Blog Marketing Tips #1: How to Optimize Blog Post Titles

Monday, March 31st, 2008 by Andy Beal

Blog Marketing Tips #1: How to Optimize Blog Post Titles

>>Need help with blog marketing? Hire Andy today! << Blog audience

How many times have you visited one of the many “professional” blog advice sites, and left with little more advice than the ubiquitous (and unhelpful) “build great content?”

If building a great blog was as simple as writing quality posts, we’d all be tied for number one on the Technorati Top 100 blog list. I’m not about to start my own ProBloggingPilgrim.com web site, but I did want to start sharing tips that I’ve personally found valuable when building the traffic to Marketing Pilgrim.

It’s possible that these tips have been shared before–perhaps they were lost among all of the “great content” on the web–but I’m pretty sure these will be fresh ideas. I initially thought I could fit half a dozen tips in a single blog post, but as I started writing, I realized that each tip easily fills a single post. So instead, I’ll start with Tip #1 and see what you think. Leave a comment if you’d like to see more tips in the future.

Tip 1: Your Blog Post Titles Have Two Audiences

You’ve no doubt read that you need to make your blog post titles “search engine friendly,” but doing so often kills the creativity and initial appeal of your writing. Instead of trying to appeal to your loyal readers and Google at the outset, approach the two difference audiences in separate stages.

Stage One – Your initial blog readers

Your initial audience is likely going to be those that have already subscribed to your blog’s RSS feed–or happen to check your blog every day. They want to be thrilled, excited, and given a reason to not only read your post, but also share and link to it.

When you first publish your blog post, follow this advice:

Make your post title interesting – it could be that you ask a question, share a scoop, or offer a cryptic title that peeks your reader’s curiosity. I’ll often use a blog title that sounds like a scandal/scoop, but is really just a question. For example, “Microsoft Buying Yahoo?” I ran that headline last year–before Microsoft made its bid. It generated a lot of traffic then and even more so now.
Keep it short and sweet – if you make your initial post title too long, you run the risk that you’ll either confuse a reader or give them so much information, tthere’s no need to read the post itself. Back to my example, “Microsoft Buying Yahoo?” leaves a lot of unanswered questions that just beg the reader to click through to view the entire post. If I had used “Rumors that Microsoft May Buy Yahoo, but No Confirmation Yet,” how many of you would have clicked through to read the entire post? Not many.
Appeal to keyword scanners – When you read posts in your RSS reader, do you sometimes scan the titles looking for keywords that you know will interest you? Apple, Google, Wii, and Blue-Ray are all examples of keywords that might appeal to your specific audience. This is not the same as keywords for SEO–that comes later–at this stage, you’re simply looking to include words that will make your post stand out to your readers. Use popular keywords in your post titles and your post will have a greater chance of standing out among all of the other posts in your reader’s RSS aggregator.

In stage one, your goal is to appeal to the initial readers that will likely view the post on the day that you publish it. But what happens after your post is relegated to the archives? It’s unlikely someone will spend hours just wondering through your archived posts. Instead, they’ll likely discover your “great content” via one of the search engines. OK, only one search engine: Google.

With this in mind, you need to massage your post’s title so that it can go to work for you in Google’s search results.

Stage Two – Your Google readers

That cryptic, enticing post title you used to attract your initial readers isn’t going to cut-it when it comes to attracting Google search engine users. Sure, you want your post title to entice a click from the SERP (search engine results page) but if your post is sitting on page 10–and not page 1–it doesn’t matter how engaging your post title. In stage two, you need to give your post title the Google-juice it needs to make the first SERP.

