How to write good headlines: 3 tips to help you rank better

Hi.

In November 2023 I was hired by a company to give a presentation on how to write effective headlines. The goal: Train their editors to write headlines that would boost article rankings on Google search. 

Taking on this job was an opportunity for me to discover exactly what makes a headline good. My hope is these takeaways will help you improve your SEO using low-lift solutions. 

1. The SEO-to-human balancing act is key

There are two main components to writing an effective headline for SEO. 

1. Give Google what it wants

2. Make people click on it

So what does Google want? 

• It wants targeted keywords early in the headlines

• It wants the headline to read naturally and not seem like it's (overtly) targeting keywords

• It wants the headline to match the article -- no clickbait

How do you make people click on it?

• Clearly define the benefit of the article to the reader in the headline

• Focus on the specific problem solved or question answered if the reader clicks on the headline

• Example headline: "How to Install Pavers in Your Front Yard" - directly speaks to reader intent

• In this example I got specific, with "front yard," to target a more longtail keyword —more on this later

Writing headlines that appeal to both search engines and human readers is one of the greatest challenges in SEO writing. Be aware that these two components can sometimes conflict, requiring a delicate balance. Even when achieving that balance, ranking high and driving click-throughs can still be difficult.

Also, a  headline alone won't guarantee success. There are a multitude of factors considered: from the first paragraph's quality, to the site's EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) score, its timeliness and the relative competition you're up against.

2. AI is a terrible headline writer, but…

Despite all of its advances, AI isn’t great with headlines – or writing in general. The time it takes to write an effective prompt to get ChatGPT to produce something close to decent, is time better spent writing your own headlines, then prompting AI to give you alternatives. 

Those headlines won't be great, but using AI in this way can be an effective brainstorming tool. For example, I started with the following headline for this piece: 

"3 things I learned teaching others to write effective headlines". 

That's fine, but it's missing a good keyword phrase and it's not clear how valuable the offer to the reader is. I prompted ChatGPT to act as an SEO expert with 25 years experience getting content to rank on Google. Here are the three alternatives it gave me:

• "Mastering Headline Writing: 3 Valuable Insights I've Gained"

• "Unlocking the Secrets to Crafting Impactful Headlines: My Top 3 Lessons"

• "Boosting Online Visibility: 3 Expert Tips for Crafting Click-Worthy Headlines"

I liked the first one the most as it has the clearest offer: "3 valuable insights". However, the keywords could be better. I used Google search and Google Ads to do a bit of keyword research around this topic and found the highest trafficked keyword phrases related to writing headlines were “how to write headlines" or "how to write good headlines”. 

I combined those suggestions with my original headline into what I thought was a pretty effective one: "How to Write Good Headlines: 3 Valuable Insights to help you rank better". The proof's in the pudding though, so we'll see how well this blog ranks in a month. If there's enough interest I might do a follow-up post to analyze its performance.

While there's a lot of fear and anxiety on the impact AI will have on every industry, there are effective ways for writers to utilize it right now. 

3. How to tell if your headline succeeded on Google

You optimized your headline and now you're asking: "Did it work?" It’s difficult to know for sure which change you made to a piece of content led to Search Engine success or failure, but here are a few things to try once your article is posted. 

• Do a Google search for keywords related to your article's topic. If your headline shows up near the top of the search results, that means Google saw this as relevant and useful content readers will want to look at. Congratulations! Your work has paid off! However…

• Let's say you show up high on the page, but your traffic is low. Most likely there's something about the headline that is turning readers off so much they don't want to click on it. Or there's a competitor ranked near you whose headline is just better. 

• Remember, you're promising the reader something in exchange for clicking on the headline. Make sure the offer is compelling and clear. Ask yourself, would the headline get you to click on it? 

• For some content, no matter what you do, it will be difficult to rank due to competition. You can evaluate the competitiveness of your keywords by looking at the top search results. If the highest-ranking pages belong to major corporations or sites with high authority, achieving a high position for those keywords will be nearly impossible. But… 

• You can overcome keyword competition by targeting long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are highly specific phrases that attract less competition. Instead of more broad terms like 'How to write good headlines,' try something more granular like 'How to write good headlines for ads' or the even more targeted 'How to write good headlines for ads on LinkedIn.' As you increase specificity, you'll likely encounter less fierce competition for those niche terms. 

If an article is already showing up high in search results and getting enough traffic, it's best to leave it alone for now. Only make changes if its performance gets worse, with one exception. If the article is timely, like a news article or if the subject of the article starts trending, then it makes sense in this case to update the article to take advantage of the news cycle. 

There are no firm rules when it comes to SEO, so being on your toes and adapting is key.

If you found this post useful, I'd love to hear from you. Or if there's a different approach you'd take with your headline, please share that too. I want to hear your SEO strategies and tactics too. 

After 25 years at CNET, managing multiple editorial teams and making sure we ranked for the most lucrative keywords in tech, I recently started an SEO consulting company called ELF Consulting -- The "ELF" are my initials, and have nothing to do with actual elves. If you'd like some help with SEO or other aspects of your editorial strategy, feel free to contact me at nidopal@gmail.com or go right to ELF Consulting homepage and send me a quick message. You can also schedule something via my Calendly. I take a very practical approach to SEO, so let's get on a quick call and see if we're a good fit. Thanks for reading this far.