Search engines play an important role in the visibility of your website, blog or online article. They help you get found by new visitors, which increases your traffic and your reach.
Some people think that in order to find success on the search engines they need to focus on backlinks and content filled with keywords, but there’s one more thing that can impact your success on search engines, and that’s your title.
The title of your online content is the first thing that people will see and the first thing that search engines will crawl, so if it contains keywords and calls out to the needs of your target audience, you’ll have a better chance of earning traffic. The best way to write titles that are search engine friendly is to ensure they adhere to the following.
Keep it relevant.
Your title should always reflect the content that is found in the body of your article. If your title says “5 Great Online Marketing Tips” but your content discusses signage, it is not a search engine friendly title. To have the best search engine results, you want to make sure that the content and title match so that when search engines crawl the title and crawl the content, it will be able to rank you more appropriately.
Be concise.
Long titles that contain extra words are not valuable to search engines. When a person has to weed through your title just to try and decipher what it’s about, they’ll be less likely to click on your link or spend time reading your article. People don’t have time to guess what your article has to offer, so when your title is clear and to the point, it will be ranked more appropriately and gain the right traffic.
Don’t repeat titles.
It’s possible that you’re writing a series of articles on the same topic, but instead of giving them the same title and differentiating them by saying “Part 1” or “Part 2”, you need to give them their own unique titles. Unique titles work better with the search engines than using the same title over and over again.
Use keywords.
Make sure that your title contains popular keywords or keyword phrases that pertain to your article. Keywords are important to determining how your article is ranked, and when you can use exact keywords and keyword phrases, you’ll gain more exposure. For example, let’s say that a person is performing a search for the 2012 presidential elections. If you wrote an article about the election and your title contains the phrase “2012 presidential election”, it will rank higher in the search engines when that search is performed.
Spell your title correctly.
If your title contains a misspelling, it’s not going to be search engine friendly. Make sure that every word in your title—especially your keywords—are spelled correctly. This will allow them to be ranked more appropriately and will ensure you reach your intended audience.
Earning visibility on the search engines doesn’t solely come from keywords stuffed content and backlinks—your title also carries a significant amount of weight. When it comes to writing the titles of your online pieces, make sure you’re writing for the search engines.
This article was prepared for you by Julie Myers for SEOMap.