Add keywords to your title – you should have already included a relevant keyword that appeals to the human “keyword scanners.” Now that it’s Googleblot scanning your post title, it’s time to pump-up your keyword count. Now, don’t go overboard and add half a dozen keywords to your post titles–you want the title to remain targeted and enticing–but you should look for opportunities to include additional keywords. Compare this before, and after post title. Before: “Ten Ways to Avoid a Google Reputation Management Nightmare.” After: “Ten Ways to Fix Your Google Reputation & Remove Negative Results.” Both are engaging, both convey the same meaning. Yet, the revised title removes keywords that are not likely to be Googled such as “avoid” and “nightmare,” while adding keywords that are searched often, such as “fix” and “remove negative results.”
Change the word order – I always try to take into consideration my potential Google ranking, when writing my post titles. However, there are many times when I see my post sitting at #11 on Google, because the word order I used–while appealing to my initial audience–isn’t doing me any favors in the SERPs. So, like a good optimizer, I go back and change the word order so that the beneficial keywords are closer to the beginning of the title (which is where Google prefers to see them). Here’s a before: “26 Free Tools for Buzz Monitoring.” And after: “Buzz Monitoring: 26 Free Buzz Tracking Tools.” (Notice I also added the keyword “buzz tracking” to the title).
Optimize your TITLE – When you first publish your blog posts, you’ll likely want your TITLE (aka title tag) to match your actual post title. Once you start focusing on your Google audience, it might make sense to tweak your page TITLE so that it’s even more optimized than your post title (side note: most blog software will simply match your page TITLE to your post title). If you’re using WordPress, consider installing the SEO Title Tag plugin to do just that! I don’t use it on Marketing Pilgrim, but on other blogs, I’ve found it a great way to further optimize my TITLE–which is what is displayed in Google’s SERP.
Don’t play with slugs – I’ll write more on the topic of page “slugs” (aka permalinks) but I’d be negligent if I didn’t warn here that, while you should change your post title, changing the actual page slug is to be avoided.

I hope you’ll find the above tactics to be fruitful in your quest to increase both initial, and Google-referred, visitors to your blog. I’ve got plenty more tips I can share, so let me know what you think and if you’d like to read more blog promotion tips.

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74 comments on “Blog Marketing Tips #1: How to Optimize Blog Post Titles”

Landon Says:

March 31st, 2008 at 1:30 pm

This is why I have never kicked you out of my feed reader. You actually give advice that works. Thanks Andy.

Sorry for the sort comment, I am buried but I had to show my gratitude.
Michael Campbell Says:

March 31st, 2008 at 1:50 pm

An interesting idea, but what about Google caching the old page? Just wondering if you had run any tests to determine the best interval between the original post and changing it for SEO purposes. Also, how long before the changes you’ve made, replace the cached version of the page? Thanks for the idea and I’m looking forward to more tips.
Roxanne Darling Says:

March 31st, 2008 at 1:56 pm

Excellent tip Andy and I appreciate the linear-ness of your thinking and writing. The before and afters are great as well. This is a great training example as well as blog post!
Blog Marketing Tips Even the Professional Bloggers Won’t Share:Your Blog Post Titles Have Two Audiences | BlogOnExpo Says:

March 31st, 2008 at 2:09 pm

[...] You’ve no doubt read that you need to make your blog post titles “search engine friendly,” but doing so often kills the creativity and initial appeal of your writing. Instead of trying to appeal to your loyal readers and Google at the outset, approach the two difference audiences in separate stages. – MarketingPilgrim [...]
Cindy Krum Says:

March 31st, 2008 at 2:28 pm

This is great! I am looking forward to the next ones.

Thanks,
CK
Andy Beal Says:

March 31st, 2008 at 4:44 pm

@Landon – thanks for the confidence in me!

@Michael – just use the “cache:http://…” in Google to see when Google last cached the page.

@Roxanne – you doth flatter me with your kind words.

