The Number 1 Reason to Avoid Numbers in Your Titles
Advice from a reader on why you should avoid numbers in your titles and what you should do instead
Every time I open up medium, without fail, there are stories on my front page that contains numbers. You know the ones I am talking about.
They are all variations on the same theme. Some generic examples are:
- 5 Hacks to improve yourself in some way
- 7 Habits of People You Wish to Emulate
- 14 Books you should read to learn a skill
I dislike titles such as these, and I have begun avoiding them almost categorically. After spending quite some time trying to teach whatever algorithm that keeps suggesting them that I am not interested, I began to wonder why there is such a great number of these articles. I did a little research, and found that writing numbers in the title seems to directly and significantly, increase how many people read and share an article. I find this to be a sad fact, and I honestly can not blame content creators for taking advantage of it.
In fact, as you have no doubt already noticed, I myself have made such a title. Although I can (and will), claim that I have done so mockingly. I cannot deny that I wish for people to read my article, as I wish to relay the important message to writers about what I, as a reader, think when I see this type of title.
1. It tells the reader that you care more about getting people to view your article, than you care about making high quality content
Every time I see an article that claims to give me a number of tools, hacks, books, etc. that pertains to a certain subject, I think to myself:
Why don’t they give me everything I need?
Articles that I enjoy reading, and consider to be of a high quality always give the impression that they fully covered their chosen subject. I am not trying to say that articles with numbers in the title cannot have high quality content. Many of them are well written and cover their chosen subject wonderfully.
However, many other fall in the trap of creating a simple list of facts or items, without covering how this relates to the greater context. Furthermore, a list is somewhat boring. If I come across such a list article with a really catching title, and I am feeling particularly interested (or just bored), I will quickly browse through and read the titles of the list items.
Once again comparing this with articles I find enjoyable to read. Such articles draw me in with an enticing title. A title that lets me know that they have a story to tell. Because the act of writing an article is an act of storytelling. It starts out by letting me know what I can expect to learn, and then embarks on a narrative. This can be a story of personal development, a story about why and how they came to learn a skill.
If you write like this, creating a good title, without numbers, will be as simple as stating what the article is about.
You can do this by writing about what you did. What worked for you, the mistakes you made, and the suggestions you have for others that wish to follow the same path as you.
When you create titles that promises 5 tricks to wash dishes faster. You have bound yourself to write list with five items. Each trick should be explained in a section of its own, before moving on to the next. Often this leads to lists with little to no connection between the items, aside from the fact that they concern the same topic.
If you instead write an article on how you reduced the time you spend washing dishes. You free yourself to write a coherent narrative about your dishwashing journey, that inspires the curiosity of the reader and captures their attention. How and why did you start trying to wash dishes faster? What did you try? And finally a conclusion that summarizes what worked, and what you learned. Add in some funny anecdotes about you smashing a few dishes, and even people with a dishwasher will be reading your work.
I myself have read many an article about a subject that had no relevance for me, simply because the author told a great story, that I wanted to read.
Furthermore, if you write a title such as this, you are still able to structure our article as a list if that is the most suitable format for your chosen subject.
So my advice as a reader is to avoid numbers in titles, as they indicate that you are motivated by drawing peoples attention, and not focused on writing quality content.
