Website Copywriting: Finding Ideas for Blog Titles

Content Goodies

You might think writers like to write everything, but professional content writers have their writing preferences, and for many, they don’t include headlines.

Writing blog titles is tough. And writing catchy blog post titles is even harder. In a handful of words, you need to grab the reader’s attention and entice them to click on your blog post. When it comes to effective headlines, ho-hum just won’t cut it.

But sometimes, the most challenging part of copywriting is figuring out what your target audience wants to read about in the first place. Effective website copywriting always keeps the ideal customer and their problems at the centre of the story. Content creators must constantly reeducate themselves on who they’re writing for and why that audience should read their copy. Your blog headlines are no different.

In this blog, we’ll share tips on finding blog post topics that resonate with your target audience and offer resources we use to ensure our blog post titles are catchy, clever, and click-worthy.

Choose a blog title before you write the blog post

When you’re ready to write, it’s tempting to put off the title until after you’ve written the blog post. And that makes sense – it’s easier to title a piece that you understand from beginning to end.

But, a better strategy is choosing a blog headline before you begin the writing process. Here’s why:

It keeps you on topic

Without a headline to keep you on track, your blog posts and other website copy can easily drift out of relevance.

By writing your blog headlines before the rest of your copy, you give yourself the writing equivalent of a “true north” – a navigational landmark you can set your copywriting sights on as often as needed.

It ensures you get a keyword in the blog headline

Great blog titles aren’t just catchy; they’re data-driven. Before you settle on a headline, do some keyword research to make sure you’re using the right phrasing. That way, you’ll know people are searching for the information you plan to provide.

You’ll enjoy blogs that rank higher because search engines will categorise your blog as relevant to that keyword. Plus, you’ll help your blog reach a new readership by making it more visible to users outside your email list.

Look for blog titles in client reviews and feedback

When looking for a new idea for a blog post title, we often start by reviewing client testimonials and reviews. User feedback is invaluable for telling you 2 vital things:

The topics and pain points that matter most to your customers
The phrases they use to describe those topics and pain points

If your existing customers are talking about it, it’s likely important to your potential customers, too. Look for themes in their reviews and turn them into blog titles.

Take blog title inspiration from your product pages

If you’re feeling stuck looking for blog title ideas, try mining your product pages for inspiration. Your most popular product pages each warrant a blog or two.

For example, if you sell plants, and your most popular product pages are your hydrangeas and roses, you might want to write a few blogs on topics like:

Why Hydrangeas Are the Perfect Late-Summer Blossom
How to Choose the Right Rose for Your Wall
Mop Head or Paniculata: Which Is the Perfect Hydrangea for Your Garden?

If the pages are popular with your clients, you’ll see more traffic from those who already frequent your site. And if those topics are popular with your clients, headlines like these will likely catch the eye of a broader audience, too.

Hone your blog post titles with keyword research

A surprising number of copywriters don’t consider search engine optimisation part of their content creation process. That’s a mistake, because including well-researched keywords in your blog titles and throughout the blog copy helps it rank with search engines and find new readers.

Even if you think you’ve identified a brilliant keyword for your blog post title and copy, do a little research before you write about it. Users might prefer slightly different variations of the phrase you want to include, and sometimes, a minimal change in phrasing can make a massive difference in the monthly search value (MSV).

For instance, conducting keyword research for this blog showed that “blog title ideas” only generated 40 monthly searches in the UK. “Ideas for blog titles” generated 320. The location of your searches matters, too. Both phrases were searched about 140 times per month in the US.

Based on that keyword research, we tweaked our original keyword for this blog to include the variant with the higher MSV.

We use SE Ranking for our keyword research, which is a paid service, but you can find free keyword tools at Ahrefs and Moz.

Evaluate your blog titles with A/B testing

A/B testing allows you to test two different blog titles for the same blog post to see which title generates more clicks. It’s a fascinating exercise, and you’ll likely learn a surprising amount about your audience.

This post from Convert.com offers a beginner’s guide to A/B testing for blog titles. It includes how to evaluate your blog titles to find good candidates for testing and how to implement the testing when you’re ready.

Avoid clickbait blog post titles – they’ll tank your click-throughs

Your click-through rate (CTR) is a metric by which Google and other search engines measure how engaged readers are with your content. Search engines want to see that when a reader clicks on your website, they stay and read it because they find it interesting and valuable. Even better if they click into other blog posts or pages after that.

But if your headline ideas are nothing but “clickbait”, visitors won’t stick around to read them. Clickbait titles are created to get clicks. They’re not intended to offer meaningful, helpful information, and they rarely deliver on the promises they make to the reader. When a visitor clicks into the article and doesn’t find what they were hoping for, they bounce.

Your “bounce” rate measures the speed at which a visitor leaves your site. If readers bounce almost immediately, search engines know that your website isn’t holding their attention, and you’ll be demoted in search page results.

Avoid clickbait headline ideas, even if they seem like a smart way to drive traffic to your website. Users won’t stick around to read more – let alone make a purchase or book your services – and your website will slip in the rankings.

Instead, write catchy headlines that describe the blog post without false promises or over-exaggeration. Readers will know exactly what type of blog post to expect, and they’ll be more likely to stay and read it.

Should you use a blog title generator?

There’s nothing inherently wrong with using a blog title generator. In fact, it can be a handy way to kick-start your content creation process when you’re feeling stuck.

But if you rely too much on a blog title generator, your blog titles will eventually start to sound stale.

These tools use either a static formula or artificial intelligence (AI) to generate blog titles. A static formula quickly becomes repetitive. AI is better at producing novel blog title ideas, but that technology takes its cues from trends it finds in existing blogs online.

If blog writers constantly use AI to produce blog post titles and then post them online, future AI models will be trained on AI-generated content. Bots writing for bots. Not sure that’s a scenario that offers value to the human reader.

Should you use blog title templates?

Blog title templates can help you keep the goals of a good headline in mind as you craft your blog post title.

The trick with templates is to use them without sounding like you’re using them. Avoid overplayed action words like “elevate” or “boost”. Everyone on the internet is “elevating” something right now.

Try to find new ways to describe your service and the value you offer customers. A blog post title needs to connect with a human reader, so keep your target audience, their problems, and their goals in mind as you write.

Accelerate your ability to write blog titles and brilliant blogs

Writing relevant blog titles and compelling copy isn’t easy – but, with expert guidance and a bit of good, old-fashioned practice, you can hone your blog title and copywriting skills.

Our All-In-One Blogging Pack delivers the “expert guidance” part of that equation with step-by-step instructions on how to create blog titles that get clicks and blog copy that converts readers to buyers. Get in-depth help with:

How to sell blogs to clients
How to research blogs
How to write blogs
How to optimise blogs

If you’re struggling to write blog titles and copy that capture your audience, the Blogging Pack is a no-brainer. Read more about our All-In-One Blogging Pack here.