numbered posts with higher rankings.

5. #1 Use a Number At The Beginning of Your Blog Title
To Move Up The Google Rankings
I recommend creating numbered blog titles for at least 50 percent of your posts. A few
examples of numbered blog titles are…
Conductor did a study on what people preferred in a headline, and the
study revealed that the numbered headline was the clear winner.
“9 Best Strategies for Catchy Blog Titles” “21 Great Ideas for Blog Titles”

6. #1 Use a Number At The Beginning of Your Blog Title
To Move Up The Google Rankings

7. #2 The Odd Numbered Blog Post Title Outperforms
The Even Numbered Title
Although no one has yet to explain the psychology behind it, the odd numbered
headline gets more clicks than the even numbered headline
The Content Marketing Institute published the results of a study that
analyzed over 150,000 of the most successful headlines on their platform.
They found that the odd numbered headlines were clicked on 20% more than the even
numbered headlines.

8. #2 The Odd Numbered Blog Post Title Outperforms
The Even Numbered Title

9. #3 Write Blog Titles That Give Clarity To What Is In
The Post
One of the main reasons why numbered posts perform so well is because it leave almost no
ambiguity. In all of your blog post titles, no matter what the style, aim to give the reader clarity.
This means your title should tell them what they are going to get in the blog post.
The Conductor study on headlines found that click through rates
significantly increased with headline clarity.

10. #3 Write Blog Titles That Give Clarity To What Is In
The Post

11. #4 Sentence Case is the Best Style to Use for Headline
Capitalization
The three most common types of headline capitalization styles are:
The Conductor headline study identified that sentence case is
preferred 300% more than the other capitalization styles.
“13 Ways to Make Your
Blog Awesome”
“13 Ways to Make Your
Blog Awesome”
“13 Ways to Make Your
Blog Awesome”
Sentence Case Lower Case Capitals
Aa aa AA

12. #4 Sentence Case is the Best Style to Use for Headline
Capitalization

13. #5
Use 57 Characters or Less in Blog Titles To Keep
Google From Cutting Them Off
If your blog title is too long, then Google is going to cut off the tail end of it. The two
techniques used to optimize title length for Google are:
Moz studied over 28,000 titles that were on the first page of Google
results for popular keyword phrases.
They found that the range of post titles to be cut off was 42 to 68 characters, with the
average being 57.7 characters.
Bare Minimum Characters
This strategy focuses on keeping all titles under 45 characters to ensure that
the complete title gets read. Keep in mind that different letters take up more
and less space. For example, the letter w takes up 4 times the amount of
space as the letter i. If you limit the title to 45 characters, then it will only get
cut off about 2% of the time.
Stacking The Target Keyword Phrase At The Beginning
If you use this strategy, then you will not be bound to a character limit. Just
be sure the keyword phrase that you are wanting to be seen and rank for is
in the first half of the blog title.

14. #5 Use 57 Characters or Less in Blog Titles To Keep
Google From Cutting Them Off

15. #6 The Ideal Number of Words For A Blog Title is Six
Now you do not need to go crazy on this one and only write headlines with six words.
The big takeaway from this is to make your first six words count. Because people scan
headlines, those six words need to quickly state what the article is about.
These examples of longer headlines demonstrate how get the
primary message across in the first six words:
CoSchedule analyzed a group of different studies on headline length, and they confirmed
that six words is the magic number.
“21 Tips for Making Blog Titles That Rock” “7 Stats on Blog Titles That Will Shock You”

16. #6 The Ideal Number of Words For A Blog Title is Six

17. The Conductor study found that 51% of the people they surveyed
preferred 0-1 superlatives in the headline.
A superlative is a strong adjective that is placed at the beginning of the title for extra emphasis.
Using One Superlative in Your Blog Title Will Get
You The Best Results
They can give you a boost in clicks, but you want to limit yourself to one
really good one in your blog title.
#7
Title without superlative Title with superlative
“17 Ways to Get More Blog Traffic” “17 Best Ways to Get More Blog Traffic”

18. Using One Superlative in Your Blog Title Will Get
You The Best Results#7

19. Scare Them Into Clicking With a Negative
Superlative
Life insurance commercials having been scaring us into buying policies for decades. The same
psychological concept works with blog titles.
For example, “11 Best Ways To Build Your Business” does not get as many
clicks as “11 Worst Things That Will Destroy Your Business.”
Outbrain did a study on 65,000 titles within their network to compare titles with negative, positive,
and no superlative. The titles with the negative superlatives clearly outperformed the rest by 30%
#8

20. Scare Them Into Clicking With a Negative
Superlative#8

21. Buzzfeed is widely known as the king of headlines. They have spent millions on coming up
with and analyzing headlines that outperform the rest.
Instead of racking your mind to come up with your own clickable
phrases, it is much easier to steal a page from Buzzfeed’s playbook.
Incorporate The Most Shared 3 Word BuzzFeed
Phrases Into Your Blog Titles#9
Max Woolf was able to identify Buzzfeed’s most shared three word phrases. Not all of
these will carry over to your blog topics, but there are at least ten all encompassing
phrases everyone can use.

