15 Major types of headlines that will help you gain more clicks

People assume there’s no big deal in writing a headline because of its short length. But if you’re a writer, you know how essential it is to carefully craft one that carries an immense importance. The good part is we can overcome any writing barriers with the help of frameworks and examples that already available to learn from.

People read the headlines more as compared to the entire blog. Ha! Facts. Believe it or not, great headlines can help you gain more clicks drastically. With that said, do not forget to check out our article on 15 tips to create powerful headlines.

Now, let’s dive deep into everything you need to know about the headline types. 15 major types of headlines that will help you gain more clicks. All of these headline types are the ones that are commonly used. But the results are truly amazing if you use them right.

‘The best ways To’ Headline

Any headline that begins with “the best ways to” are powerful in terms of SEO. These headlines become a typical match for the searches. ‘The best ways to’ headlines shows a head-on result on the web searches. The reason this works is anyone who’s looking for a solution will prefer the best solution. No one is going to search “the average ways to”

For instance,

The best ways to conduct a market research

‘How To ‘ Headline type

The ‘how to’ headline generally highlights about what a reader should expect from your article. It is important to note that while using the how to headline, you must fulfill what you mentioned in your title. Just like fulfilling the promises you make. For instance, if you use the title “How to create a social media strategy“, you must stand on your words. You need to provide the overview of creating a social media strategy.

Explanatory Headline – ‘ Why ‘

These headlines fall into opinionated or explanatory category. The ‘why’ describes the reasoning. Just as the ‘how to’ headline describes the methodology, the ‘why’ headlines explains the reasoning behind the content you choose to right.

For example,

Why there is a need of a constitution

‘Easy way’ Headline

This one is like a younger sibling to ‘the best ways to’ headline. Claiming ‘the best way to’ as the only way to solve the problem of customers sounds unreasonable and unrealistic. Moreover, everyone faces some or the other issue now and then. They’re not always looking for ‘the best way to’ fix their issues. Sometimes, it is the ‘easy way’ they’re looking for.

Example:

The easiest way to invest in stock market

Ask a question

In order to use the question headline, you need to be thoroughly prepared with the answer. Copyblogger suggests that you should use the question headline that the users cannot simply answer in yes or no. Think about it. Why would the users prefer to read an article to which they can answer with a yes or no even without reading it? The key is to create an open-ended question which also provides a selling point. This will create the curiosity in the customers to understand the author’s perspective.

For instance,

Is it a right time to buy a bitcoin now?

What i learned Headline

We all are experiencing life in our own ways. Our experiences have a lot to teach those who are willing to learn. These titles are useful for the articles where you have the answers/solutions that you gained from your experience.

Example:

What I learned about people during lockdown

The ‘Ultimate guide’ Headline

These types of headlines should be used when you have a blueprint about any particular activity. ‘A step-by-step guide’ or ‘an ultimate guide’ title is referred as an article that will offer A to Z guidance in the content you’ve published.

Example of the ‘ultimate guide’ headline:

The ultimate guide for hotel management

‘learn from mistakes’ Headline

Sometimes the doorways for the lessons that we need to learn comes from mistakes. The core desire that must be fulfilled while we publish our mistakes online is acceptance. We don’t want to make fun of ourselves online. However, the mistakes we made can be a guidance for others. Our mistakes become a learning for those who are willing to learn from them without the need to experience it themselves.

Example:

Common mistakes to avoid in logo designing

‘Everything you need To know’ type

This one covers a detailed insight about the topic you’re offering in your article. Such headlines show your area of expertise in a particular field. Using this headline means the reader expects to receive every minutiae detail about the topic you chose to write about.

For instance,

Everything you need to know about graphic designing

Tips / List

The top tips and list are highly popular form of headlines on the internet. This headline gives the proper overview of the article in terms of numbers. Numbers are super attractive for a human brain. This also means you have to be ready with the valuable insights you’re going to provide in the article.

Example:

Community Management — 9 reasons why it is inevitable

Inspiring headline

Have an inspiring story in hand to share? Then this type of headline is what you need to choose for your article. Such articles usually focus on uplifting stories of self accomplishments that gives a rise to the feelings of hope. Sometimes the message is better conveyed via your own personal inspiring story as compared to advise or information based articles.

Example:

Learnings from a person who never lose hope

Emotive headline

Emotive headline is the best suitable for the articles that are focused on tapping into the users beliefs and emotions. Such articles can be successful only when you are well aware about the belief structure of your target audience. These headlines are mainly designed to connect with the users on an emotional level

Example:

The power of believing in yourself

Statistics

Statistics presents studies and facts. When you come up with a headline that has some statistical data, you give a valid reason for the users to tap into your article. The statistics itself becomes your huge support to prove your point in the article.

For instance,

33% of people regularly uses voice assistants

This vs. that headline

Versus headlines are used when the two products are competing against each other. This type of headlines usually generate more clicks because of high number of searches for any product comparison. This headline is also apparent in terms of what readers should expect when they click the title.

Example:

iMac vs MacBook Pro. Which one is better?

Click bait

This one is usually not recommended by anyone but still it highly preferred by those who aims to get maximum clicks. The reason this headline is called clickbait is the headline will be highly qualified but the quality of the content fails to align with the title. The strange part is these headlines do work. Why? Because such headlines target and feeds the human curiosity. But eventually leaves them annoyed as there’s no content delivered as it seemed promising in the headline. Using this headline may work once or twice. But it will cause you to lose the trust of your readers.

Example:

Tips to lose 20 pounds in a week. No diet. No exercise.

A Headline has direct impact on attracting more traffic, click-through rates and setting up the tone of your article. The 80/20 rule of headlines says that 8 out of 10 people prefer read the headline. However, only 2 out 10 will go through your article.