5 Article Headlines That People Love To Read

“An average of 8 out of 10 readers will read a blog post title, while less than 3 out of 10 readers will read the rest of the article,” says Jackson Nwachukwu, lead blogger at DailyTipsDiary.com.

If your headline doesn’t sell your story, the rest of your article is probably not going to be read. 

Now keep in mind that just because the headline has to be interesting, it doesn’t mean you should oversell or distort what the story is about. Telling the reader the value you’re going to offer them is the way to go. I chose my headline because I’m going to give you 5 article headlines that readers respond to the most. It’s that simple.

Here are 5 article headlines that people love to read.

1.   “How to” We live in a do-it-yourself era. Independent practitioners, small businesses, and even corporations are going to the internet when they need to learn new material. Tell them how and they will read your article. They’ll probably share it too.

Example: “How to Use SEO on Social Media”

2.   “List” The list is one of the most popular headline tactics. This can be a “Top 3,” “5 most,” or “2013’s best.” Lists with numbers in them relate complex information to readers in a way that’s easy to understand.

Example: “3 Ways To Use SEO On Social Media”

3.   “Facts & Stats” Readers love quick facts that they can use in blog posts, articles, press releases, or social media posts. The infographic is also a popular way to provide information.

Example: “101 Facts About Social Media” 

4.   “Predictions” Readers love being in the loop and being ahead of the game. Predictions like trends you shouldn’t ignore, upcoming events, new social media management tools, or rookies to watch out for, spike curiosity and make the reader want to read more.

Example: “7 Social Networks To Watch Out For”
 

5.   “Best/Worst” Readers also want to know two things: How to get the best and how to avoid the worst. This is where you take a stand and state your opinion. Sometimes this gives you the opportunity to highlight a few brands, so be sure to tag them if it’s positive and attract some more traffic. They might even share it!

Example: “5 Top Marketing Tips For LinkedIn”

Here are some tips for writing great articles:

•  Headlines should reflect the most important part of the story (your lead) and pique reader’s interest.

• The lead should be the center of your first paragraph's universe. Start from most interesting/important to least interesting/important.

• Quotes bring your article to life. A good quote is information that you could write in your article even if it wasn’t a quote. Leave out unnecessary information!

•  Do the grandma test. If your article is so hard to understand that your grandma couldn’t understand your three points, you need to rewrite it.

These are 5 article headlines that people love to read. Incorporating these tactics will increase your blog/website traffic, make writing headlines easier, and make your headline easier to understand. Use them next time to make sure that your great content doesn’t go unnoticed.

Eduardo Lopez is a Public Relations professional, writer, author, and public speaker with more than 5 years of digital communications experience. He is the digital communications manager at LS Media Group, LLC and founder of ViralTalk PR. Add him on LinkedIn or follow him on twitter.