The Ultimate Guide to Creating Engaging Blog Titles

Not all blog titles are created equal. Some engage and facilitate conversions in droves, while others are completely forgettable.

What’s the difference?

The difference is forethought, intention, and strategy.

Good blog title examples include on-brand language, effective SEO keywords, and alignment with your overall marketing goals.

Let’s break down how to write engaging blog titles step by step.

How to write effective blog titles

Writing engaging, effective blog titles starts with knowledge and intention. 

Understanding your readership, goals, and brand is the knowledge. The intention comes in with plugging all that information into a content marketing strategy.

Examples of good blog titles in the SERPs

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Write blog titles in your brand voice

Brand voice is important to consider when creating blog titles. For instance, if you’re known for being friendly and conversational, blog title examples like “Why SEO is Stupid” will be jarringly off-brand for your target audience.

However, some brands are known for that sort of playful negativity. If you’re one of those brands, a more austere blog post example like “Getting Started With Your CRM” is the more jarring.

Brand voice is about representing who you are as a brand, but it is also about what your readers have come to expect from you. Do they expect snarky little snippets or in-depth how-to guides? Do they come to your blog mainly to engage with others in the comments, or do they quickly get what they need and bounce?

Understand your brand voice. Document it. Make sure every marketer on your team understands it too. And keep it top of mind when writing all your blog titles.

Write to your goals

An “effective” blog title means different things depending on what your goals are. Your goals are dependent on your marketing strategy and sales funnels.

For instance, many marketers use blog posts to attract organic site traffic. These blogs are “top-of-funnel content” designed to make potential readers aware of your product or service and push them further down the sales funnel.

Marketing funnel showing ToFu, MoFu, and BoFu

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However, organic traffic is not the only goal you may have for your blog.

For instance, your blog may be geared more towards on-page engagement or community building. 

A blog title written for traffic will focus on being the most clickable, while a blog meant for community building is more niche and specific.

This is why it’s important to understand your blog’s goals. Understand what you’re trying to achieve with your blog posts and how they affect your sales funnel and overall marketing strategy

Choose a strategy

Speaking of strategy, you will need a focus for developing your blog post titles. The good news is that if you’ve done the work of the previous two points (you’ve determined your brand voice and understand your goals), your strategy is more or less formed.

For instance, if your goal is to attract as much blog traffic as possible, your best strategy is to create SEO-driven blog titles.

If your goal is community engagement, focus on brand voice and industry-specific keywords.

Balance curiosity and intent

Your blog post title is the first interaction your readers have with your content. It should match the user’s search intent while also being titillating enough to make them click to learn more.

You don’t want to frustrate them by writing a catchy blog title only to have them click through to content that doesn’t relate to what they’re looking for.

At the same time, you don’t want to be so vague that no one wants to click your link at all. It’s about balance.

 You need a good blog title format that you can adhere to and replicate repeatedly. Let’s look at the most effective ones. 

Effective blog title formulas

It’s important to remember that industries, target audiences, products, and topics vary greatly, so there is no magic formula. What worked magnificently for one company may not be the best for yours.

However, there are some tried and true formulas to put into play.

Here’s a breakdown of two popular copywriting formulas.

AIDA blog title examples and formula

AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.

Attention: Grab your reader’s interest right away, preferably in the first two words of the blog title.

Interest: Display why this blog post is relevant to them by satisfying their search intent.

Desire: Use benefit-focused words that stir a desire to click.

Action: Encourage a click by explaining how taking action will solve their problem.

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AIDA blog title examples:

  • Stop Losing Customers: Learn How To Decrease Churn With Chatbots
  • The No-Hassle Guide To Nonstop Business Growth
  • Level-Up With the 10-Minute Power-Start Routines of the Uber Successful
  • Analysis Paralysis: Why Your Email Campaigns Aren’t Converting

PAS blog title examples and formula

PAS stands for Problem, Agitate, and Solution. This formula is meant to elicit an emotional response.

Problem: Define your user’s problem(s)

Agitate: Explain/demonstrate why their problem needs an urgent solution

Solution: Show them how your product or service solves their problem

PAS copywriting model

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PSA blog title examples:

  • Burnout is Real: Recapture Your Passion for Life Through Journaling 
  • You’re Leaving Thousands on the Table: Learn the Art of Negotiation
  • Your Blog is a Wasteland: Perfectly Optimize Your Content with AI
  • Insomnia Shaves Off Years of Your Life: Meditation Fights Back 

25 easily replicable blog title examples

If a copywriting formula seems too complex, you can use a simpler format to write your blog post titles.

Let’s look at a few:

‘How to’ blog title examples

How-to articles are a popular choice for blog titles. They match user intent, are informative and educational, and are great for pillar pages and lead magnets. It’s easy to plug in your target keyword, and informative guides are very shareable.

Examples:

  • How to Increase Your Organic Traffic by 30% in the next 3 Months
  • How to Make Quality Hires for Your Marketing Team
  • How to Setup a Meta Ad Campaign Start to Finish
  • How to Run an A/B Test In MailChimp

Listicle blog title examples

Listicles are actionable list posts that break things down step-by-step. This format is also popular because it’s scannable and snappy, giving your reader relevant information in several different sound bites instead of a lengthy 2000+ word explanation. 

