You’ve heard the quote, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression,” in countless contexts, and this phrase also applies to blog posts.
Blog post titles are tasked with a lot of heavy lifting – from gaining visibility through SEO to ensuring that someone is interested enough to click through a search engine results page or ad to spend precious minutes from their day reading your content.
How can you be sure your title makes the cut?
Whether you’re writing blog posts for your agency or publishing on behalf of one of your clients, a high-quality blog post starts with a perfectly optimized title. By following the optimization tips in this article, your blog posts can get an instant lift in eyeballs and conversions.
4 Tips to Optimize Blog Post Titles
We’ll take you through the most high-leverage tactics to make your blog post titles shine.
1. Include Your Keyword
Integrating your focus keyword into a blog post is a no-brainer, but it’s often overlooked by blog authors who opt for cute and clever titles.
Including your keywords in your blog titles not only helps with SEO, but it will also boost your clickthrough rate. And, because clickthrough rates are closely linked to your search engine results page (SERP) position, writing titles that consider click probabilities is an important part of your strategy.
One thing to keep in mind: you no longer have to awkwardly phrase your keyword or do keyword stuffing in order to show up prominently in search. Search engines continue to improve, and with the latest Google MUM update (short for Multitask Unified Model), Google has virtually eliminated the focus on exact keyword phrase matching in favor of more contextual searches.
To sum up, focus on the keyword as a topic without feeling the need to stress an awkward phrase.
Awkward Example: Los Angeles SEO Services for Lawyers
Better Example: The 5 Most Important SEO Services for Lawyers in Los Angeles
The moral of the story is that you don’t have to tailor your blog titles to try to game the algorithm. Instead, focus your titles on what interests your audience while including the keyword in some form.
2. Keep It Short
No one wants to read a never-ending blog post title. Instead, keep your title short and to the point.
You might see several other blog posts that say to keep a title between 60 and 70 characters. That’s a pretty good rule of thumb, but what’s even more important is creating enough interest in the title for someone to click. If your title is a little longer, it might not be a deal breaker – just make sure to keep it interesting without rambling.
Pro tip: The title shouldn’t attempt to sell the entire blog post.
Instead, focus on creating a title that makes someone interested enough to click to read more. Cut out unnecessary words, and read your title out loud to ensure it makes sense.
3. Don’t Forget the Hook
Your title has to “hook” the reader in. If a prospect runs a search query and there are thousands of results, why should they read your blog post? If someone sees your ad that leads them to a blog post, what information does your post deliver that they can’t live without?
Types of hooks that draw the reader in include:
- Statistics
- Claims
- Controversy
- Benefits
- Lists (especially “best of”)
- How to topics
- Social proof
Want to see how the pros do it? We’ve compiled a list of the best digital marketing blogs
4. Call out Your Audience
People make split decisions about whether to spend their valuable time reading your post. One way to maximize the probability of someone reading your content is to communicate that the content is meant for them.
Examples of ways to “call out” your audience include:
- Geography: Michelin Star Chef Reveals Miami’s Best Restaurants
- Profession: How to Grow Your Dental Practice Post-Covid
- Problem or Pain Point: Back Pain? This One-Minute Stretch Can Help
- Demographics: Women Over 40 Discover How to Reverse Aging without Surgery
Optimize Your Blog Posts for Maximum Impact
Writing a blog post title that makes someone want to read more is only the tip of the iceberg. To master the art of the rest of your blog post, we’ve also created content to help you learn how to write SEO-friendly blog posts.
And, to help you grow and scale your agency the right way, subscribe to the Seven Figure Agency podcast, where you’ll learn tips and tricks that can accelerate your success.
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