You’ve finally mastered the art of creating great 
content. But while we all know content is king, it cannot exist in a vacuum. Whether it’s meant to teach, persuade, or entertain, you have to drive people to it so they can read it. With online content growing at a phenomenal rate, capturing the attention and imagination of readers has become even more challenging. Audiences now make split-second judgments about what to read, so you’re going to need to make your articles stand out. Two proven ways to get those all-important click-throughs are by writing stand-out headlines and meta descriptions.
Headlines That Say “Click Me”
Some sources say up to 80% of readers never read past the headline, so if you want to increase readership, you need to entice your audience to read on by writing an intriguing headline. Here are four quick tips designed to help you write a killer one every time.
- Save the Headline for Last. Even if you start out with a title, write your content first before settling on the final headline. Read your post through several times and then set a timer for 3 minutes. Jot down as many titles as you can think of in that time – one of them will jump to the top of the list.
- Use Google’s Keyword Planner to find out the level of search volume associated with your different titles.
- Run A/B Tests and let your users determine the best title. Invest $10 in two separate Facebook ads and use two different headlines for the same content. Track the social shares, interaction, click-throughs, and bounce rates to determine the winner.
- Use Carefully Chosen Superlatives. Adding just one superlative that ends in “able” can generate more success. Use words like unforgettable, manageable, and remarkable. It really works!
How to Write Great Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are important marketing messages that tell readers what they can expect to find by clicking on a link for your website. Though they are not important to search engine rankings, they play an important role in improving your click-through rates from search engine results. Here’s how to create strong meta descriptions for every page:
- Each page’s meta description should be unique and should highlight the singular benefit the page serves.
- Grab readers’ attention by keeping it concise. Most readers scan the search engine results page, so avoid intricate details and state your case plainly and clearly.
- Make sure your most important keywords show up in the meta description.
You invest a lot of time creating great content, so don’t let it go unread simply because the headline doesn’t grab your audience’s attention. Just a few tweaks can make a big difference in your click-through rates. If you’d like to start creating more effective headlines and meta descriptions, ADTACK can help. Contact us or call 702-270-8772 to learn more.