@CK – glad you like it. The more comments I get, the more I’ll know to write more tips.
Karen Swim Says:

March 31st, 2008 at 5:41 pm

Jumping up and down for joy and greedily begging for more. Thank you so much! After scouring the net searching for blog marketing tips, a honest to goodness real and usable tip arrives via Twitter. Thank you so much for gifting the clueless with info that can be used
Andy Beal Says:

March 31st, 2008 at 5:43 pm

@Karen – I’m glad it found you via Twitter. Maybe you could subscribe to our RSS feed, so you don’t miss the next tip.
Optimizing Post Titles After You Have Posted | Andy Beard - Niche Marketing Says:

March 31st, 2008 at 5:53 pm

[...] Beal today to kicked off his Blog Marketing Tips For Probloggers series with an interesting look at post [...]
Karen Swim Says:

March 31st, 2008 at 6:17 pm

Andy, way ahead of you. You had me hello.
Blogosphere News 1st April | Blogging Sueblimely Says:

March 31st, 2008 at 10:53 pm

[...] Blog Marketing Tips Even the Professional Bloggers Won’t Share – Tip #1 – Andy Beal. [...]
Mike Volpe Says:

March 31st, 2008 at 11:47 pm

I have a question about the line “Don’t play with slugs… while you should change your post title, changing the actual page slug is to be avoided”

As long as the old URL has a 301 redirect to the new URL, changing the URL should be fine. You only need to worry about changing the URL if your blog software does not automatically redirect the old article URL, right?
Jayson Says:

March 31st, 2008 at 11:53 pm

Nice tips Andy! A lot of useful information to use. I look forward to reading your next tips
Tom Lindstrom Says:

April 1st, 2008 at 3:36 am

Excellent tips! I´m looking forward for more information like this.(Post stumbled)
Andy Beal Says:

April 1st, 2008 at 9:05 am

@Mike – yes, if you 301 you should be fine, but not guaranteed. There’s more I want to discuss on slugs, so for now I’m simply advising not to change them.
Cindy King Says:

April 1st, 2008 at 9:58 am

It is also useful to have long titles.
80 characters – begin with a keyword phrase followed by keywords.

Like this blog post “Blog Marketing Tips” as a phrase and “Professional” & “Bloggers” as the keywords in a title that is 71 characters long.
Jordan McCollum Says:

April 1st, 2008 at 6:09 pm

@Mike (and Andy)—I use a plugin that automatically 301 redirects a post if I change the slug. It can also handle URL canonicalization (well, the www issue, anyway) and other fun things: Redirection by Urban Giraffe.
Derek Says:

April 1st, 2008 at 6:18 pm

Nice tip Andy, please keep them coming! While the tip itself may not have been new material, your perspective on the tip is new and well worth the read.

As Roxanne noted, the before and after examples were great. I’ve always been a fan of Brian Clark’s headline writing ability and love his posts that dissect headlines with clear examples, just as you have done.

Looking forward to more tips.
Mike Volpe Says:

April 1st, 2008 at 6:22 pm

@Jordan – Cool. Our HubSpot blog software does that too, it is really convenient. I can change article titles and not worry about the URLs changing and not redirecting, etc.
Andy Beal Says:

April 1st, 2008 at 7:18 pm

@Jordan – I use the same plugin (actually Jordan, you referred me to it).

I’m not against redirecting slugs, changing them without careful thought about redirection is a problem. I’ll have another post that discusses slugs and redirects, etc.
J.F. Houpert Says:

April 1st, 2008 at 10:47 pm

Great post, looking forward to more about slugs.
Steven Bradley Says:

April 2nd, 2008 at 2:20 am

Great post Andy. The two stage approach to title writing is something I know I need to do more so this is post serves as a reminder in addition to the great examples and explanations.
Dave Says:

April 2nd, 2008 at 4:34 am

Urban Giraffe has another great plugin ( I prefer it over the SEO title tag plugin) which allow you to modify the tiles & descriptions of posts, categories,etc –> headspace plugin.

Dave
Rebecca Says:

April 2nd, 2008 at 2:27 pm

Thanks for the very helpful advice. Keep em coming! (please haha)
Justin LIm Says:

April 2nd, 2008 at 2:50 pm

Andy thanks for the “Change the word order” tip! Great idea!
Don Says:

April 2nd, 2008 at 3:01 pm

Hi Andy,

Thanks a lot for the post. It was very informative. I hope you post the rest of your tips.

