We live in a world full of commotion and chaos. There is so much on the internet uploaded every day. There will always be more content to read than people have the time to read. Amidst all this, how do you motivate people to read what you write online or offline?
In all honesty, having a great design and excellent content is great, but people only come to it if the title impresses them.
It is not curtailed merely to the articles but also applies to book chapters or blog posts. So, how to write article titles?
How to write a good article title that nudges people to read the content? We will get to that. But, before that, let us understand what a good title is and its importance.
Jump To
- What Is A Good Catchy Title?
- What Should The Article Title Have?
- Do’s and Don’ts for Article Title Writing
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Is A Good Catchy Title?
You wish to know how to write a good title for an article, but what is a good title? When you create something – a blog, article, post, or essay, it is your title that people will see first. Unfortunately, in many cases, it is where your engagement may end too. Hence, it is vital to learn how to make a good title for an article so that your post finds an audience.
A catchy title has elements that persuade the readers to read your content. With the catchy title, you can bring a reader to your writing by giving away what they must expect from it.
Regardless of how informative your post may be, people may never find your created piece if you do not know how to write article titles correctly.
Importance Of Learning How To Write A Good Article Title
There are more than a few reasons you should be interested in learning how to make a catchy title for an article. Below, we will enlist a few of the most important ones.
- It helps attract readers.
- It gives a peek into the content.
- It helps form the first impression.
- It boosts SEO.
What Should The Article Title Have?
To learn how to write good titles for articles, you should also know what comprises a good article title.
A good title must be:
- Informative
- Accurate
- Precise
- Keyword optimized
It should tell the reader what the article is about. Herein, your keywords come into play. You can ask an expert how to write article titles, and they will always talk about the keywords.
As a general rule of thumb, your most relevant keywords should be a part of the article title. It makes the article more discoverable in search results. Ideally, you can include at most two keywords in the article title.
Related: How to prepare an article outline?
How To Write A Good Title For An Article – Do’s and Don’ts.
Wish to know how to write title of an article? Here are some dos and don’ts that can help.
Do’s
1. Use numbers to give a concrete takeaway
Our first tip for writing article titles is to include numbers in the title. You must have seen copywriters do that all the time. But, you know what? It 100 percent works. However, there is no definite rule on how many numbers you must add to a listicle. It depends on what content you have in your article, accordingly add number to the title.
2. Include the word ‘Guide’
Including the word ‘guide’ in the article makes it appear authoritative. Consequently, it bags you more clicks.
Some way how to make a good title for an article using the term guide are:
- The Only Guide You Will Ever Need to XYZ
- The Ultimate Guide to XYZ
- The Foolproof Guide to XYZ
- The Definitive Guide to XYZ
3. Tell them what they will gain
If you want to learn how to write article titles perfectly, ensure that you make it clear to the user how they benefit from coming to your website and what they gain from reading what you have written. By merely looking at the title, it should be clear to them what is special about your post – great infographics, unique information, or news?
4. The classic – How-to
Many popular websites and blogs stick to the classics, resulting in definitive results every time. It is one formula that has been going on for years and never fails to disappoint. Inclusion of the words ‘how to’ in your article boosts engagement. However, do not fail to deliver what you promise with the title.
5. Put the keyword at the beginning of the title.
Your keyword should be a part of the title. You can include it at the beginning or in the title’s first 60 characters. In this manner, even if everything gets cut off at the end of the search engine, the keyword is still visible.
6. How to write article titles in question form?
Most users tend to read those articles that specifically relate to their search query. So, when you ask a question in the title, it makes it evident to them that they will get an answer to that question in the article body.
It is also a vital aspect of content marketing. What is a question article? These are the posts with questions in their title. It gives the user an impression that such writings will be informative and educating. They invoke a psychological impact on the user to seek answers to their questions.
When you create question-type headlines, please remember to:
- Not make the question too long.
- Keep the question open-ended.
- Research the question in the search bar
7. Optimize the headline length for SEO and readability
The title length is vital for learning how to write good titles for articles. But, the headline should neither be too long nor too short. If it is too small, there is a risk of the writing lacking the necessary information to attract readers and search engines.
On the contrary, readers may lose interest in the article if the headline is too long. In addition, a long title does not pass the SERPs character limit. Blog post titles that are too long would not appear entirely in the browsing search result.
Ideal length for a title is 60 characters.
8. Think about your audience and what matters to them.
Always learn how to write article titles from audience’s perspective. You must already know your audience type. Now, utilize this knowledge and create headlines that would grab their attention. In this manner, the post directly speaks to them. Knowing your audience is one of the best ways to produce strategic and ideal headlines that capitalize on the user’s fears or wishes.
