We have all heard the proverb “don’t judge a book by its cover”. Unfortunately, we are victims of our human nature and every day we filter out the “noise” by quickly judging things to determine if they are worth our time. We must learn the art of creating captivating blog post titles so that when people are checking out the proverbial “book covers” on the web, they stop to see what we have to say.
Your best content will remain undiscovered if you don’t make the effort to write effective titles.
Here are five ideas to improve the effectiveness of your legal blog titles:
1. Ask a Question – A provocative question creates curiosity. People want to find out the answer and feel inclined to click through to read more. This is especially true when the question addresses a specific need or concern and promises to answer a problem the reader identifies with. For instance I wrote a popular post a little while back titled: “Lawyer Marketing Definitions: What are RSS Feeds and Why Should I Care?“. People who didn’t know what RSS feeds were clicked through to find out and have the question addressed.
2. Check Out Magazine Covers for Ideas – Magazine copywriters are some of the best around. A magazine is located on a rack with hundreds of other choices surrounding it. They have just a few seconds to grab your attention with an attractive cover and create the desire to read more with headlines about the articles. Pay attention to the words they use and how they structure the headline. You can learn a lot from professionals that have been doing this for a long time.
3. Use Numbers in Your Title and Lists for Your Posts – I’ve said it before and it’s worth repeating: People on the web love lists. It creates concise, bulleted information that can be digested quickly and easily. If you are reading this post right now, you are seeing an example of using a number in the headline to capture a reader’s attention. There is a funny, comedy site called Cracked that does a nice job of using this technique with many of their posts.
4. Solve a problem – People who are reading your legal post don’t care about you. They care about their own wants, needs, and problems. If you offer a solution to a problem they identify with, you will have yourself a reader. A good example of this is a post I wrote titled: “5 Ways to Attract More Readers to Your Legal Blog“. The headline was effective because it solved a problem others identified with: the need to get more readers.
5. State a Benefit or Explain How to do Something - Giving practical advice is always eye-catching. Even though things may seem routine or simple to an expert, there are plenty of people out there that don’t have the knowledge you do. This is especially applicable to lawyers. Legal issues are complex and intimidating. Offering simple how to’s (perhaps how to hire a legal professional or how to handle the aftermath of a legal incident) will make for great legal blog post titles.
Remember to keep your titles short when possible. A good rule of thumb is 9 words or less. Also, be sure to capitalize the first letter of each important word in your headline.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Superb hints! Had I only known them from the beginning, writing would have been a lot more easy as I did not have to learn that all by myself.
I absolutely love this blog. Would you be interested in contributing a column on blogging to SUE Magazine for Women Litigators? We have over 100,000 subscribers.
I would be happy to write a column for you. Please email me at jb [at] attorneysync.com. Let me know the details and we can take it from there.
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