22. Incorporate The Most Shared 3 Word BuzzFeed
Phrases Into Your Blog Titles#9

23. #10 Use “You” or “Your” to Address the Reader in the
Blog Title
People like to feel as if you are talking directly to them. Here
are a couple of examples of reader addressed titles:
Buffer analyzed the most shared headlines
on their platform, and they found that
reader addressed titles ranked second
behind the list post title.
“19 Great Blog Strategies That Will Grow Your Traffic”
“9 Blog Marketing Tips Just For You“

24. #11 Do Not Come Across Too Pushy in Your Blog Titles
When creating compelling blog titles there is a fine line between being persuasive and
being pushy. Here are a few examples of pushy headlines to avoid:
Outbrain’s headline study found that pushy headlines
actually decreased engagement by 20%.
“31 Blog Titles You Have To Start Using Today”
“17 Must Have Headlines You Need to Use on Your Blog”

25. #11 Do Not Come Across Too Pushy in Your Blog Titles

26. #12 Use a [Bracketed] Word in Blog Titles For Specific
Types of Content
There are many people that love certain kinds of content. The bracketed word is the
universal way for identifying specific types of content.
V3b revealed that bracketed clarifications in headlines increased the click through rate by 38%.
Some of the bracketed content types with the highest click through rates are:
“8 Keys to Writing the
Perfect Blog Title
[Template]“
“13 Eye Opening Stats
on Headlines
[Infographic]“
“How Richard Branson is
Changing the World
[Interview]“
Templates Infographics Interviews

27. #12 Use a [Bracketed] Word in Blog Titles For Specific
Types of Content

28. #13 Women Like Numbered Headlines More Than Men
If you have a gender specific blog focused on females, then you may want to use
numbered blog titles in every 2 out of 3 posts.
The Conductor headline survey pointed out that women prefer
numbered headlines almost 20% more than their male counterpart.

29. #13 Women Like Numbered Headlines More Than Men

30. #14 Use Power Words to Create Emotional Blog Titles
CoSchedule conducted a
study that measured the
effect of the Emotional
Marketing Value (EMV) of
headlines on the total
number of shares a post has.
The results showed
that the average EMV
for posts with over
1000 shares was twice
as high as posts with
less than 100 shares.

31. #14 Use Power Words to Create Emotional Blog Titles
So… How do you capitalize on this knowledge?
You can start by incorporating some
of the 180 power words that the
famous copywriter Karl Stepp uses
for emotional selling.

32. The only primary question word that performs well in headlines is “How.” A good example of
this would be, “How to Write Killer Blog Headlines.”
Would you…
#15 If You Are Going To Ask a Question in Your Blog
Title, Use “How”
BuzzStream identified the worst performing BuzzFeed headlines of
all-time. They were able to narrow it down to 10 different styles of
posts. Three of those ten were questions.
What should… Are you…

33. #15 If You Are Going To Ask a Question in Your Blog
Title, Use “How”

34. #16
Use CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer to Fine Tune
Your Blog Title
The right mix of common, uncommon,
emotional and power words.
This tool will make sure your blog title is in perfect order before
you publish your next post. Here are a few key areas it analyzes:
The ideal character and word count.
A preview of how the blog title will
look in Google and in email.
Identification of the primary words people
will read when skimming your headline.

35. #17 Use Portent’s and Tweak Your Biz’s Title
Generators To Spark Headline Ideation
If you ever get stuck on creating a title for a specific subject matter, then take a few minutes to
get some inspiration via an online title generator.
Two of the best are by Portent and Tweak Your Biz. Pop in your core
word and you will get an endless number of potential headlines.

36. #17 Use Portent’s and Tweak Your Biz’s Title
Generators To Spark Headline Ideation

37. #17 Use Portent’s and Tweak Your Biz’s Title
Generators To Spark Headline Ideation
Congratulations… You are now equipped with all seventeen strategies that I use to come up
with exceptionally catchy blog titles.
Be sure to take action and create the next five blog titles using the
strategies and tools you have learned about today.
Before you do that, please take a moment to share this post on Facebook, Pinterest and
Twitter. I appreciate all of your support.