If you’re struggling to come up with blog post titles, here are 7 strategies I use:
1. Write the title as a rhetorical question such as ‘Do you struggle with______?
2. Remember the 5 W’s and H – who, what, where, when, why and how. E.g. ‘how do I_____’ or ‘how to____’ ‘Why you should ______’ ‘When to _____’
3. Try and use YOU instead of I (unless it is a case study or you are reflecting on your own personal experience). Example: someone wanting tips on organizing isn’t going to search ‘how I organize my office’ on Google (or other search engine), they are more likely to search ‘how to organize an office’
4. Put yourself in your readers shoes, what phrases and keywords are they likely to be searching in Google? Think about when you Google how to learn something, if you want information about something – what sort of keywords do you use? Examples: How to, how can I, what do I need to do to ____
5. Search synonyms in Google
6. Keep a thesaurus handy or use Microsoft Word’s synonyms tool – both are useful tools for choosing words and to void using over-using the same words in your blog post titles
To use Microsoft Word’s synonyms tool, right click on the word, scroll down to ‘Synonyms’ and a number of words will show up:
7. People usually search for a solution to a problem, want to learn about the benefits of something, or read reviews and advice on how choose between/compare things – consider this when choosing your keywords. E.g. ‘WordPress versus Blogger: which one is better for starting a fashion blog?’
8. Look at news stories, magazine articles and book titles. Replace some of the words with words relating to your niche
Let’s say you are a blogging about home decor. For the cover below you could change ‘easy ways to upgrade your style’ to ‘easy ways to add value to your home without breaking your budget’. Remember to use synonyms – for this example, I changed upgrade to ‘add value’
Another example: ‘The new must-have pieces’ could be ‘Must have plugins for your WordPress blog’
Final tip: like you should do when writing your blog posts – get to the point and get to it quickly – be succinct!
Want more tips, 200 blog post title prompts and 138 go to keywords for blog posts? You might like my ebook: 200 Blog Post Title Prompts (For Any Type of Blogger). It’s available in the online shop, my Etsy shop or on Amazon!
