There are about as many ways to write a title for a blog, article, or Web page as there are copywriters, small business people, or hobbyist bloggers to write them. In this world where content can mean the difference between creating engagement and increasing your bounce rate, there are good ways and bad ways to go about it.
Titles serve the same purpose as headlines – they are what the reader is going to judge the content by and ultimately decide if your message is going to be received. They are also an important element for SEO on two levels: they can help get a click from a search engine results page (SERP), and they help search engine spiders find your content and index it appropriately. Strong titles get clicked from the SERP. Mediocre ones? Not so much. That’s lesson #1.
So what about keyword usage? Does that factor in? Of course it does. You want to research some strong keywords and include top-ranking ones in your titles when you can, but I’m going to go out on limb here and suggest that keywords aren’t the be-all, end-all of a title’s success. The real success lies in how many times the title gets clicked when the content is discovered. A title seeded with keywords for the sake of seeding with keywords is not necessarily a strong one, just one that is search engine optimized. Those two roads don’t always converge.
At First Glance
Clickable titles stand out on search engine results pages. This is your first and best opportunity to grab a click. Your title needs to encapsulate what the user can expect to see on your page. It has to be concise and direct, but also interesting enough for the user to see the value through the words. Make sure that you use keywords and phrases in an organic way. Don’t try to fit a square peg into a round hole. If you can’t make it work, find a different angle from which to approach your title and zero in on the uniqueness factor.
Your title needs to tell people that your site has the exact information they need, and it needs to position you as an authority. Take ownership of your subject. Don’t write about “10 Ways to Save Money on Car Insurance.” Write instead about, “Our Best Tips for Saving You Money on Car Insurance.” See the difference? They don’t just need tips, they need your tips. They don’t just need advice, they need your advice.
Size Matters
Well, I suppose the better word there would be “length,” in all fairness.
Joking aside, you don’t want to overwhelm with your title. One very talented copywriter I know once said that he writes titles and headlines that, “don’t require the reader to move their eyes to read.” In other words, you want the entire message to be digestible with a glance. Try to keep your titles to 59 characters or less.
How can you recognize 59 characters? This is 59 characters.
The line above represents the ideal length of a headline or title. When you look at it, there is quite a bit of information in there, and it conveys a complete thought.
Site Homework
When you’re done here, I want you to go back to your site and read the titles on each of your pages or blog posts. See which ones meet the criteria. Of course, this is a guideline and not a hard and fast rule, but if you find titles that could use a polish, give them one and see how engagement on your site is impacted by this one small, subtle change.
Finally, if your site isn’t getting the engagement you think it should or that it once did, you can always call your friendly neighborhood copywriting company to give things a once-over. Edits and proofreads can generally be had on the cheap and have the potential to boost click-throughs to your site and keep the bounce rates low when visitors get there.