This is probably the most important blog that I’ve written so far, so pay close attention. Titles are absolutely everything when it comes to both SEO and click-through traffic, both of which lead to organic traffic.. which is what we all want!
The title of your page, be that a blog or any other web page, is the key factor to your SEO effort’s and the page’s popularity.
Take my article on how to get lots of diggs,
I could have titled it
- How I was successful on Digg
- Get 3000 Diggs
- Methods for Increasing The Number of Diggs on a Submission
- Get Dugg Fast!
None of which are particularly bad titles, but none of which are particularly good either.
When deciding on a title (or anything else for that matter) its important to look at the market trends and learn from other people’s mistakes. There’s no need for trial and error when it comes to internet marketing, everything has been trialled, all you have to do is research what worked and what didn’t. Based on this we know that the most popular title elements are
- How To
- Top 10
- Top 7
- Top 5
- Learn To
So lets take a look at the Title I used and break it right down
How To: Get 3,000+ Diggs in 24 Hours
What I needed to do was appeal to my two most important markets, Google, and Social Media Website users. Google likes key words, social media users like tabloid headlines.
‘How To:‘ is the ‘category’ of the article, it describes what type of article it is, and it appeals to both of the above markets, hundreds of thousands of Google searches each month start with the words ‘how to’ because many many people use the internet primarily to figure out how to do new things. It appeals to social media traffic because of the content which follows it, ‘How To: (insert something that social media website users want)’.
The next part of the title is the actual ‘body’ of the title, it quite simply defines the subject of the article and what it’s about. ‘Get 3,000+ Diggs‘
In this element I am appealing to Google with ‘Get Diggs’ as this is a valuable search term, and to users with ‘Get a Large Number of Diggs’ which is what all Digg (and stumble) users want! Adding the plus after the number is an important consideration, I could have said ‘over 3,000′ or ‘more than 3,000′ but I didn’t want to make the title too long. (You have about 5 words with which to capture your reader’s imagination before they get bored and stop reading, harsh, but true.)
The final part of the title is the sweetener, the extra little bonus that the reader will get from your article, and the little element that makes your article different from the rest. So in my case this was ‘in 24 Hours‘. The sweetener is purely for your users, Google has no interest in this as a key phrase of any relevance. What this does is set the article apart from all the other articles about ‘getting lots of diggs’ because I’ve added that extra variable of doing it in the space of a day. This adds and element of intrigue. When writing titles, ALWAYS think to yourself - if I saw that title on Digg (or similar) would I want to click on it? If the answer is maybe or no, then you need to rework it. You’ll notice that most of the popular articles on social media sites are really provocative, suggestive, and sometimes just downright wrong. This is because people want to know what content is behind the title!
The example that I’ve used is with a blog title, but you can do the same thing with the title attributes of your website - as they are what appears in the search engine results, and again, need key phrases, and to be ‘clickable’.
A Tip For If You Get Stuck
Pick up a copy of the trashiest magazine you can find, in the UK something like Heat or Zoo magazine is perfect. (these are very cheap women’s lifestyle and celebrity gossip magazines)
Have a look at the titles of the articles, particularly the ones used on the cover - take some inspiration, and apply to your own article/page.
These magazines don’t sell because they have great content, and they don’t sell because they have a ‘limited edition’ mascara brush attached to the cover. They sell because these companies are VERY good at writing titles that people want to know more about.
You may have noticed that this article has absolutely nothing to do with ‘7′ tips for writing killer titles - I lied, but you’re still here reading, and I still presented you the information relevant to the title.
Make your titles spurious to benefit you, just keep them on topic.
Got any other great title ideas? Drop me a line in the comments!
Hi Guys,