I studied 60 Medium posts to see which titles performed best. Here’s five things I learned.

The title of your post is the first thing someone reads when deciding if they want to click on it or not, so its importance can’t be understated. Sadly, most posts titles follow a boring and logic-free formula. I set out to discover if there were any common patterns in successful posts and figured out five things all great titles have.

This post will tell you how to create a fantastic title, every time.

Include [keyword] in the title of your post

The search engines reward posts where [keyword] is included in the title with higher rankings. It’s important to include this word at least once so Google knows what your article is about, but try to get creative with it.

Don’t just put the keyword in there because you’re trying to game the system — instead, include it where it makes sense and won’t interrupt your reader’s flow. The aim is to write something that will rank highly on search engines while still being interesting for your reader — if you included the keyword in your title for SEO purposes alone, your potential reader might bounce off it straight away.

Don’t include too many keywords though or Google will see it as spam. The best solution is to use a tool like Yoast to analyze whether you’re including enough of the right words without overdoing it.

Example: “10 Ways to Write Engaging Titles for Your Blog Posts”

Find an interesting way to express your title

This is by far the most important tip on this list. There are hundreds of articles out there that include the exact same title, so if you want yours to stand out, you can’t just write any old thing. Instead, get creative with the way you express your title so it stands out in the sea of sameness.

Anyone who’s ever written anything (words or otherwise) knows that there are an infinite number of ways to say exactly the same thing. For every subject imaginable, you could write a sentence in thousands of different ways; the question is, how do you come up with a unique way of expressing your idea?

The answer lies in asking yourself this simple question: “If someone were to read the title of my post out loud, would they know what it’s about?” If not, rewrite it until your readers can get an accurate understanding of what the post will be about.

Instead of writing “How to Make Money Online” (which isn’t only boring, but also pretty hard!), you could write: How I Made $1,000 Selling Ebooks in the First Month as a Blogger. This title is much more creative and interesting — plus it tells your reader exactly what they’ll be reading about.

Example: “How To Write Engaging Titles For Your Blog Posts [with Examples]”

Include a number in your title when possible

This is a simple, yet useful trick. Numbers seem to draw a reader’s attention more than most other words, so using them in your titles will help you stand out from the crowd.

Example: “5 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Writing”

Use analytics to evaluate what’s working and what isn’t working

Analytics are your best friend when it comes to figuring out what works and what doesn’t. The more people click on your post, the more likely it is that they’ll read and share it with others.

If you’re worried about not knowing how to use analytics, don’t sweat it — most blogging platforms come with this feature built right in. In Medium, just click on your post and you can figure out how many views, reads, favorites, and so on.

What is important to note here is that a lot of people will visit your post but never go beyond the title or initial excerpt — others may not even get there at all. You need to make it as easy as possible for them to give your post a chance, and the best way to do that is to make it seem interesting from the get-go.

Use active voice, rather than passive.

A sentence in active voice is one where the subject performs the action. A sentence in passive voice is one where the subject receives the action.

For example:

Active: I finished my essay. [subject=I] [verb=finished] [direct object=essay]

Passive: My essay was finished by me. [subject=essay] [verb=was finished] [by subject=me]

Most sentences in technical writing are written in passive voice because it’s a longer and less direct way of expressing yourself. It’s also more formal, which can be helpful when you want to sound objective — this is the reason many academics opt for passive voice in their work.

However, there are quite a few downsides to writing in passive voice. For one thing, it often makes your sentences longer than they need to be — and sometimes even harder to understand because you’re trying to be “more professional” by using complicated words.

Most importantly though, it gives the impression that you don’t care about your reader, because it doesn’t involve them in the writing process.

For example: “A blog post was written about blogging.”

Instead of using passive voice, you could have said something like this instead: “We wrote a blog post about blogging” or “Five bloggers were asked to write an article about what makes a good post — here’s what they found.”

Conclusion

By following these simple tips, you’ll be able to write a lot more engaging titles for your articles. Remember — don’t just focus on the SEO benefits of having a good title; you should always aim to create titles that are interesting and will engage your audience.

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