Magic Words for Any Website Content Strategy

Harry Potter is one of the most quotable movie series of all times.

And while there are plenty of good quotes to choose from - including clever quips from Severus Snape, Hermoine Granger, Hagrid, and Harry himself, it’s Professor Albus Dumbledore who often delivered the wisest and most profound statements.

One of his better quotes was delivered in a conversation he had with Harry in the _

Deathly Hallows Part 2 _
movie where they find themselves in a strange dream-like version of King’s Cross station.

In that conversation, Dumbledore says: “_

Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it.”_

What Dumbledore means is that words, spoken or written, have a huge impact on people. And though you might think one word is a small thing, it can have positive or adverse consequences.

While Dumbledore was no professor of copywriting or user experience, his words ring true for website content strategies.

Words are a source of “magic.” And if you want to boost website traffic and increase conversions, you need to learn how to wield the right magic words. Why Words Matter

Words are powerful tools for change. They shape a customer’s first impression of your brand. They pre-frame sales conversations. They educate, inform, and influence. They have power and should be chosen wisely - whether written or spoken.

As psychologist Jack Schafer says

, “Words cannot change reality, but they can change how people perceive reality. Words create filters through which people view the world around them.”

All it takes is one word to make someone love or hate something.

As Schafer explains, using the word “untrustworthy” to describe one person to another immediately predisposes that person to think of the other individual as being slimy, manipulative, or unlikable.

Likewise, using the worth “friendly” predisposes that person to think of the other individual as being warm and relatable - regardless of what else happens.

That’s the power of a single word. And when it comes to building a website and driving visitors to it, sometimes a single word can make the difference between a prospective customer engaging and converting or avoiding your website.

But this isn’t an article in psychology. It’s an article in practicality.

We want to show you precisely how you can use “magic” words to build influence, accrue traffic, and drive conversions.

From blog post headlines and social media posts to email subject lines and CTA buttons, we’ve got it all.

What do you say...should we dive in? Magic Words for Engaging Headlines

The world’s best copywriters suggest spending at least half the amount of time it takes you to write a piece of content brainstorming the headline. In other words, if you spend an hour writing a blog post, you should spend 30 minutes perfecting the headline.

That might seem like overkill, but the reality is that your headline is going to get 10x the amount of visibility as the post itself. And if you want to convince people to click/read, the headline is your best weapon.

If you study viral posts, you’ll find that these words are often included:

• Smart
• Surprising
• Science
• History
• Hacks
• Huge
• Critical
• People
• See
• Man
• Old
• Dog
• Guy
• Video
• Facebook
• Awesome
• Photos
• love

Headlines that get shared often evoke strong emotions of anxiety, anger, awe, or surprise. Descriptive words that fit these categories tend to do well.

Sometimes it’s the combination of words that creates magic _

phrases_

. Research shows that the following phrases work extremely well (as measured by Facebook engagement):

• Will make you
• This is why
• Can we guess
• Only X in
• The reason is
• Are freaking out
• X stunning photos
• Tears of joy
• Is what happens
• Make you cry
• Give you goosebumps
• Talking about it
• Is too cute
• Shocked to see
• Melt your heart
• X things only
• Can’t stop laughing
• Top X songs
• Twitter reacts to
• What happened next

You obviously can’t use these words or phrases in isolation. It’s all about how you structure the headline. However, including some of these magic terms can dramatically increase engagement, clicks, and even conversions. Magic Words for Social Media Posts

Social media is one of the top referral sources for most websites. If you want to boost your website traffic numbers, you should be cognizant of the words you’re using in your Facebook and Twitter posts.

The following magic words and phrases work exceptionally well on Facebook:

• Check it out
• How to
• Learn why
• The most
• Get exclusive
• Remarkable
• Would you
• Will inspire you
• Will surprise you
• Will amaze you
• Most amusing
• Best deals
• The world’s
• Proven
• New blog post
• Please
• Try this
• Why did?
• How did?
• Tell us
• Discount/deal
• Magical
• Warning

These words tend to heighten engagement and clicks on Twitter:

• You
• Twitter
• Please
• Retweet
• Post
• Blog
• Social
• Free
• Media
• Help
• Please Retweet
• Great
• Social Media
• 10
• Follow
• How to
• Top
• Blog Post
• Check Out
• New Blog Post

Again, it’s all about how you string together words and what you’re linking to. But if you emphasize proven magic words such as these, it’ll have a positive impact on your engagement, clicks, and conversions. Magic Words for Email Subject Lines

An email list can be worth millions of dollars to a business. However, a list is only useful if you can actually get people to open the emails you send. And the best way to do this is by writing compelling email subject lines.

Subject line structure is very important, but before focusing on different formulas and conversion tactics, you need to know which words work.

