4 reasons why blog post titles matter

Photo courtesy of adt610 (Creative Commons)

Do blog post titles (or headlines) matter? They do. A good title attracts more readers. A good title helps with search engine optimization (SEO).

Here are four reasons why titles matter. Share your tips in the comments section below!

It’s all people see

1Take a look at the stream of content – particularly links – on your news feed on Facebook. Aside from the fact that your friends are recommending this content, titles are the only way you’ll decide what to read or skip. Was it Shakespeare who said, “To click or not to click”?

Sharing happens without reading

2Your friends share a fair amount of content without reading it. They do this because the content they’re sharing was recommended to them by their friends who they know and trust. Or maybe they’re too busy and so the title is all they’ll read before they retweet or like.

Titles are king in search

3You don’t have to be an expert in search engine optimization to know that most search engines use titles to index content. There are many other factors, but the title of the blog post is one of the largest factors in the overall equation.

Twitter killed your poem

4Forget about coming up with clever titles. Instead, think relevance and attention. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be creative, it just means that you have to pay attention to how relevant and interesting your title is to your intended audience.

And by the way, focusing on your audience should never be in conflict with SEO.

Share your tip for title writing below.John Haydon delivers social web strategy solutions for “the quick, the smart, and the slightly manic.” Curious? Then visit the John Haydon blog, follow him on Twitter or leave a comment.