Creating SEO-Friendly Titles

According to a recent post on Business2Community, technical aspects of SEO, such as titles, will become even more important in 2013. Crafting a good title is as technical as it is creative because you have to make sure to hit the SEO-type requirements that will catch the eyes of both the bots and the real people who are trying to decide whether your page is worth their time. What makes for an effective title?

• Optimise it. What is your article about?  What are the keywords that will satisfy the technical and human needs of SEO? “SEO-friendly titles” is our keyword phrase; it will show up for those searching for that term.
• Make it simple and straightforward. It is difficult to resist crafting witty or clever titles, especially if your post so easily lends themselves to them. While you don’t have to throw the wit away, you do have to restrain yourself until the post starts. Your title should be, above all, direct and pared down. Remember, short is also shareable on social media.
• Make it informative. What is the article or post about? Readers will feel manipulated if the title has nothing to do with the content or if it uses trending or hot keywords that have no bearing on the content. You need to give readers the information they need to decide if they are going to go on investing their time and energy.
• Think about “How to Do Whatever,” “Top 5 Gifts for Whomever,” or “Top Tips for Great Whatever” as titles. These are great for attracting attention, and they are sharable. They imply that the content has value to the reader – just make sure it does!

Your title is just as important as the content of your article or post; you should be just as careful in crafting it. This is what users and search engines see first, and it is a big factor in their judgment of your page or site.