9 Rules for Writing Irresistible Headlines That Make an Impact

Why did you click to read this article?

Regardless of how much time you’ve spent on content writing, how much data you’ve collected, how many sources you’ve read, ultimately what makes readers open, read, and even share your article, is the headline.

A good headline attracts the readers’ eye and grabs their attention. It reveals something, but conceals a lot more, leaving them wanting more. The headline should intrigue your readers, get them excited enough to continue reading the next line, often in order to solve a problem or satisfy some need. If these conditions are not met, readers will move on to the next headline. End of story.

Is there a winning formula for an irresistible headline? Are there any words or phrases that would make your headline more intriguing? Well, there is.

How do people decide what to click?

Before we get into writing an irresistible headline, we need to understand the readers’ behavior when encountering headlines:

Eye-tracking studies show that readers focus primarily on headlines, and only then decide if they should read the actual article. Even more surprising, according to this study, is that headlines are even more important than images when it comes to attracting attention. Here is an example of a Porsche ad, with a heat map overlay showing that more attention goes to the headline:

This is true for all content on the web, and especially for social media – the News Feed displays dozens of posts from friends, family, ads, and updates from pages that we follow. So what are we clicking on? The headline that stood out from the crowd and intrigued us to keep reading. The headline is the first sentence we read, and it will determine if we continue reading.

In fact, people don’t actually read online. We scan. We glimpse at a page and scan headlines with our eyes, so the first and last three words are the most significant in any headline. In other words, your headline has eight seconds to impress the reader, and only 20% of readers who read your headline will click to read the article.

So, what makes a viral headline?

A viral headline is a headline that gets shared more than usual. To understand the anatomy of a great headline, we analyzed hundreds of viral headlines from leading content sites, and used BuzzSumo to sort headlines by the number of social shares. We used headlines of articles about politics, sports and entertainment, as these industries have a wider mass appeal.

The analysis of viral headlines indicates that there are common elements to them, and the more these elements appear together in the same headline, the more viral the headline gets.

It’s important to note that there’s no magic formula that makes everyone write a winning headline that converts like crazy. The phrasing of headlines depends on your writing style, online trends and the topic of your content. Additionally, what works for one business may not be appropriate for the other. In order to find the formula that works best for your business, you should test many headlines until you find the right one.

Having said that, the following conclusions certainly explain how to improve the headlines you currently use.

1. Size Matters

The average length of a headline is 50 characters, which is about 8 words. However, the average length of the most viral headlines is 60 characters, which is about 10 words. This means that your headline should be short and catchy, but also informative enough to make readers click. The faster your readers digest the message, the more likely they are to click it. A headline that illustrates the value to the reader in plain language will always beat headlines laden with words. This also coincides with Google, as titles gets truncated at around 60-65 character in the search result pages.

2. Know Your Audience

What types of information are the people in your target audience looking for? The best headlines are ones that your target audience will find valuable because it’s about them and their needs. A good headline “promises” some value or benefit for the readers. What are they getting out of it? What’s in it for them? You must know your audience in order to answer that.

3. Familiar Structure

Reader connect with familiar patterns. Headlines that follow a set of effective rules tend to entice the target audience to click. Here are some common examples you’ve probably seen online:

[Number] of Ways to [Achieve a Desired Outcome]
The Ultimate Guide to [Achieve a Desired Outcome]
[Number] Mistakes Most People Make When [Common Action]
Why [Controversial Claim]
Are You [Provocative Question]?
How [Company] Got [Result] In [Timeframe]
How [An Inconsequential Action] Can Lead To [Undesirable Result]
Why [Problem] (And What To Do About It)

4. Curiosity

When you only have 8-10 words to get your readers interested – you should find a way to intrigue them to read on. It’s hard to gauge what is curious and what isn’t, but it usually helps to ask a question, say something outrageous, keep readers pondering, expose new information, use irony or create a gap between anticipation and fulfillment by using wording such as “what happens when …” and “you must…” – so readers may feel compelled to find out the answer and “close the loop”.

5. Emotions

Emotions play a big part in our unconscious decision to click an intriguing headline. Depending on your content, try to add a dominant emotion to your headline, for example: “27 Romantic Phrases for a Successful First Date”. Here are some more words and phrases that stir emotion: “inspiring”, “surprising”, “pumped up”, “floored”, “dream come true”, “on fire”, “puzzled”.

6. Quotes

Around 20% of the most viral headlines contain quotes. The quote is usually a sentence from the article itself, allowing the reader to learn more about the content they are about to read, and get curious enough to click on it. Quotes work particularly great with landing pages. When marketing a certain product, the headline of the landing page can be a customer testimonial about the product.

7. Numbers

A piece of content structured as a list is considered more attractive to readers. Lists are easier to understand, they break the content down into bite-size chunks, and they seem more actionable. For example, “5 Ways to Increase Your Revenues” or “10 Suggestions for Sightseeing in Spain” – such headlines help readers understand what to expect from the article, while conveying the benefit of reading in a pleasant manner. The number itself suggests to readers whether it’s going to be a long or short article.

8. Power Words

Power words are descriptive words or phrases that trigger a strong emotional response for the reader. They can make us feel confident, intrigued, irritated, eager or joyful. Power words are like a “cheat code” for spicing up your content and compelling your readers to take action.

We all know the power of “free” and “new” in ads, but it goes well beyond that. You can find hundreds of power words by searching online. Here are a few select examples: authentic, breathtaking, captivating, double, effortless, ferocious, guaranteed, hilarious, instantly, jaw-dropping, knock out, life-changing, miraculous, notable, provocative, optimal, quadruple, remarkable, striking, thrilling, unbeatable, valuable, whopping, yearning, zany.

9. Be Decisive

Being decisive and unambiguous is a very important feature to make an average headline into a viral one, and I say it unequivocally. Your headline has exactly eight seconds to make an impression on the reader, so don’t waste precious time on sophisticated word games, and be as relevant and concise as possible.

Additionally, a direct, second person headline (You, Your) sounds more persuasive and will inspire more curiosity than a headline that appeals to the general public.

Summary

Headlines are a critical marketing tool, and perhaps even most significant when it comes to promoting your content. Anyone involved in creating and promoting content should make the effort to create great headlines. The examples above may work great for you, or may not work at all. As always in marketing, every action must be testes and analyzed to make sure it’s achieving its goals. Remember that headlines also depend on online trends, so keep track of the headlines that leading websites in your industry are using.

As the excitement factor is so overused these days, a stimulating, exciting headline is an important commodity. However, you must always deliver on your promises. Remember that the end goal is not only to get people to click the headline. You also want to create a positive image and strengthen your relationship with your readers. A discrepancy between the headline and the content itself will create the completely opposite effect.

What headline will you be using next?