Optimize Your Blog Titles for SEO: 14 Tips for more Traffic
A guide to picking a topic and using SEO strategies.
Is coming up with topics for your blog stumping you? Have you been putting off creating content because you don’t know how to get started? This is a relatable problem for content marketers. We are expected to be creative 24/7 for generating content. But ideas do not have to come from a creative place. This is good news if you are feeling tapped out. Creating content ideas should be more systematic and data-driven, and from there you should infuse your creativity into the finished product.
There are two parts to this: Generating a topic to write about and titling your blog or article. I see content creators think of them as the same action, but they should be viewed as different actions.
Crosby Digital Marketing helps businesses establish a content marketing and SEO strategy. We would love to talk more with you about how to come up with a plan to attract the right traffic to your website that results in more interested buyers.
How do I come up with a topic for my blog or article?
Have a goal in mind.
Pick out keywords that you want to rank for on Google. There should be a long-term goal in mind. You will need to blog on multiple topics that relate to that keyword over time. This is where having a long-term SEO strategy begins.
Consider the buyer's persona.
A buyer’s persona is simply a fictionalized person that you will be marketing to. So for example, this blog post is intended primarily for small business owners interested in marketing. We will call this buyer person Small Biz Bill. This article is also intended for content marketers. We’ll call this buyer persona Content Courtney. There’s no secret that I am trying to show off what our agency knows, and attract certain people to our website. I think it’s important to make useful content. So important questions need to be asked. Who is reading this? What are they interested in? How can I create content that is valuable to them?
Use your Google Analytics to look at how people are finding you.
The search query tab is great for this. It shows how people are searching and finding you on Google. It’s a good idea to develop content on these topics to climb search rankings.
Do keyword research.
There are infinite ways to do keyword research. Just a simple Google search will produce a huge amount of techniques. Small Biz Bill is looking for something free, simple, and effective. Aren’t we all? So for the short answer, use Google to do keyword research. So let’s get meta with this. I searched for this blog topic on Google.
I browsed some of the titles on the first page, but what I can use is at the end of the page. These are related searches to “blog title help.”
Use long-tail keywords for keyword research.
“Long-tail keyword” sounds like marketing jargon. So don’t get too turned off. These are just keywords that are longer than a word. Typically very interested buyers use long-tail keywords. Think about buying a car. If you are just interested in cars you might google “sports cars.” If you are actually in the market to buy a car you might google, “safest midsize SUVs” or “best truck gas mileage.” This is proof that you are considering cars at a deeper level. Often interested buyers are forming these long-tail keywords into questions. So to spell it all out, if you want to attract interested buyers to your blog use long-tail keywords in your blog titles posed as a question.
How do you optimize these topics into titles?
Create a working title when you begin writing.
Your title can be changed and it is not set in stone. Your title is not the same as your topic, but rather it is related.
Come up with at least 5 titles.
This might seem excessive, but it will help you see which ones are the best when they are viewed together. It’s also a lot easier to ask someone, “Which do you like better?” Asking someone if one title looks ‘ok’ will elicit a response like, “yep, looks great.”
The title should be specific and demonstrate value.
That’s how you get people to read.
Consider the length of the title.
Hubspot has great insight on this topic. Typically Google only shows the first 60 characters of a post title, so make sure your relevant keywords are there. Titles that are between 8- 12 words performed best on Twitter, but titles that were 12- 14 words did well on Facebook. Don’t think that your title has to be super short either. Hubspot also found that placing [bracketed] text at the end of your title giving additional clarification caused people to click on the article 38% more often. (Hubspot)
So there are some conflicting points here. Be short and concise, but give a lot of detail. There’s not always a science to determining how people make decisions. But in general, people skim to get to the point. But people want to know they are getting what they were promised, so the title does need to deliver.
Be clever.
It will help you stand out. This is a great place to concentrate your creativity.
Use the second person.
Good content always puts the reader at the center of the story.
Numbers and data attract the eye.
We often click and look at “listicles.” Ever get completely sucked into Buzzfeed for hours at a time?
Tell people they will learn something.
“7 Lessons I Learned from Starting a Business” promises to teach me seven things about starting a business. This has my attention.
Convey a sense of urgency.
A good example of this is a title that begins with: “3 Mistakes You are Making Today….” The idea that these mistakes are happening for your reader right now can appeal to emotion.
2021 is a great year to begin writing content for your business or to update your content marketing strategy. Let us know if we can help you create a strategy or if you need support bringing your strategy to life. Crosby Digital Marketing specializes in small business content marketing and writing services.
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Crosby Digital Marketing specializes in digital marketing and advertising services. We are located in Franklin, Tennessee and serve clients across the country.