May
16
Writing effective post titles is an important part of marketing your blog, maybe the most important part.
Surveys suggest that most people only scan what they read on the web so your titles may be the only thing that they read. If it interests them, they will read more. If not, they move on to the next source.
Your title needs to grab the reader’s attention, motivate the reader to click, and make the reader want to see more. Let’s look at a few things you should keep in mind when creating post titles.
- Grab Attention
You only get one chance to create a first impression and that chance is the post title. Your title must give the reader a reason to read your article. - Be Descriptive
Your titles can be enticing, teasing, or informational but should always describe exactly what your readers will find or learn if they read your article. - Use Keywords
Your titles should be written for human readers but don’t completely ignore the search engine robots. You should use keywords that people would use if they were searching for your article in the search engines. Just make sure that the keywords are representative of your article’s content. - Keep it Simple
The most effective titles are short, simple and easy to understand. Major search engines also give higher relevance to the first few words you use in the title, and they display only up to 8-10 words in their search engine result pages. - Be Representative
Your title should accurately reflect the content of your article. While it is important that titles are as catchy as possible you must deliver what the title promises or you risk losing credibility.
If you would like to learn more about writing effective post titles be sure to check out How to Write Magnetic Headlines from Copyblogger.
I only read the title of the post and skimmed the rest is that wrong?
J/k. Nice post.
Keyworks trump clever. I will have to remember that from now on.
Some people can make clever work but I think going with keywords is the safer route and it gives a little bit of an SEO advantage too.
An attention getting headline works wonders. Use header tags too to get them to want to read more.
Hi Matt. Thanks for stopping by!
I’ve found that using questions on post titles makes people check them out. For example, you could have titled this post
“How to Write Effective Post Titles” or “Why are Post Titles the Most Important Part of your Post”, etc…
I think Steve Palvina wrote that he puts about 2 hours of thinking into his post title after he’s written his post!
Great Point here … example a great title is “Writing Effective Post Titles” that would get my attention everytime! Always trying to better myself and I’m sure people are searching for this topic to better themselves as bloggers, so it helps you in Search Engine Ranking as well!
Great Post!
Darin
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Hey David,
Just a side note, I really like the overall design your site it shaping into. As I said before, really like the new logo and really liking the clean look of your site.
Thanks Bobs! I like to keep things simple but it’s still a work in progress so who knows where it will end up.
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[...] Writing Effective Post Titles - Writing effective post titles is an important part of marketing your blog, maybe the most important part. [...]
[...] The Heading 1 tag should contain the page title or primary topic and should only be used once per page. Search engines place considerable importance on keywords found in the Heading 1 tag, so make sure you write effective post titles. [...]