Do you know that interesting headlines of an article or blog can directly affect your bottom-line? Perplexed, confused and confounded! This is true. The logic is very simple: If your reader is not attracted to click on the headline and read the article, then entire effort of writing the article is wasted. This is one
Do you know that interesting headlines of an article or blog can directly affect your bottom-line? Perplexed, confused and confounded! This is true. The logic is very simple: If your reader is not attracted to click on the headline and read the article, then entire effort of writing the article is wasted. This is one of the most under rated secret of search engine optimization.
Headline is the first thing that reader see in the article and chances are that if he does not like your headline, he will leave your article without giving a damn on your stuff. Just go through following headlines:
17 Shocking North Korea Facts That Will Change What You Think About The Country
This Man Lost His Air Conditioner Warranty Card, This Forced Him To Establish India’s Largest Document Management Company
Above articles is simple stories. The article is about simple facts about North Korea and another one is a story of an entrepreneur who established a document management company. The stories are simple and not exceptional.
However, the headlines have been crafted in such a way that they compel the reader to click and go through the article. This is an art, which you need to practice. Now, consider another headline:
Transport & Logistics sector targets premium grade facilities in Perth
The question arises why should I read this article? The author has written a solid meticulous article, whichno one will read (This might get some traffic, but much less than the actual potential). What is the difference between the above two headlines and third headline? The answer lies in the ‘Shock value’ potential of the headline. The last headline lacks this quality. It does not generate curiosity. This is a big drawback of the article.
Google Searches ArePerformed By Human Mind
Let us try to understand the importance of headline in the context of technicalities of the search engine optimization. You must have heard about search robots. They perform search operation once you enter the words in the Google or Bing. Its searching process might have complex algorithms, but it is the human brain that gives the primary input.
In this context search engine optimization has been designed to replicate human mind. What is true for the people, works well with search engine optimization as well. A poor headline deters the readers to come on the site. This means your entire effort of search engine optimization goes down the drain, if headline fail to generate curiosity among the readers.
The reality is that most of the headlines are crappy and bad. The reason is we put 95 percent effort in writing the article and just 5 percent time is spent on giving the headline. Other reason is people try to write summaries in the headline. This is the worst practice. If you do it consistently, your entire SEO campaign or strategy will fail to yield any result.
Which Type of Content Are Most Shared
Two Pennsylvania University researchers found that those articles, which have greatest shock value, are shared the most. Click the following link to read the detailed article. The crux of the research is that if your article or content has high emotional arousal quotient, there is a great probability of getting it more traffic. Though, the two researchers found it through rigorous research and I have found it through personal blogging experience.
The conclusion is if your business is highly retail oriented and depends much on the direct leads of the visitors, you should be cautious regarding headlines of the blogs as it directly affects traffic on the website. In the next piece I will elaborate the detailed process of writing good headlines. It is an art that can be practiced. The success of Mashable and Viralnova is largely because of their fantastic headlines in the articles. You,too, can be successful, you just need to consider on these nuances.