Why You Should Write Your Headings First
10Posted on Oct, 06 2008 under Blogging by Héctor Cabrera
Picture this: Inspiration strikes you like a tsunami, turning you into a beacon of light and wisdom. Then, you sit down and write all these great ideas you’re so eagerly wanting to see published on your site. You just can’t wait to see your readers’ reaction. By the time you’re done with the writing, you realize that you can’t find an engaging headline for your blog post. Now you have this feeling that your creative juices have dried up.
Ever since I’ve been blogging -about a year now-, I have faced this issue several times. And I’m not the only one, I know I’m not.
Why start by writing your headline first
I’ve been analyzing this problem for some time now and I’ve come to think that when it comes to writing, headlines should be dealt with first.
As I said on a previous post, headings are the first impression you make on your audience. Focusing on crafting a great headline for your blog post will entice them to keep reading what you have to say.
Furthermore, writing your headline first will help you keep your contents well-structured. What lies behind this statement is the fact that you’re developing your contents from the idea expressed in your heading - instead of backwards. This will keep your writing closely aligned to the engaging promise delivered by your headline to your readers.
Also, remember that headings are extremely important when it comes to off-site SEO. Compelling headlines will also entice other people to link back to you - which is important to build back links to your site.
Do you have a better reason not to start by writing your headlines first from now on?
You might also want to read these:
Did you enjoy reading this article? Share it!
10 Responses to "Why You Should Write Your Headings First"
Leave a Reply
Loading ...
A great post with a bad heading is a ship without a rudder. People take a look at heading, and if you haven’t been creative at that side, they you might end up losing!
I write my headings after my posts though. Because, when I write, it’s a complete flow of ideas. Sometimes, I write two-three or more paragraphs and then completely delete them because they are not as organized. When the flow is good, I complete up the post and with the help of some tools, take a look at what are the keywords & their density. Accordingly, I put up a heading.
Solid post!
@Swastik: do you mind sharing these tools you talked about with us?
Yea, Sure
Here it is : http://www.webconfs.com/keyword-density-checker.php
I’d like to tell how I analyze things as well. See, as an example this post, your heading is Why you should write your headings first. On the keyword cloud I checked, some of the main keywords were post, write, posts, writing, SEO. (BTW, First four are kinda repeated). Back to topic, in your heading you got only one keyword out of the top 5-6 you’ve in your writing. Definitely, the heading is catchy enough for readers, but it’d be better if it contained some of the words you mentioned over there as well.
Though its not required, and quite a hassle, it gives just a small edge.
Also check out other tools at that website like the SES simulator : http://www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.php
When I see this post of yours, it comes up with the heading first (Which keyword/ keyphrase you want to rank this post for?). Then comes Rauru.com three times, then the short about of yourself. In the first five-six lines, there are not many keywords which you’d like to rank for. It helps somewhat to get your keywords in first up in the headings, in the blog posts etc.
No worry though, the title is still quite a catchy one.
@Swastik: Great tool! I’m going to use it while writing my next blog posts. Too bad I can’t give you a +Rep here hehe xD
You should develop a plugin for Wordpress which enables the blogger to give reputation to the commentator & instead of the top commentator (whose comments are not of any value), you show the best repped commentator in your sidebar! xD
With me there is a constant shift between writing the post itself and the headline. I do start with the headline, but as the writing progresses I change it several times before I’m satisfied.
As for the SEO part, I really don’t bother much with it, which results in some awfully strange Google traffic:
Here are a few keyphrases that Google seems to believe that my website is about
sell products using brainwashing techniques
tricks to sell
copywriting “crappy product”
dangerous cookie list
… and my website is about gray hat marketing techniques 0_o. I do get relevant traffic from Google as well, but somehow these off shots seem funnier.
Regards, George
@George Cozma: hahahah those are some funny keywords xD Indeed, these have nothing to do with your site at all! “dangerous cookie list” Hilarious!
Another great post by Ikki!
Am subscribing to your RSS.
Keep it up
@Farrhad: Thanks Farrhad
It’s always nice to see my subscriber count growing 
xD
[...] Chris Crum of http://www.pureblogging.com Blogging Tips, Copywriting, General I Stumbled Upon this post at Rauru today that suggests when blogging that you should write your headlines before you write the actual [...]