OptinMonster has done a fantastic job of

curating the best email subject lines

from a variety of research studies (including studies that cumulatively analyzed over 60 billion headlines). And, according to these studies, these are the words and phrases most likely to boost email open rates:

• “upgrade”
• “just”
• “content”
• “go”
• “wonderful”
• “jokes”
• “promotional”
• “congratulations”
• “revision”
• “forecast”
• “snapshot”
• “token”
• “voluntary”
• “monthly”
• “deduction”
• “free”
• “ICYMI”
• “$ today, $$ tomorrow”
• “free delivery”
• “available”
• “new”
• “alert”
• “news”
• “update”
• “summer”
• “weekend”
• “monthly”
• “thanks”
• “||*|”
• “bulletin”
• “golden”
• “iPhone”
• “breaking”
• “order today”
• “thank you”
• “introducing”
• “celebrate”
• “buy”
• “continues”
• “get your”
• “what…?”
• “won’t…?”
• “do…?”
• “can…?”
• “may…?”
• “on orders over”
• “orders over”
• “off selected”
• “your next order”
• “available”
• “brand new”
• “latest”
• “special”
• “wonderful”
• “great deals”
• “sale starts”
• “back in stock”
• “stock”
• “sale now”
• “now in”
• “Urgent”
• “important”

If you’re active with email marketing and have access to the analytics behind your emails, you may also find it helpful to go back and analyze your own email subject lines from the past year or two.

Is there a correlation between the emails with the top open rates (or the ones with the worst open rates)? Can you identify words or phrases that are consistently found in these categories?

Every audience is different, so your list will respond to certain words that other demographics won’t (and vice versa). However, the terms highlighted above should give you a solid place to start. Magic Words for CTAs

Whether it’s a blog post, landing page, or email, the call-to-action (CTA) is the element that will make or break your results. The right CTA builds on the rest of the copy and motivates people to follow through by purchasing, registering, singing up, or learning more.

Here are some magic words that successful copywriters and website conversion optimizers use to get people to click:

• You
• Free
• Because
• Instantly
• New
• Create
• Explore
• Join
• Save
• Start
• Upgrade
• Find
• Try
• Stop

And here are some of the top CTA phrases:

• Get started
• Sign up free
• Create account
• View demo
• Book a demo
• Contract sales
• Learn more
• Join free
• Shop now
• Get X% off
• Add to bag
• Add to cart
• New _____
• Buy now
• Enter now
• Try for free
• Join _______

As is the case with email subject lines, you’ll learn which trigger words your audience does and doesn’t respond to. Experiment around with the ones outlined here in this article, but let your data and analytics help you zero in on the best options. 6 Tools to Help You Find Traffic-Boosting Keywords

Magic words are only effective when they’re combined with the appropriate keywords. Thus if you want to be successful with blog posts, website copy, social media posts, email subject lines, CTAs, and any other element of copy-based marketing, you have to find and leverage the right keywords.

Not sure which keywords to use? Here are some keyword tools you can use to home in on the right ones:

• Google Keyword Planner

While it’s fairly plain when compared to some of the other tools listed below, Google Keyword Planner is a good one to begin with. The data comes straight from Google, which means there’s one less transfer point for data to get shrouded, lost, or misconfigured.

The best feature of Google Keyword PLanner is the “top of page bid” column. This tells you precisely how much advertisers are bidding on keywords. The more expensive this number is, the more value it has as an organic keyword. (Advertisers don’t pay top dollar for keywords unless people are searching for it in droves.)

• Kewyord.io

This free keyword research tool will help you find highly relevant keywords for Google and beyond. One of the best features is the different filtering options. You can search keyword suggestions for YouTube, Amazon, Bing, and even Wikipedia. There’s a pro version that costs a few bucks but has even more resources and features.

• KWFinder

In terms of paid keyword search tools, KWFinder is one of the newer kids on the block. (Having said that, it’s nearly seven years old at this point.) It’s affordable, comes as part of a suite of five tools, is great for tracking keyword difficulty, and has a slick interface that makes it fun and easy to use. It’s not perfect, though. Some of the negatives of KWFinder include low limits for keyword suggestions, no integration with Google Analytics or Search Console, and minimal backlink analysis capabilities.

• Ahrefs Keywords Explorer

Ahrefs is one of the classic keyword research tools. And while it’s been around for a while, the development team does a great job of keeping it fresh. They’re constantly adding new features and tinkering with different options.

The “keyword difficulty” tool is one of the best in the industry. Not only does it rate the difficulty, but Ahrefs tells you why. It gets as specific as telling you precisely how many backlinks you’ll need in order to reach the first page of Google for that keyword. (That’s awesome!)

• Moz Keyword Explorer

Moz prides itself on helping users find the keywords that will generate the most traffic for them. It does this by finding “lateral” keyword ideas that line up with the search term you input. And Moz is pretty dang smart!

Let’s say, for example, that your keyword is weight loss. In addition to finding standard lateral keywords, such as “weight loss pills,” it’ll also find unique suggestions like “foods that help burn fat for men” or “men’s belly fat burning foods.”

Moz also has valuable features that find organic click-through rate and priority. These show you how many clicks you’re likely to get from a specific search term or keyword.

• Keywords Everywhere

This tool is unique in that it displays keyword data from some of the top websites and search platforms. And its “people also search for” feature is really cool. This allows you to zoom in on the keywords that target customers search for when they’re not searching for precisely what you sell. This reveals new ranking opportunities for your content strategy. When combined with other tools, Keywords Everywhere can yield some very neat insights.

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