Top 15 Effective Ways to Build a Catchy Blog Title
- Trang Huyen
- Aug 15, 2022
- 7 min read
A title is important because people read it first before deciding whether to move further. Also, giving a title is a decent way for content writers to know how to organize their posts or what they should have therein. But many still struggle to write a title.
Paul Gillin summarizes 20 ways to write for blogs and social networks. Accordingly, Ann Handley gave a shorter list of 15 in her best-selling book, Everyone Writes.
This blog post will detail 15 effective ways to build a catchy blog title. To help you better understand, I'll rename this blog post in 15 different ways and attach relevant examples.
Quiz
How Many Ways to Build a Better Blog Title: Take a Quiz!
Writing your blog post in a form of a quiz is a good way to make your readers curious about how wise they are on a certain topic.
My friend, a primary school teacher, always intrigues her pupils with warm-up quizzes.
The activities make them learn everything with excitement. So they remember what they learned better. The same also applies to your readers.
When your readers answer some questions wrongly, they can be curious about why. It's time for your content to step in and fill the knowledge gap. This makes your content stick better in their memories.
Two excellent examples of QUIZ:
Skeptic
What You Don't Know About Building a Catchy Blog Title
If a title like this shows up, my first impression will be as:
"Oh really? I've worked with content for years. Is there anything new about title creation I don't know?".
The bottom line is content writing is evolving every day. And what I know now can be old-fashioned. So such a title triggers my curiosity about finding out new things in my industry and makes me click through the link.
"Opening a curiosity gap makes people wanna find more about the answer," Jonah Berger said in his video lessons. That gets their attention to your blog post at first. And if they find something "unexpected" (they've never known before, I mean), the content can hold their attention and keep them reading.
An excellent example for SKEPTIC:
Explainer
Why is Building a Blog Post's Title Easier Than You Thought?
Explaining is a common way to present ideas. Whether your audience is children, teenagers, or adults, they always ask why for everything they're curious about.
So starting a title with "Why" is the easiest way to name your blog post and organize it.
Two excellent examples for EXPLAINER:
Case Study
How X Successfully Build an Appealing Blog Title
Sometimes people aren't convinced by what you say theoretically. Instead, they rather want to know how people succeed (or fail) in doing something. In this case, a case study is a convincing way to start a blog post.
You don't need to always build "How X Succeeds in ...". You can write about a failure through which readers can learn from others' mistakes.
An excellent example for CASE STUDY:
Contrarian
People are Overestimating Title Creation
Contrarian means giving your contrary position, especially against the majority.
Is creating a good title for your blog post important? YES. Most people think that.
But you don't need to follow the mass. If you don't agree with that idea, you can build a contrarian-styled title.
Ryan Westlund opposed the common belief about online privacy, like the way he wrote his blog post, Online Privacy is Overrated.
Adam Thierer from Forbes has another approach to this topic. He left an open question in the title, Is Privacy Overrated? therein.
This title is a question, not an affirmation. By posing such a question, your content therein can go along with or against the majority.
Comparison
Which Method is the Best for Beginners to Build a Good Title?
Like what I said in Quick How-to, some readers aren't patient and capable to read each tip you give them. Therefore, in this COMPARISON style, you'll filter the best methods or tricks or whatever. You then make some comparisons to guide readers to pick the most suitable for them.
There're many ways to build a title in this style. Besides what I suggested, here're some good examples you can reference:
How-to
Top 15 Effective Ways to Build a Killer Blog Title
How-to is the most popular way to name a blog post. As you notice, I wrote this blog post in the HOW-TO style.
You can start an article's title with "Top [number] Ways to ..." or "How to ..." or "How X ..."
Quick How-to
There are 15 ways to build a title. But I don't need to mention all of them simply because it's unessential or ... I'm lazy to do so.
Or sometimes, readers have no time and even the ability to remember all tips you give. They want something that can make them understand or succeed faster.
In this case, you'll build a blog post with only the MOST IMPORTANT or EFFECTIVE tips.
For example, I can shorten this blog post with a title like "Three Easy Ways to Build a Blog Post's Title Anyone Can Do".
Is LIST a Part of Comparison or How-to?
As you notice, both sample titles of How-to and Comparison can be considered as LIST. But this title below doesn't belong to any of them:
That's why Paul Gillin put LIST in a separate category.
