80% of People Read Your Headline. Only 20% Read the Rest.
David Ogilvy said that.
He said it decades ago and it's more true today than ever.
Your headline is doing one job: getting the click. That's it. If it fails at that one job, your brilliant 3,000-word masterpiece rots in obscurity.
No pressure.
What Makes a Headline Click-Worthy
Specificity. "How to Improve Your SEO" is boring. "How to Rank #1 in 90 Days Using a 113-Task Checklist" is specific. Specific wins. Google's own guidance on title links confirms that clear, descriptive titles perform best.
Curiosity gap. Give enough to intrigue, not enough to satisfy. The reader should feel like they NEED to click to get the answer.
Numbers. Headlines with numbers get 36% more clicks. (See what I did there?)
Emotional triggers. Fear of missing out. Frustration with the status quo. Desire for a better way.
Power words. Ultimate, proven, essential, secret, mistake, warning, guaranteed.
Headlines That Work (With Formulas)
How-to: "How to [Achieve Desired Outcome] Without [Pain Point]"
List: "[Number] [Adjective] Ways to [Desired Outcome]"
Question: "Are You Making These [Number] [Topic] Mistakes?"
Negative: "Stop [Common Mistake] (It's Killing Your [Metric])"
Proof: "How [Company/Person] [Achieved Result] in [Timeframe]"
The Headline Testing Framework
Write 10 headlines for every post. Yes, 10.
Pick the top 3. Ask yourself: Would I click this if I saw it in a search result? Would I click this if a competitor wrote it?
If the answer is "meh," keep writing. Your headline should work hand-in-hand with your meta title and meta description -- all three need to pull their weight.
Don't Let a Great Headline Lead to Unoptimized Content
A killer headline that ranks on page 5 is a tree falling in an empty forest.
SEO Checkup helps you make sure the whole page is optimized. 113 tasks. 4 checklists. Free. 30 seconds. No credit card.
Because headlines open doors. But optimization keeps them open.