Good headline writing isn’t just about putting together some words together. It begins with choosing the right keywords, and understanding the most effective way to use them.
In this article, we’ll show you how to create effective digital news articles by using our 6 levels deep headline approach for selecting the best keywords for your news articles.
By completing all seven steps below, you should have enough keyword ideas to create one or more unique news headline that will help you drive traffic to your content.
SMART Specific Headlines Can Help You Rank Higher
When you’re writing your digital news article headlines, it’s important to choose keywords that are relevant to the content of the article. This will ensure that your audience is interested in reading more about the topic and helps you rank more highly on search engines like Google.
As you know, readers find your article by typing in keywords related to it in search engines.
The more specific you go with your headline keywords, the more effective you become and more people will find your services. That’s because they are searching for something very specific that you can offer them. That’s why it’s important to pick the right words as they are likely to search for your article that way. If you get the right keywords, your article will appear at the top of the search engines.
You want to make sure that when someone is searching for a service like yours, they get results and the content that they need right away. The best way to do this is by using topic specific keywords in headlines on digital news articles or blog posts.
The more specific you go with those headline keywords, the better chance it has of showing up at a top result position when someone searches for it online (which is exactly what we want).
Going 6 Levels Deep
To help you create a high-quality headlines for your digital news articles, we’ve outlined our 6-step process for selecting keywords.
1. Start With A General Category
When you start to look for keywords, it’s important to keep in mind that you don’t have to go straight to the most specific keyword. In fact, this may be a waste of time and effort. Instead, start with a general category or subcategory. If possible, try to think about how many different types of people will be searching for the same topic or product on Google or any other search engine.
For example: “weight loss” could fall under several categories such as “weight loss pills” (specific type), “dieting tips” (general category), or “fitness coach”.
If you’re writing an article about weight loss pills, would it make sense then if your first step was finding out what kinds of dieting tips people are searching for? Probably not!
Example: Weight Loss
2. Find The Subcategory
The next step is to find the subcategory to further explore your options for longtail keywords for a given topic. This will give you a list of hundreds of long-tail keywords that are all related to your target term, but that are still quite competitive. We’ll need to narrow down their focus on a specific subtopic within that topic area.
Example: Weight Loss Diets
3. Add A Subcategory Qualifier Keyword
When creating a digital news article, your really want to make the headline count. You want people who are searching for your keyword(s) to find your article and read it. This can be done by adding a qualifier keyword—a word or phrase that narrows down the topic.
Qualifier keywords help people find exactly what they’re looking for so they can buy products, services or articles, like yours!
Example: Keto Diet
4. The Product Method (Think of Different Products/Methods/Equipment)
If you have a specific product in mind, try adding a qualifier keyword to expand your longtail keyword. For example, if you’re writing an article about weight loss and want to be more specific on where people can buy the right supplements, consider using “buy weight loss supplements.”
Example: Keto blood tester, Keto foods, keto shakes
5. Address A Specific Problem
To create an effective digital news article, we’d also recommend that you should address a specific problem with your longtail keywords.
These keywords help the readers understand what their problem is and how they can solve it. This is also the reason why they are called “longtail keywords” because they include multiple words that help describe a topic or product in detail and not just one word as in short-tail keyword optimization practices that usually focus on writing content based on what people search for rather than what they want answered/learned about (i.e., getting information vs being entertained).
In blog articles, the most commonly used long-tail keywords are “how to”, “why”, “what”, “when”, “where” and “who”.
Example: Keto ingredients, Keto sugar alternative, blueberries in Keto diet
6. Add Ultra Specific Information & Qualifying Keywords
The next step is to determine whether your keyword has a long-tail or short-tail. Long tail keywords are more specific and targeted. They usually have 3+ words, and the first word (sometimes the second) is usually either an adjective or a verb that describes what the person is searching for. Short tail keywords are less specific and less targeted—they usually have 2 words, with one being a noun that describes what you’re looking for as opposed to how it’s used.
If you want to build an effective long-tail keyword for your digital news article, you can also add a qualifier keyword to get more specific with your long-tail keyword, like “price”, “expert”, and “coach”, depending on what you’re writing about.
Before utilizing all available tools such as Google Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest to search for highly specific long-tail keywords that accurately describe what a searcher wants, it may be beneficial to read our blog post on why relying solely on keyword tools can negatively impact your success.
If your original keyword was in fact long-tailed, then great! Use our 6 levels deep approach to find ultra specific info on these other terms:
Example: Fat Carb Ratio of Organic Goji Berries, Keto Fruit With Less Than 10 Net Carbs, Aspartame Free Organic Candy For Children
Ready To Give Our 6-Level Deep Headline Approach A Try?
If you put more thought into your headline writing, then you’ll be able to create better headlines that get noticed by Google’s algorithm, performs well in search results and deliver a specific results which your target audience is looking for.
The main takeaway is that you need to think about multiple layers of keywords when creating digital news headlines. The more specific and targeted your keywords are, the focused your introduction is, the better your chance of ranking in search engines .
The best way to boost your article’s popularity is to pick the right keywords and then leverage the authority of brand name media sites and popular blogs to have a wider reach.
Got any questions about the approach? Do you want to learn more about our content creation services?
Book an appointment with our team and let’s talk.
