I read a great little white paper by Sean D’Souza from Psychotactics Ltd (New Zealand) recently on why some headlines fail and I highly recommend that you read it as soon as you can. 

This paper discusses the psychological “triggers” that make people act when they see a certain headline ? for us, this means a click.  I believe that these tips can be applied equally to both PPC advertising and the natural search listings (SEO).

When you search in Google and are presented with a list of sites that “naturally” match your search request ? each of those listings is competing for your attention and your “click”.  

The common tactic in SEO is to make sure that certain keywords are included in the title of the page.  This title tag is an important part of the “on page” optimisation that is done to make sure that your site gets the rankings that are needed to help build your business or raise your profile in the search engines.  But the problem is that many people (many SEO’s) simply stuff this title with keywords and don’t think about the way it is presented to the user when they search. 

In reality, this title tag is your headline ? just like the first line in your PPC advert.

Take a look at this search for a “web designer in Sydney”

Do you see all of the results in the left hand side that are simply a list of keywords usually combined with a company name?  Or are making statements?  There are really only a couple of PPC ads that are using one or more of the concepts in this article from Sean D’Souza ? but none of the organic listings.  If any of these could be made to be more compelling ? it would stand out instantly.

The three psychological triggers that you should be using in your headlines are:

1.    Question-based vs. Statement-based.  The theory is that questions irritate your brain and cause you to want to know more.. they make you stop and at least assess the question and decide if it applies to you.  Simple statements can be discounted much more readily.

2.    Problem-based vs. Solution-based.  The theory with this one is that your brain is “fixated” with solving problems.  If you present it with a problem ? it will want to seek a solution (i.e. your company or service).

3.    Curious vs. Non-curious.  You have to increase the curiosity factor in your headlines to make people want to take action through intrigue ? your brain is naturally curious and so if you satisfy its needs an action will follow.

Now you don’t have to use all three factors in your headlines ? but any combination will greatly improve your click through rates (CTR).  I have tried this myself ? and it really does work. 

And so the real challenge here is to change your “keyword-stuffed” title tags that are simply a list of your features or descriptors to something that is more compelling and more likely to create a response from the search user without impacting your ranking results.  If you can do this, then you will really boost the success of your search engine marketing ? as not only will you get rankings but you will get more qualified traffic from those rankings.. isn’t that the goal of being ranked in the first place?