Content writing is a significant part of SEO. Without engaging, relevant content, it’s near impossible to drive organic traffic to the website and gain the necessary visibility. The entire linchpin of SEO is content. This has earned content marketing the moniker of “King”.
The most significant aspect of content marketing has got to be writing a catchy and intriguing headline. Headline writing is not at all child’s play! It involves careful consideration of the topic at hand. Moreover, one needs to entice the reader to an extent where they feel compelled to click on the headline and start reading.
Professional SEO services that also offer content marketing services take a good deal of time to craft the perfect headline. While there are rules for writing headlines which are SEO friendly, there is one rule that used to RULE, so to speak!
The rule was this: Avoid Negative Words in the Headline.
Content writers used to be instructed to avoid using terms like “cheap”, “worst”, and a whole gamut of other words. These were considered harmful to the content and not likely to generate clicks. Moreover, using words with negative connotations were thought to drive people away from the content.
However, a study published in Nature magazine begs to differ. This study found that headlines with negative keywords like “harm”, “heartbroken”, “troubling” or “angry”, were found to generate more clicks than keywords with positive meanings like “benefit”, “pretty”, or “kind”.
At BUSFAM, providing professional SEO services, we were pleasantly surprised to find this study. This study helped us understand that information seekers are more likely to seek out bad and disturbing news than positive, happy news. Neutral keywords, moreover, elucidated a neutral response.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why negative terms are generating more click throughs. It’s partly because the worst of human nature comes to the forefront online.
Behind an anonymous screen people tend to show bad behaviour rather than good behaviour. If you need proof of this, scroll through the YouTube comments section of any video. You will find plenty of examples to corroborate this point.
Also, there could be another potential reason why negative headlines garner so much positive response. It’s probably because the human mind likes to prepare for the worst. Humans like to prepare themselves for the worst possible outcomes and they like to keep abreast of the bad news so that they can prepare a contingency plan. This means that they click on negative sounding headlines to prepare themselves for the worst.
In addition to this, perhaps humans are wired with a bit of schadenfreude. They just enjoy taking in all the bad news about their fellow human beings. As wild as this accusation sounds, there is a hint of truth in it, don’t you agree?
So, what’s the potential impact on professional SEO services?
If you want to generate clicks, sprinkle in a healthy dose of negativity, we say. This will mean that your headline writing has to change considerably from what you must have been trained to write.
So, are negative and sad headlines going to be the new way to write headlines?
Actually, a lot of the problem lies with metrics we use to measure the success of the content. Content success is measured by likes, shares, and views. To garner content success does it mean we have to write spicy headlines that pique the curiosity of the reader no matter what? Is there no place for information-rich content that’s serious and full of relevant information?
At BUSFAM we believe that it’s important to strike a balance between gaining clicks and providing information-rich content.
The onus is on the content writer to write and present content in such a way that the right reader finds the content and gets his/her doubts answered. After all, content has to add value to the reader. It should answer specific questions. It shouldn’t be a copy of previously written information presented in another format.
BUSFAM’s professional SEO services invites writers and SEO professionals to rethink the way they write and present their content. The study we have talked about shows us the importance of adding an element of spice to the headlines.
Nowadays, it’s harder than ever to write compelling and useful content that readers will actually consume. It’s important to rethink the content strategy and provide content that is useful, palatable and at the same time attractive to the eyes.
We do all that for you, so reach out to us with your content writing requirements.