How to write a title that gets clicks (and what to avoid)

📅 April 2026⏱ 4 min read🏷 Headlines

Your title is read by 5x as many people as your content. Most will decide whether to continue based on it alone. A great article with a weak title gets skipped. A mediocre article with a strong title gets read.

The anatomy of a good title

The best titles do at least two of these three things:

Make a specific promise — tell the reader exactly what they'll get
Signal the format — "how to," "X reasons why," "guide to," "explained"
Create curiosity or urgency — without being vague or misleading

Patterns that consistently work

"How to [do something] (even if [obstacle])"
Example: "How to write every day (even if you hate writing)"

"X [things] that [outcome]"
Example: "7 words that make your emails more persuasive"

"What is [thing] and [what it means for you]"
Example: "What is compound interest and why it changes everything"

"[Question people actually ask]"
Example: "How long should a blog post be?"

"The [adjective] guide to [topic]"
Example: "The beginner's guide to calorie counting"

Before and after examples

❌ WeakSome thoughts on productivity

✅ StrongHow to get more done in 4 hours than most people do in 8

❌ WeakSleep and health

✅ StrongHow many hours of sleep do you actually need?

❌ WeakMy experience with meditation

✅ StrongI meditated every day for 30 days — here's what actually changed

💡 Generate Title Ideas

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Length matters

For Google search results: titles are truncated after about 60 characters. Keep the most important words in the first 50 characters. Longer titles are fine for social media where there's no truncation.

Ideal title length for SEO: 50–60 characters. For general writing, 6–10 words tends to hit the sweet spot between specific and scannable.

What to avoid

Vague titles: "Thoughts on writing" tells the reader nothing about what they'll get
Clickbait with no substance: "You won't believe this trick" — readers feel deceived when the content doesn't match the hype
All caps: Reads as aggressive, not emphatic
Starting with a number that doesn't make sense: "17 reasons" works if there really are 17. Don't reverse-engineer the number to sound specific.
Unnecessary questions for simple facts: "Is water wet?" is a clickbait format, not a genuine guide