Creating great content is one thing. But getting people to read your content is another. This seems to be a common challenege in most small business marketing plans. But the key to generating more people to read your content is simple: blog titles!
Titles sell content and are a way to represent your content in emails, search engines and social media, but it can be tricky to nail a good blog title. You have to consider many things like the length of the title, words to use, words not to use and optimization.
Be Accurate!
It is crucial to set clear expectations for your readers. Your blog title needs to accurately reflect the content or you could lose the trust of your readers. Don’t set expectations that you cannot fulfill in your blog. Also, include what is in the content like an infograph or photo. In fact, when these words are in brackets, for example, [infograph], the blog sees 38 percent better results than titles without these essential words.
Be Interesting!
Just because your title is accurate, doesn’t mean it has to be boring! There are ways to spice up the title without being overbearing. Start by directing the title to the core persona for your company by using language that they will value and relate to. Alliterations are another fun way to spice up your title. This is a subtle yet strong way to attract readers. Another interesting fact, titles that use the word “who” sees 22 percent more readers.
Keep it short!
Of course, length depends on your audience, but never make your title too long. You want to rank well in the search engine, so best to keep under 70 characters so the title doesn’t get cut off. On average, the titles with the most shares on Twitter range between 8-12 characters and titles that get the most Facebook likes are around 12-14 characters. It is best to try different titles out and see what works best for your brand.
Optimize!
Optimizing your title for your audience can be done in different way. Of course, always optimize your title for your audience. But you also want to try to optimize your title for search engines and even social media sites. Include key words in your title when optimizing for search engines and keep in mind the length. When optimizing your title for social media, you need to always keep in mind the length of your title, as there are limitations on some sites. You also might want to change the wording to sound more conversational. As long as you are focusing on your audience and at one of the other, search engines or social media sites, your title is going to gain traction.
