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Writing IT content can be tricky: you need to make sure to distill what can often be complicated technical jargon into digestible, easy-to-understand bits of information. For content, that all starts with the title – the very first thing your audience sees when they run across your content.
Your title needs to be informative enough to convey value, yet enticing enough to encourage them to click on it. It’s this need for value + added value that often makes crafting titles so hard. You can implement best practices based on statistics and client feedback (for example, keeping your titles around 8 words or so for a 21% higher clickthrough rate), but it’s important to understand why you’re writing these titles to begin with.
Once you manage to figure out the value behind what you’re giving a title to, it becomes far easier to come up with something that will encourage your audience to click.
Before diving into what strategies work best for IT content, it’s best to look at some of the best practices for crafting any title, no matter the industry or content in question.
When making a title, a good way to avoid missing out on the basics is simply to ask yourself: “will the rest of my content meet the expectations promised by my title?” If the answer is yes, then you can start thinking about ways to make it more optimized for higher clicks.
IT as an industry can often be full of confusing terminologies and buzzwords that may not properly convey value – so being clear and concise is the bare minimum your audience expects from your titles for your content. For everything else, you can follow these tips.
Remember that aside from social media, search engines are the most common way your audience will get to see your content. And since search engines are increasingly being modeled to respond to human behavior, writing like a human is one of the best ways to get your titles noticed.
Use these guidelines in how to write for your audience using search:
Gone are the days when you needed to write titles for search engines: while SEO is still important, innovations in search engine algorithms mean that you’re more likely to see success if you craft your titles the way your audience would.
Posing a title as a question is a great way to gain traction – headlines in the form of a question generally do 23% better – but don’t just stop there. Make sure that any questions your title answers invite further discussion, not something that can be answered in a single sentence.
Ask yourself these questions about your title:
A great resource to check titles like these is the subreddit r/savedyouaclick. It’ll give you a good idea of titles that can be answered in a single sentence. Ideally, you want your titles to invite discussion, instead of stopping once their question has been answered.
While your title should never give everything away, there’s also something to be said about clarifying for your audience what exactly they’re in for when they click. Not only will this set their expectations on what to find inside your content, but it can also help increase your SEO rankings for specific terms.
Include these in your titles moving forward:
Writing titles (especially for IT) should always tell your audience what they can expect once they click: are they getting an update, an announcement about a service, a recap, or general information? This not only saves their time, but it allows you to segment your audience engagement with the help of your titles.
When you think about creating clickable titles, it’s usually about blog posts. But that isn’t the only type of IT content you can generate: presentations, templates, e-books, and whitepapers all require titles, and the rules around them can be quite different.
Differentiate your titles for content with these tips:
Personalizing your titles doesn’t just make them read better overall: they help set more accurate expectations of your content. Making your titles as elaborate – or as brief – as your content demands make for better writing, and can lead to higher engagement and sharing overall.
It’s easy to get carried away with numbers as an IT company: after all, they’re often the indicators of progress and success in the industry. But keep in mind that the vast majority of your audience will not have the same background as you in understanding what those numbers mean, so you need to find another way to engage them while still conveying the information you want to share. Enter storytelling.
Increase reader investment in your titles by:
Telling a story about your numbers can be a great way to give your audience a reason to click on your titles. Stories frame information in a way that’s both relevant and easy to follow for your reader – and by crafting your titles around this, it’s much easier to encourage your audience to engage with your content.
It can be tempting to simply add a generic title and be done with it – and truthfully, there are very few ways you can “test” a title before you publish it live. However, practice (and a little creativity) can help you consistently write good titles and see which one works best for your IT content.
Some ways you can hone your title-writing skills include:
Writing titles for content is a hit-and-miss process. You can certainly get better with time, but it’s never guaranteed that you’ll land the perfect title once your content is finished. Depending on trends, user feedback, or even changes in SEO practices, you may need to change how you write your titles for your specific IT niche.
Headlines are crucial to generating interest in the rest of your content – and for IT companies, getting it right on the first try makes all the difference in generating leads. While there are plenty of different tips and tricks you can try to improve your title game, it all revolves around a specific point: making your titles sound human.
By writing titles that directly answer your audience’s questions, you can grab their attention and increase the number of clicks on your content. With good SEO support and consistent publishing schedules, you can build on the curiosity that your titles get you towards being a reliable source of value for your audience.