The one question that most clients ask me is “How do I get more traffic to my website?”

Well, the answer is almost always the same. You don’t know already??

Seriously though, you can either pay for it with advertising “push marketing”, or you can create amazing content that brings prospects to your site for free! (pull marketing)

One of the most important things you can do to get more traffic is get a prospects attention. To do this, you have to stand out from the crowd and you have to be talking about things that are important to your prospects.

How To Create Amazing Headlines That Pull In Traffic

You probably don’t realize this, but I already told you the answer. The most popular type of headline that people click on to find out more information is the “how to” headline. Here is an example from this website, where I explain how to make $200/month using outsourced content writers.

Whether it is to be better looking, lose weight, make more money, persuade people, get more dates, etc. everyone is looking to find out how to do things. Google is asked millions of questions on a daily basis about how to do this, how to find that, how to fix those. All you have to do is provide the answers.

Is that it? Is it really that simple? Yes and no.

Yes it is that simple because all you have to do is start your headline with whatever your topic was going to be about. No, it doesn’t just end there. You have to write content that actually interests people. The good news is, the things you write about “should” interest people as long as you are talking about the business you are in, and if you are trying to help people solve their problems.

4 Proven Headline Types That Work

There are 4 simple and proven headline types that will always increase the amount of clicks your content will get, and thus drive more prospects to your door.

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How To headlines – I already gave you this one, and this is by far the most successful for most of our clients. Again, people want to be healthy, wealthy, and wise, and if you can tell them how to do that… they will follow you to the moon.
List headlines – yes, you may have noticed that I used that above (4 proven…). Trust me, it works. People love lists. Whether it is a small list with just 3-4 items, or if it is a monster list with 501 ways to do something, people will read it. People may not read every single item on the list, but they will certainly browse through it.
Best and worst headlines – You see them all over the place. This can go a few directions. It can be a positive piece of content, one that mentions all the best items/features/etc. or it can be a negative piece that is critical or picky. You can also do a blend of the two, but our research actually finds that if you are negative, and talk about the worst of something, you will get more readers. Sad but true, and perhaps that is just the human condition. Warning: Do not write too much content in a negative light. It is bad for you to think that way, but more importantly, you don’t want to be an eeyore all the time.
Secret headlines – Everyone wants to be on the inside of a secret. The funny thing is, it is never a secret once it is shared… but people still love them anyway. You don’t actually have to have a secret. It can be something glaringly obvious to people, but if you point it out and call it a secret, people take notice.

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Not sure if I’m telling the truth? Check out any Cosmo Cover and see for yourself. You will see all 4 of these used quite often in most of the magazines you find by your supermarket checkout stand. Why are they used? Because they work!

The Secret To Finding What People Search For

I told you already that you need to write content that actually interests people. It’s true, and it isn’t as difficult as you think. Most people avoid sitting down and writing out articles because they are afraid that they don’t have anything important to write about.

Fortunately, you can figure out very easily what is important to people… and there are a number of ways to do it.

My favorite way to find out what to write about or to figure out what websites/products/services to build are by simply asking people. If you are building a website, you have a target audience in mind. Well, find people that are in that target and ask them what they want in a website. What topics interest them. What do they hate about the websites that are out there now. What would they like to see changed in their industry.

If you ask the right questions, you will be surprised at how many great ideas there are out there just waiting to be put into reality. The same goes for products or services. If you are in a business that deals with clients and/or prospects (which is everyone!!) then you have a great resource at your fingertips. Ask your clients what they want and they will often tell you.

Another great way to find out what people are interested in right now is to just check google. Google has a number of ways to find out whats hot, what people search for, and what people like. 3 items that I love to use are Google Autocomplete, Google Trends, and Google Zeitgeist.

Using those 3 will give you unlimited ways to find out what people are interested in.

Putting it all together

Now that you know the secret to finding what people are searching for, and how to create amazing headlines that are guaranteed to pull in more traffic, you just need to pull it all together. First, you need to figure out who your target audience is. The next step, is to find out what interests them. Finally, create a headline that uses the topic of interest and customize a headline using one of the 4 headline types to grab their attention.

Of course, none of this works without marketing. You need to make sure your content is in front of people.

The best way to do that is to share it via social media or email. IF you like what you read, please like it, tweet about it, or +1 it… or simply email a friend a link to this article so they can benefit from it too.