Why Your Blog Post Needs More Than One Headline

Want to write a headline that capture readers’ attention and gets them to click through to your article?

You’ll need more than one headline.

That’s because readers on different platforms are looking for different things.

The headline that attracts a reader searching for a topic in Google isn’t the same one that’ll appeal to someone scrolling on Facebook—and neither is a good fit for a loyal reader who visits your website or subscribes to your newsletter.

To make the most of every promotional platform, write a headline tailored to each.

 

4 Headlines Your Blog Post Needs

Write a headline that will attract readers to your post from any platform you’ll share it on, including

• Your website: What will entice readers who visit your home page to click into the article?
• Social media: How will you catch readers’ attention as they scroll through myriad distractions?
• Search: Which keywords and information will you include in the title tag to get clicks from Google search results?
• Email: What about the post is most attractive to your most loyal readers?

 

Tools to Publish Multiple Headlines

Your CMS lets you publish the headline that’ll show up at the top of a blog post and anywhere else the post appears on your website (like in a “latest posts” section on the home page).

Use these tools to publish the right headline to each of the other platforms where you’ll promote a post:

• Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress: Write a keyword-targeted title tag that’ll appear in search results, but not on your website.
• Buffer or Hootsuite: These social media schedulers let you rewrite the headline that shows up in the preview of your post when you share it on social media.
• Mailchimp: Use this or another feature-rich email marketing platform to easily build emails that include custom images, headlines, and snippets for blog posts you want to promote.

 

 

Dana Sitar has been writing and editing for digital media since 2011, most recently as a copy editor for fintech and personal finance. She trains journalists, writers, and editors on writing for the web through sessions at the annual ACES editors’ conference, Utah Valley University, online courses, and private trainings. Dana has written about work and writing in digital media for publications including the New York Times, HuffPost, a column for Inc. Magazine, and dozens of writing and content marketing blogs. As a branded content editor for The Penny Hoarder, Dana managed a team of writers, editors, and social media experts to create multimedia branded content to help advertisers reach an audience of 12 million across platforms including social media, email, blog, and video.