By Alex Kolanowski
You’ve got the content written, the material is golden, and you know everyone is going to love it… But sometimes traffic just doesn’t flow to your post. Such a bummer right? Well it doesn’t always have to be this way. How so? It could very well be that your blog post title needs a little work!
Nobody is going to know the material you’ve written is fantastic and insightful unless the words you use to describe it in your title are just as much so.
With the world of blogging so saturated with content, readers are getting overwhelmed and some writers, even great ones, get lost in the abundance of information. Here’s three tips on how to craft your blog post title to boost traffic to your post and help keep it out of the dark.
1) Use descriptive, eye-catching words
Really sell it. People are going to be more inclined to read a post that uses great adjectives and adverbs and rich vocabulary within the title to describe it. Think of your title like a brand for your post. A good brand will have personality and uniqueness that separates it from the rest, informs, and adds value. The same applies here with a blog post title.
For example, instead of something like “5 ways to improve your fan page SEO”, try “5 sure-fire ways to greatly boost your fan page SEO.” Sounds a bit more catchy doesn’t it?
2) Make use of a featured image/ header image to go along with your title
Posts with images alongside the link or up at the top with title are much more likely to be clicked on. Images that make people curious or grab people’s attention are the best kind. And of course the picture should be relevant to the content. If you just post a cool picture and its unrelated to your content, your bounce rate will not turn out great and your blog’s reputation might take a hit as well.
And just plain and simple, pictures take up more space in social media streams. Your blog post title is more likely to stand out with your featured image taking up all that space in peoples’ news feed. It prevents people from skipping over your post as easily.
There are many sites in which you can create images as well. And a self-created image is often times a great advantage for your blog post. Canva is one such site, along with Photoshop, Pixlr, and many others. For more on creating the actual image in better detail, check out thewonderforest.
3) Streamline the keywords in your blog title, and blog post for effective SEO
You should try to use similar keywords within your title, your actual content, and even the category of your blog if you can help it. Search engines like it when the words in your title or category accurately describe the content. The only real way for a search engine to know whether or not it does describe it well is if the keywords within the title show up in the content a handful of times.
Now, don’t make it too obvious or it becomes hard to read, but the better you can streamline your title with your content, as far as the actual verbiage, the more natural web traffic you are likely to get.
Now go try it!
Next time you post, give the title some extra thought and it will likely be worth your time.
Have any of you noticed a big difference in traffic depending on how much effort went into the title? Or do you have additional tips I might have missed? Throw them in the comments section! Also, share and tweet this post all you like, and subscribe for more!
Digital Businessman 