Example of a listicle blog post

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Be strategic about how long your listicle is. Ensure every entry on the list offers value and isn’t just fluff and filler. Also, analyze SERP results and the listicles your competition is publishing to help decide. 

Examples:

  • 12 Easy Ways To Distribute Marketing Content
  • 7 Exercises To Do at Your Desk 
  • 95 Consumer Statistics To Know in 2025
  • 25 Sales Pitch Templates To Close the Deal

Asking a question blog title examples

Blog titles that ask a question are great from SERP results because most internet queries are questions. The better your content is at answering Google’s frequently asked questions on a given topic, the better your chances of ranking.

Examples:

  • Why Isn’t Your High-Traffic Blog Converting?
  • Why Are Millennials Spending Less on Digital Tools?
  • When Is the Best Time To Start a Business?
  • What Are the Benefits of Small Sales Teams?

Controversial blog title examples

Controversial blog titles go against what’s commonly agreed upon. Be careful with these blog titles. They are good for eliciting an emotional response, but take it too far, and you’ll sound like clickbaiting spam.

However, if done well, you’ll have a very shareable and unique viewpoint ripe for engagement. 

Examples:

  • Why Organic Traffic Doesn’t Matter Anymore
  • Why Doing What You Love Is the Worst Idea Ever
  • 5 Reasons You Should Drink Caffeine at Night
  • Why You Should Lie on Your Resume

Comparison blog title examples

Comparison blog titles compare two topics against each other. According to HubSpot, these blog posts are valuable to the consideration stage of the sales funnel. They educate readers on the two sides of the product or service they are comparing and help prompt them to decide.

Comparison blog titles can also be framed as “this vs. that,” giving insight into both topics and their differences.

Examples:

  • MailChimp or Lemlist: Which Is Better?
  • The Most and Least Expensive Cities To Live in 2025
  • Are Remote or In-Person Classes Better for Visual Learners?
  • Matcha or Coffee: Which Gives the Bigger Energy Boost?

Evidence-Based blog title examples

Evidence-based blog titles include relevant data that indicate what the piece is about. A well-written piece with a data-backed title builds trust with your audience and builds authority in your thought leadership.

Examples:

  • Free Shipping Can Boost Your Ecommerce Sales by 45%
  • Join the 87% of Business Owners Enjoying Social Selling Revenue
  • If You’re Not Optimized For Mobile, You’re Losing 66% of Potential Sales
  • 91% of Consumers Watch Explanation Videos: Make Sure You Have One

Using AI tools to generate blog titles

If you need to jog your creativity for blog post ideas, you can turn to AI for help.

Generally, it’s best to use AI tools for idea generation rather than having the final word. Otherwise, your blog titles will be generic and overly formulaic. This won’t help you with ranking or with your human audience. 

It’s better to take the time to figure out the best approach for your brand through careful consideration and exploration of the models we’ve discussed.

But if you’re scraping the bottom of the creativity barrel, give AI tools a whirl just to see what they come up with. Then, take the best of what they offer and plug it into your existing blog title framework.

In addition to ChatGPT, many blog title generators (like the one pictured below) allow you to enter topics, keywords, or search terms, and they will generate ideas for you.

Blog title generator from Ahrefs

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To find these generators, simply search “blog title generator.”

Meta title vs. Page Title

Keep in mind that you have the opportunity to write two titles for your blog post. Your page title is the title your reader sees when landing on your blog post’s webpage. Your meta title is the title that shows up in search engines. It influences your SEO and should contain your target keyword. 

This is an important distinction because your meta title allows you to optimize your title for search results more tightly, while your page title can be more conversational or informative. 

According to Search Engine Land, meta titles also have character limits, so they display correctly in search results. Page titles have more flexibility in length, so you can get more creative.

That said, both titles should be aligned. For instance, your meta title shouldn’t be about how to win the lottery, while the page title should detail an interview with a former lottery winner.

Misaligned meta titles and page titles will undermine your reader’s trust and cause them to associate your brand with dishonesty and misinformation. 

In short, both titles work to your advantage and should be used harmoniously, so understand how each is best used. 

Blog post titles, simplified

It’s important to have catchy titles for your blog posts. Your titles are the first thing a potential reader sees when deciding whether or not to click through to your content. 

In addition to capturing attention, your catchy headlines must contain your keyword, match search intent, and be actionable. It’s a tricky puzzle. But there are tools to help you.

Start by understanding your brand voice and goals. Next, choose a strategy that best suits your approach. Then, choose a framework that helps you balance every aspect of a good blog title.

Your ideal framework may be a copywriting strategy, or you may want to stick with some old, tried-and-true formats.

Whatever you decide, there are tools to help.

If you’re overwhelmed by the task of increasing the ROI of your marketing efforts, we’re here to offer a helping hand.

We’ve helped some of the world’s largest brands get results with performance-driven SEO.
If you’d like to explore a partnership to get the most out of your content, talk to a specialist, and we’ll get the ball rolling. It’s time to invest in SEO. Your competitors aren’t waiting around. So, it’s time to get started today.

Picture of Alia Sinclair

Alia Sinclair

Alia Sinclair is a writer and marketer with nearly a decade of experience in content marketing. She is the editor-in-chief of Patchwork Mosaic and lives in the Pacific Northwest with her wife and ever-increasing library of books.

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