Publishing blogs on your website is a great way to share information your dream customers will find useful.
You can use blogs to- overcome barriers that may stop people from connecting with you
- answer frequently asked questions
- share valuable information about your services or products
- show your authority and compassion
Why is your blog title important?
Well, the job of your blog title is to get someone to open the blog. It has to give the right information to help your reader be able to identify that this blog could help them.
Your blog title sets up the whole experience your reader will have with you. So it has to be
- honest - it has to represent what’s really in your blog (otherwise it’s click-bait-y)
- short - people make quick decisions
- clear - so it’s easy to make the decision to read or skim over
Your blog title can make or break your click-through rate!
If you get your blog title wrong people won’t click through to read it.
This means they won’t get the valuable information in the blog. They won’t get to know you better, and all your efforts will be for nothing!
Also, the words you use in your blog title are picked up by search engines. Use the wrong words and it won't come up when people are looking for your amazing information.
Here are four tips to help you write the best blog titles.
1. Use search words in your title.
Whatever your blog (or article) is about, make sure that you use that word or phrase in your title. BUT, you don’t need to use the exact word. Use the word that people will use if they want to find the topic you’ve written about.
Quick tip: Head over to Google. Type in several versions of your blog title and see which returns the most search results. These are the questions that people ask the most. Now scroll down and see what’s in the section titled, “People also ask”. This gives you some more title options. Then head right down to the bottom of the search results page and see what’s under the “related searches” section.
2. Spell out the benefits of reading the article
Don't get too fancy, but tell your client exactly what they'll get by reading your article. What will they learn, about what and what impact will they make?
Blog titles that work well for health include:- 5 things that help get rid of foot pain
- 3 reasons why you shouldn’t ignore your sore feet
- I don’t need to worry about my weight any more. Shall I share?
Think about the last thing you searched for (personal, not work) why did you click on the link? What made you do it? Now incorporate that idea into your title.
3. Keep your title to about 70 words or less.
This is about the right length so the whole title fits in the google display pane.
If you have the option in your blog settings, then add an expanded description, so that people who see the title also get a quick summary of the content.
4. Focus on question-based titles.
Google is an information provider. What do we type into Google - questions we want to find the answer to!
So, if your client is asking Google a question and your blog title starts with how, why, what, when, then it will more closely match a search.
What happens after the blog title?
After the blog title comes the first paragraph.
Whereas the job of the title was to get your reader to click through to the blog, the role of the first paragraph is to intrigue the reader to read all the blog!
So they get the value of your wisdom, start a connection with you, learn to trust you and increase on-page time (which is wonderful for SEO!)