But don't care much about the names. More importantly, when you use the List, Comparison, or How-to style, you know how to organize content well to deliver readers valuable lessons.
How NOT to
Seven Ways to Build an Unattractive Title for Blog Posts
60 is the ideal number of characters for a title. But no one tells you that 30 or 120 is not ideal to optimize the title. So little wonder that you sometimes write too long or too short titles.
So how-NOT-to appears to imply which mistakes they shouldn't make.
Here's a good example from Forbes for the HOW-NOT-TO style:
First Person
My Worst Failure in Building a Blog Post's Title
Unlike CASE STUDY in which you tell stories of others, the FIRST PERSON style allows you to tell your own story. It can be success, failure, or anything that gives valuable lessons to your readers.
Using this method, you'll use "I/We", "Me/Us", "My/Our", and "Mine/Ours" in the title.
Here's one of my blog posts using this style:
Q&A
Five Questions About Title Creation With Trang Huyen
As it states, Q&A focuses on common questions and answers about certain topics. You don't need to pick up a specific figure for your title.
So the title can be somehow general like:
This style makes your blog post look like an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page on most websites, but in a shorter version. Just pick some problems your readers care most about a topic. If you don't know what questions they often ask, then use Google for further information.
See more:
Data
Does Building a Blog Title Affect Your SEO Ranking? Let's Hear Data Say!
If you want someone to do something, just tell them how many people are doing this. Jonah Berger said so in his best-selling book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On.
Many marketers often apply this method to provoke people’s want to imitate and make content better stick in their memory.
So building content around data is a good way to attract your leads.
Below is a common title for this DATA style:
Man on the Street
Expert Opinion on What Blog Title to Start With
People like listening to others' stories. It's because they want to approach different new perspectives and opinions. That opens their horizon and also becomes a preferred way to learn new things.
Understanding that mind, you can write "Man on the Street" posts that collect the ideas of experts or ordinary people.
Here's a good example of this style:
Outrageous
Why an Awesome Blog Title Doesn't Appear Awesome
OUTRAGEOUS is a word that indicates something shocking and morally unacceptable.
When you write a title following this style, you expect readers to receive some conflicts that exist in a certain topic and appear unexpected.
Looking back to my suggested title: "Why an Awesome Blog Title Doesn't Appear Awesome"
If you wander around blog posts with a title like "How to Build an Awesome Blog Title", you'll realize there's nothing "awesome" at all.
Writers only recommend some phrases to start a title like "How to ..." or "Top X Ways to ...". Do they make you feel "awesome"? Perhaps NOT. Right in the title's name, a conflict exists and triggers readers' curiosity about what can make them surprised or even not accept.
Another good example is:
Oxymoron is a phrase that contains at least two contradictory terms, for example, "small crowd". And this title points out that "online privacy" is an oxymoron. "Online" is opposed to "privacy". What readers feel startled or even don't accept here is "Why can't I have privacy when going online?"
I like the way the writer played with words in this title. But it's hard for beginners to name a blog post like that. So you should be careful when applying this method.
Insider Secrets
One Thing No Content Writer Tells You About Crafting a Catchy Blog Title
People like listening to "secrets" that make insiders succeed in their industry. Such secrets instill their excitement and curiosity. That leads to their next action, clicking through the link of your post.
This type of title often begins with "Things No One Tells You About ..." or "Things You Should Know About ..."
Below is an outstanding example of INSIDER SECRETS:
Literary Treatment
Fun, Short Stories on Building Impressive Blog Titles
LITERARY TREATMENT is a novel, unusual approach to giving your readers certain messages on certain topics. It can be haiku, poems, illustrations, or whatever you can imagine. Don't be snarky in your blog posts if your blog originally doesn't have that intent.
Here's a decent example of this style:
Final Words
There're many ways to name a blog post. But not all can be used in all cases.
Some popular and safe ways for beginners to start are How-to, List, Explainer, and Comparison.
One tip to organize a blog post is to gather and digest raw materials to discover which ideas fit your company or content strategy. And you then use what you found to consider a suitable name for your blog post, instead of doing the opposite.
See more:
And below is my so-called simple exercise for you:
- Choose a topic/keyword you want to write about
- Craft a blog post in as many ways as possible
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