You are Writing for Two Readers: Human and Machine
However, you have to remember that you are writing for two readers: (1) the human (whether it is a client, colleague, a perspective client, or the public at large) and (2) the search engine robots or spiders that crawl the web looking for content. If you don't satisfy the bots, then there's a strong likelihood that many of those humans will never find what you've written. (For more on these bots, read my earlier post, "How Search Engines Work - Part 1".)
Incorporate Search Engine Optimization in Your Blog Post Titles
Your goal becomes writing a title that interests the human while simultaneously pleasing Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Here are a few tips to help you accomplish this:
- write the title last - after your post is in its final form;
- consider the theme of your post and determine the ONE word or phrase that describes what you've written;
- place that word or phrase at the beginning of your title;
- use vocabulary in your title that can be seen in your first paragraph (second, if you must);
- don't make your title too short, have a 5-7 word minimum;
- don't make your title too long, keep it under 20 words (some will argue this is too long, but I have found success with a longer title, 20 word limit);
- avoid the "&" sign in your titles for coding reasons (see how the amp was automatically stuck in here by my blogging platform?);
- avoid all caps since many veteran social media readers interpret capitalization as YELLING AT THE READER;
- search Google and Yahoo for the topic of your blog post and see the top results - don't steal their work, but consider their titles and ponder what they've done that has put their post in the top positions; and
- don't italicize or bold-face your title.