9. Keep it concise
People do not want to waste a lot of time on things. They want what they need quickly, sometimes even without reading the whole title of every article. So, keep the title concise if you wish to gather your reader’s attention.
10. Look for inspiration
Looking at other people’s title is an attempt to create perfect titles that hurt no one. So, do not be afraid to look for inspiration wherever you can. For instance, if you write for a publication, check out some older copies, and browse through the different examples to know what works for the audience. You can tweak them as you like.
11. Announce some exciting news
With your headlines, try to announce things your audience care about, anything important to them. Narrate about the content of your article like a big announcement.
Don’ts
- Do not include too much detail in the title.
- Do not overly dramatize or sensationalize the headline.
- Avoid fluff
- Do not have an unspecific headline.
- Avoid too many hyphens and colons.
- Avoid unnecessary fillers
- Do not use ACRONYMS
- Don’t make it too long
- Do not include uncommon jargon.
- Do not lie in the title – Delivering content dissimilar from what the title promises
- Do not misspell words
- Do not be redundant.
- Do not be rude.
How To Write A Good Title For Journal Articles?
Here are some tips for writing a good title for journal articles:
Step 1 – Skip the title, and work on the draft.
Yes, you read it right. Writing a journal is a time-consuming task. It may take you several weeks, even months. In this while, you will make multiple changes to the paper. In addition, you will also come up with ideas you have not thought of before. You can start with a draft title to merely know which direction to take the journal and then write the paper. As you finish it, you can fix a headline for it.
Step 2 – Select from the different types available
Even if you do not know the specifics, you have probably encountered several different types of journal titles. Broadly, there are 13 different tile types. But, we will list below the three most common ones:
- Interrogative titles – Introduces the title as the question.
- Descriptive titles – Describes the title, sans any conclusion.
- Declarative titles – States directly the conclusions or findings
Depending on the information you wish to deliver, you can choose from these three types.
Step 3 – Formulating the title
- Follow the guidelines stated by the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
- Keep them no longer than 12 words.
- Using a colon is fine, but do not keep the subtitle very long
- Adding puns, humor, and irony can help attract more audiences, but avoid these as they are culture-specific.
Step 4 – Avoid the following
- Words that carry little to no meaning but add to the length
- Excessively long titles
- Do not use acronyms
Step 5 – Write down a few variants.
Finally, create a few titles using the above four steps – alternative formulations, with or without colons, and the different types. This strategy can help you come up with a few tentative titles. From them, you can choose the best title.
Related: How to write and an academic book review?,How to write an author’s bio?, Book summary writing guide
Frequently Asked questions
Ques 1. What is the correct way to write an article title in a paper? Should article titles be italicized?
Ans: Here are some tips on how to write article titles in a paper:
You can list the complete article title as-is from the source.
Some exceptions, however, include:
- Separate a subtitle with a space or colon.
- Capitalize only the principal words. Do not capitalize conjunctions, prepositions, and articles in the middle of the title.
- If the source is independent or self-contained, italicize it, for instance, titles of periodicals, films, books, websites, plays, and databases.
- If the source is a part of the larger work, place the title in quotations.
- If you typically see some title in quotation marks, use a single quotation mark.
- You can use italics, too, if the title has italics.
- Specific
- Concise
- Interesting to draw the reader’s attention
Ques 2. What titles are underlined in a paper?
Ans. You underline titles or subtitles of the films, periodicals, plays, works of art, books, long musical works, and television series. In addition, when you write the title of some significantly creative work, it should be underlined too.
Ques 3. How to write an article title in an essay?
Ans. While mentioning an article title in an essay, according to MLA it should be put inside quotation marks.
Ques 4. How to write article titles in APA?
Ans. As per APA Italicize the titles of newspapers, magazines, and journals. Avoid using quotation marks or italicizing the article titles. You may capitalize just the first letter of the first word of the article title.
Ques 5. Is the article title generator helpful?
Ans. Yes, a good article title generator tool can help you produce catchy headlines automatically. However, it is artificial intelligence. So, at times you might have to tweak the headlines as per your needs.
Ques 6. How long should be the title of a blog?
Ans. An article title should be about 60-65 characters long.
Ques 7. What is important in a news article title?
Ans. The headlines should tell what the story is about. It should also be:
Also, it should not be redundant and unnecessary long.
Ques 8. How to cite an article within a book?
Ans. Follow the following format on how to write title of an article and cite it within a book:
Last name, First. “Title of Article.” Name of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, year of publication. Page numbers of article.
