Aug
22
If there is one thing that will make or break the success of your property blog posts it’s your headlines. Even the most interesting and informative blog post ever will be doomed to oblivion unless it begins with a powerful headline that attracts attention and compels people to read it. And make no mistake: it’s not the cute or clever blog headlines that typically give the best results.
So how do you actually come up with a killer headline?
Well, as I just mentioned, a successful headline must perform two main functions: attract the attention of your readers and give them a strong reason to read rest of the post.
Here are 9 tricks that pro bloggers use in their headlines, and that you can easily adopt:
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Be honest
Sounds obvious, but do make sure your headline accurately conveys what the post is about. You might be able to trick some people into reading a piece, but do you think they’ll be coming back for more if they don’t get what they were promised? -
Offer valuable information
Tell your readers outright what they will get by reading the post – hot inside information on a new property hotspot, advice on how to sell their house faster, ideas for giving their property a new look on the cheap… Give people a good reason to read and they will. -
Arouse curiosity
Summarise your post in the headline, but leave the reader wanting more. ‘Why you absolutely must renegotiate your mortgage’ is sure to get some real attention. The trick is to create an itch that can only be scratched away by reading your blog post. -
Be controversial
Stoking the fires a little is a sure-fire way to get people reading. Of course you don’t want to get on the wrong end of a controversial debate just for fun, but with some creativity, you can find a new way of looking at things and use that to make your blog posts more interesting. -
Ask a question
A headline like, ‘When is the best time to sell your home?’ works because it automatically gets people thinking and trying to find the answer. And even if they think they do know the answer, it will be hard to resist reading on to find out if you agree with them. -
Begin with ‘How to’
This one is a specific example of promising information that works particularly well when you are writing about something that many people will want to know. Example: ‘How to make maximise your chances of selling your property’. -
Use ‘New’ and ‘Free’
And other attention-grabbing words like ‘more’, ‘better’, ‘quicker’ etc. Many of these words may be overused – but that’s because they work. If you can legitimately use such words and back up your claims in the body of the post, then go for it! -
Use numbers
Numbers in a headline stand out and attract attention just because they look different from the rest of the text. Lists are one very good way to use numbers, as I do in the title of this post. You can also give figures that lend more credibility to your piece, for example, ‘How to spruce up your property for €150’. -
Incite action
Using a command in your headline is a good way to get readers to sit up and encourage them to take action. For example, the mortgage headline example I gave above could become, ‘Renegotiate your mortgage! Why you really must!’
Remember: your blog post headlines have just a couple of seconds to sell your writing. This means that you have to give at least as much thought to those five or six words as you do to the rest of the blog post. Keep that in mind and try these headline tricks out next time you blog.
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