Lately I often see "negative words" used in blog titles and article titles on media sites.
Negative words are, literally, words that carry a [negative] meaning.
For example, things like this…

*Don't go to the gym if you want to lose weight
*Don't build a house just yet
*Is building a website actually pointless?
*The end of the Japanese economy

As you can see, these are of course not attacks on any specific individual. It's simply a technique of including words that say—or seem to say—the opposite of commonly accepted values, and I use this technique often myself.

In this article I'd like to explain why we use negative words. There are two reasons.

Simply put, because it makes people more likely to read your article

It's a blunt reason, but… it's extremely important. The same goes for blogs, and for websites too. And going further, what is the most important thing even for direct mail (DM)? It's this:

Getting people to read the body copy

With a blog or a website, unless people jump from a headline or banner image on the top page to the relevant page and actually read it, it won't lead to results. With direct mail the situation is even more serious. If a user looks at the envelope or postcard that arrives in their hands and isn't intrigued… that's the end of it. Not only will they not read the contents, they won't even open it—it goes straight into the trash.
Therefore, a title is meaningless unless it can spark the user's interest. It's no exaggeration to say it's even more important than the content of the body itself.
By deliberately including negative words, it's important to give the user who sees them a sense of "something's off."
For example, what would happen if we wrote the copy above in the ordinary way? Let's actually try it.

*If you want to lose weight, go to the gym!
*Build your house right now!
*Creating a website helps attract customers.
*The Japanese economy is secure

What do you think?
…
………
Nothing feels off at all, right? If you saw an ad title that said this, what would you think?

Well, obviously (ah… another one of those typical ads)

And that's the end of it, right?
It's so obvious that you wouldn't feel like reading on, would you?

By including negative words, you can give the person who sees them a sense of "something's off"—or, put another way, a sense of anticipation.

Huh? What's that supposed to mean?!

By making them think that, you can make them feel they want to read on!

It becomes easier to be found in searches and to attract traffic

For example, let's say you run a home renovation business. If you have a website, you'd normally create pages like these.

*Customer testimonials
*3 reasons customers choose us
*Our commitment

Of course, these are necessary in their own right. But they're also things every other company in the same industry has on their website without fail.
So let's deliberately try listing some pages that include negative words.

※How NOT to choose a renovation company.
※The 3 things people who fail at renovation have in common.
※How to avoid trouble with your renovation.

Something like that. I tried working in the negative words "don't do this," "fail," and "trouble" — what do you think? Don't they come across as powerful words from the user's point of view?

What's more, while not a huge number of people search using phrases containing these negative words, such people definitely exist. We know this because these phrases were extracted using search phrase research tools.

※renovation don't do this
※renovation failure
※renovation trouble

Analyzing keyword tools shows that users are indeed searching with the phrases above. If you prepare pages with titles like the ones listed above as answers to those searches, they are more likely to rank highly in search results. Naturally, traffic increases as well.
On top of that, users searching with these phrases are being careful about choosing a contractor — in other words, they are entering the stage of serious consideration. Hitting precisely on the content prospective customers are looking for also helps build their trust in you.

By deliberately making good use of negative keywords, you may be able to create content with a twist that leaves a real impact.