If you’re looking to produce shareworthy content daily or weekly for your own real estate blog, perhaps the most important place to start is right at the top — with the headline. Most readers will make a snap judgement about whether to keep reading based on a post’s headline, so you need something appealing, snappy, and intriguing.
When in search of real estate blog ideas, it’s a good idea to read other blog headlines. Even those about topics other than real estate can teach you a lot about what works and what doesn’t. Though each blog post headline you come across will be distinct in its own way, the truly successful ones — meaning the ones that help boost your real estate website traffic — all share certain traits:
- Informs the audience. First and foremost, you need to educate your blog visitors on exactly what they will read in your content. The good news is you don’t have to be blase and use “How to do [blank]” for every single title. Be subtle with some of your article headlines — even somewhat vague ones can ignite enough interest for buyers and sellers to click.
- Offers something uniquely valuable. Informing your audience isn’t enough. You need to go above and beyond to make your post seem like the only one of its kind, even if it’s on a topic widely covered by your peers and industry insiders. If there’s even just one distinct angle you focus on in your blog post, make it known in the headline. It’s a great way to show readers you have something new and intriguing to say.
- Is as original as can be. This should go without saying, but you don’t want to copy what other blogs are doing word-for-word. Use other blogs to find inspiration for your own headlines. Two million blog posts are published daily, so you certainly don’t have a shortage of places to find real estate blogging ideas, including titles.
- Sparks readers curiosity. As mentioned, stagnant or stale-sounding headlines that make readers fall asleep need to be avoided at all costs. No matter how interesting or enlightening your post actually is, not many people will read it if they’re bored by the title. Use some creativity (everyone’s got at least a little) to separate your post from the online pack and make yours stand out among the real estate blogosphere.
Reading blogs to find titles with these traits can certainly take some time. Not to worry, though. Since we visit numerous online resources daily, we’ve been able to see which blog headlines lead to traffic, shares, and comments — in other words, ones you can learn a thing or two from.
Check out a dozen examples of distinctly unique and engaging headlines below, including explanations as to what makes them so successful.
1) KISSmetrics: How To Set Marketing Goals You Can Actually Achieve: Advice From The Experts
Aside from the fact that I’m already hooked on the marketing advice (given my career), I’m also engrossed by the prospect of hearing from industry experts and their tips and tricks for achieving marketing goals. For your audience, create “how-to” posts that give them specific advice and takeaways, and don’t hesitate to reach out to local experts, colleagues, or peers to provide insights from them for your article. A bonus on top of getting their thoughts is they’ll likely want to share the post with their audiences since they’re included.
Similar Blog Headlines You Could Use:
- 2) The Keys to Buying a Home, as Told by Long-Time Homeowners
- 3) The 5 Reasons [Expert’s Name Here] Thinks It’s the Time to Sell in [Market Name Here]
- 4) 3 Industry Insiders Reveal What’s in Store for [Market Name Here] in 2015
5) Copyblogger: Get the WordPress Theme That Gives You an Unfair Business Advantage
Show me someone in any industry who doesn’t want an unfair (but legal and ethical) business advantage, and I’ll show you a liar. Some publications put out article titles like this and get little traction because they’re not a trusted resource on the topic discussed. But blog consistently great content, and, over time, your audience will gain more and more trust in you as a thought leader and will click on headlines that have very bold and brazen titles like this.
Similar Blog Headlines You Could Use:
- 6) Learn the Secrets That’ll Get You a Low-Interest Mortgage
- 7) Shave Hundreds of Dollars Off Home Repairs with These Tricks
- 8) Know the 10 Things You Can Do to Save on Home Insurance
9) The Economist: Sleep and the economy: A little problem with the jobs recovery
What the heck do sleep and the economy have in common? Many readers’ interests pique at titles like this — ones that tie together two seemingly different (even opposite) concepts. It’s not a bad path to take with your blog posts from time to time. Just be certain you can hitch one big idea to another so your point doesn’t come off as a wild theory. In other words, if you write about the connection between home sales and weight loss, you better have the data to back your views up.
Similar Blog Headlines You Could Use:
- 10) Why [Market Name Here]’s Future Depends on [Company Name Here]
- 11) Exercise and Homebuying: How Staying Fit Can Help You Find Your Dream Home
- 12) The Connection Between Emotional Well-Being and the Right Home
13) Harvard Business Review: Don Draper Is Replaceable; Joan Holloway Isn’t
On occasion, it’s okay to include some references that are a bit outside the norm (and search-friendly). In this HBR piece, the author made a connection to the popular TV drama “Mad Men” and an interview with a professor who studied the importance of ad agency executive. You don’t get the full scope of the post by reading this headline, but its obscurity and pop culture inclusion will get many site visitors curious enough to click.
