Source: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/data-driven-strategies-writing-titles-headlines
Blog post titles are very important and thus you should spend more than just a minute to formulate one. Titles and headings are the first things your audience will read, so make sure to make a good first impression to get more people to read your content.
How to write effective headline
Content must achieve the following goals: attract traffic to your website, engage visitors, and lastly, convert those visitors. Studies show that including bracketed clarification, photos and “who” in the headlines increases website traffic. The words “amazing” and “photo”, as well as bracketed clarification are shown to increase engagement when added to headlines. The word “need” and bracketed clarification, when included in headlines, are shown to increase conversion rates. . On the other hand, the following words are shown to decrease click rates on headlines: tip, magic, credit, simple, cure, easy, need, free, secret, amazing, trick, now, and positive superlatives such as always and best. The same words are also known to decrease engagement, along with the addition of negative superlatives such as never or worst. With regard to conversion, however, one particular word, when included in the headline, is shown to drastically reduce conversion among customers; that word is “trick”.
In addition to the words chosen for blog post titles, headline length should also be considered well. Studies show that a length of 117 characters and 65 characters are optimal for social posts and search queries, respectively. On the other hand, headlines that are 21-40 characters long are best for post-click engagement.