A lot of very smart, savvy business people experience a brain freeze when they have to write. Even if you’re a confident (and competent) writer, you may not have time to keep up with the Internet’s insatiable demand for fresh marketing content. Do you need our help?
Writing media-grade content can be challenging. Your goal is to produce content that would pass the media’s litmus test. Meeting that threshold elevates your content’s information value, relevance and credibility.
One of the biggest headaches for most writers is the blog headline. Clever headlines don’t rank high in search engines because they rarely clearly define your subject. Plus, Bing or Google won’t understand your puns. Here’s another complication: Search engines prefer that you limit blog headlines to just 71 characters.
To help you improve your blog headline writing, here are some guidelines that our writers use:
- Consider how people will search for your product or service. Optimize your headlines for SEO by including one or more keywords. For example, a new homeowner might type, “landscaping, {city}” into their search engine to find a nearby landscaping company.
- Use adjectives sparingly. You want to spark your readers’ curiosity, not bang them over the head with hype. Strike such words as “unique”, “ultimate” and even “new” from your headline-writing vocabulary.
- Don’t make headlines so general that they become non-descript. Boring: “Acme releases its 4th quarter earnings.” Better: “Acme’s 4th quarter earnings reveal 10-year record profits.”
- Ask yourself: Who cares? Each headline should give your readers a reason to pay attention. If your headline isn’t newsworthy, most people won’t read any further.
Now, here’s an bigger concern: How do you write a fresh, steady stream of newsworthy, media-grade content when you don’t always have major news to announce? That’s where we can help. Call us at 952-697-5269 to discuss how we can launch a keyword-rich, media-grade content stream to support your digital marketing efforts.