Similar Blog Headlines You Could Use:
- 14) X Homes That Look Like They Belong in Westeros
- 15) These X Markets Are Breaking Bad in 2014
- 16) X Celebrities Who Live In or Near [Market Name Here]
17) Moz: The Broken Art of Company Blogging (and the Ignored Metric that Could Save Us All)
Present the problem, then offer the solution: This is a tried-and-true way to spark curiosity among readers. Making audacious statements like this in your headlines can certainly draw clicks, but backing up that statement is a whole other ballgame. Be prepared to write at-length to support your thesis. If you blog about poor housing conditions in your market turning the corner in the next few months, have plenty of analysis to back your contention up.
Similar Blog Headlines You Could Use:
- 18) Mortgage Rates Are Rising … But That Doesn’t Mean It’s a Bad Time to Buy Homes
- 19) Home Value Decreases In [Market Name Here] May Not Last for Long
- 20) Renting Trumps Homebuying in [Market Name Here], But Sales Are Projected to Rise
21) Quartz: 150 years of America’s obsession with dieting fads, charted
Videos, infographics, SlideShares — whatever data you want to show your audience, use one of these attractive visual mediums to drive your point home, and make it known that you’re using visuals in your post to attract pageviews. Add some visual accompaniment to your posts and you have some informative and appealing context for your audience. Make it clear in your title there is some visual, like adding “[Graph]” or “[New Visual Data]” to the end of your post title to give readers an idea of what they can expect to see.
Similar Blog Headlines You Could Use:
- 22) Home Price Changes in [Market Name Here] Explained [Infographic]
- 23) The X Most Important Housing Market Stats of 2015 [Graph]
- 24) X Charts That Show [Market Name Here]’s Continual Improvement
25) Seth Godin: Weight thrown and the slippery slope
Seth Godin’s obscure titles for his blog posts — many of which can barely be called that, given their brevity — may seem a little too vague at first glance, but that’s what we love about them. He’s established himself as a go-to guide for all-things business. In turn, we give him the benefit of the doubt. Despite the concealed meaning behind his content, we dive right into his posts, knowing we’re going to get something enlightening and eye-opening. Establish your brand by constantly creating worthwhile content for your audience, and you too can entice clicks with mysterious headlines like this one.
Similar Blog Headlines You Could Use:
- 26) A Shark Tale (Focus on how buyers can avoid hiring bad real estate agents)
- 27) Abnormal to Normal (Write about the evolution of the housing market from fragile to steady)
- 28) Window of Opportunity (Discuss unique ways to dress up a home interior for an open house)
29) Content Marketing Institute: The Basics of SEO for Successful Content Marketing
This SEO-based article certainly has a very search-friendly title. You can never go wrong with optimizing your headlines for search engines. Doing so means your content is more likely to be found by searchers. Just be sure to develop content that also includes popular keywords buyers and sellers often enter in Google, Bing, and Yahoo by performing comprehensive keyword research.
Similar Blog Headlines You Could Use:
- 30) How to Buy Homes in 2014
- 31) The Keys to Buying the Home of Your Dreams
- 32) The Tips and Tricks to Selling a Home
33) BuzzFeed: YouTube’s Biggest Star Is An Unknown Toy-Reviewing Toddler Whisperer
BuzzFeed headlines have been heavily examined, researched, and dissected by marketers as if they were an alien species that came from another planet. While the overwhelming majority of their content titles are click bait, the site clearly knows how to keep traffic — and plenty of it — rolling in regularly. Their secret? Using words or phrases that promise a big payoff for readers; things like “You Won’t Believe,” or “YouTube’s Biggest Star.” We could’ve chosen a thousand different titles, but for the sake of brevity, this one will do.
Similar Blog Headlines You Could Use:
- 34) You Won’t Believe What New Complex Is Coming to [Market Name Here]
- 35) These Affordable Luxury Homes Come With a Really Cool Feature
- 36) Really Incredible Photos of the Newest Neighborhood in [Market Name Here]
37) Quick Sprout: 7 Marketing Tactics That Increased My Growth by 679%
We don’t know about you, but we’re big fans of big data. Headlines like these are the quintessential attention-grabbers. Find data that’ll blow buyers’ and sellers’ hair back — something that makes them say “wow” and feel compelled to find out more.
Similar Blog Headlines You Could Use:
- 38) 9 Ways New Homeowners Can Cut Electricity Costs by 200%
- 39) 5 Tips That Can Help You Pay 70% (or Less) of the Initial Asking Price
- 40) These 4 Reno Projects Increased This Home’s Value by 60%
41) Buffer: The Big List of Twitter Tools: 59 Free Twitter Tools and Apps to Fit Any Need
From home buying guides, to homeownership checklists, buyers and sellers are constantly searching for resources that will aid their decision-making. Create some long-form content to help your audience achieve their goals and close deals, but also share others’ resources on occasion. For instance, collect the best mortgage calculation tools or a list of other blog posts that can help them prepare their residences to sell — just make it known you have all of those resources in your headline.
Similar Blog Headlines You Could Use:
- 42) The 40 Blog Posts First-Time Buyers Need to Read
- 43) 5 Checklists to Help Homeowners Keep Their Residences Looking Sharp
- 44) 12 eBooks That Can Help Save Buyers Time, Energy, and Money
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