Thanks,
Don
Kalena Says:

April 2nd, 2008 at 7:14 pm

Nice to see some fresh ideas for blogging Andy, I’ll be following this series closely
DHWANIL Says:

April 3rd, 2008 at 3:38 am

Great Posts i found here. i will be thankful to you if you post some more information about INTERNET MARKETING STRATEGIES & TOOLS

Thanx
giftcardblogger Says:

April 3rd, 2008 at 8:02 am

Practical tips that work. Will stay tuned for the rest of the series.
Optimizar los títulos « El rincón seo de Raquel Says:

April 3rd, 2008 at 3:02 pm

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April 4th, 2008 at 10:31 am

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Kango Suz Says:

April 4th, 2008 at 11:17 am

Thanks so much for the unique tips, I can’t wait for the rest of the series. I’ve been looking for a good breakdown on how to SEO my blog post titles for a while, this is a great help. Thanks!
Susan
Utah SEO Says:

April 6th, 2008 at 6:40 pm

Awesome post and often overlooked. Older blog posts are often forgotten but never should be.
Steve Mills Says:

April 7th, 2008 at 12:32 am

Wow that is great practical advice. It is good to keep tips like this in mind when writing every post. Thanks!
Jacqueline Says:

April 8th, 2008 at 4:07 pm

Just what I needed! I was actually wondering about this earlier as I posted. Love the examples you shared to show how the titles were optimized.
Seología Says:

April 9th, 2008 at 7:33 am

Very useful information. Thanks, Andy!
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Marks Says:

July 24th, 2008 at 8:02 am

Some really good points about a very important part of blog ranking in search engines. Its interesting when you point out that even changing the order of the words in the title makes a difference. Something im going to have to experiment with.
How to Craft Post Titles that Draw Readers Into Your Blog Says:

August 19th, 2008 at 10:09 am

[...] Beal wrote a thought provoking post – How to Optimize Blog Post Titles – in which he explores two audiences of blog posts and how he suggests you optimize titles for each [...]
Missy Says:

August 22nd, 2008 at 2:13 pm

Wow! I finally got it.

There are 3 different types of title(s),
1.) Blog Post Title
2.) Title Tag – This is what shows up in Google SERP’s.
3.) Post Slug – This is the WP permalink. If you change this in any way, you change your URL, and could possibly direct readers/visitors to a 404.

Awesome! And i have been using the SEO Title Tag plugin, but never really understood what it was for, or what it did. When my main blog was installed for me, the installer added it by default. Now i know. (hehe) Good stuff.

As for changing the blog post title for Googlers, when do you tend to do this. Next day, next week, when?

Thanxs for a wonderful post.

P.S. Was referred to this post from Darren at Problogger.

Missy’s last blog post..2008 Annual Veggie Awards – Vote For Your Faves!
Andy Beal Says:

August 22nd, 2008 at 2:21 pm

@Missy – glad to help. I usually change the title once the direct/feed traffic dies down–typically 48 hours later.
Paul Dunn, Mortgage Marketing Community Says:

August 27th, 2008 at 2:08 am

This can really be a tough thing to do sometimes. I tend to stick with creating a bold captivating headline then see if I can place a few keywords in there. I am going to add this to my feeder in about 2 seconds. Thanks for the info.

Paul Dunn, Mortgage Marketing Community’s last blog post..Anatomy Of Creating A Killer Marketing Piece
Jobs Nurses Says:

September 6th, 2008 at 9:17 am

Thank you so much for the tips!

Jobs Nurses’s last blog post..International Student Advisors 4U is it a scam? Maybe not.
Blog SEO Advice from Marketing Pilgrim Says:

September 14th, 2008 at 1:04 pm

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Andy Lax Says:

September 19th, 2008 at 10:12 am

Hi Andy,

Thanks so much for the invaluable tips. At the risk of being over analytical, is there an ideal number of words a blog title should contain? Moreover, if warranted, does it help if quotes are used around a key word phrase.

Thanks for any input.
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Dali Burgado Says:

September 30th, 2008 at 12:21 pm

Andy,
Awesome stuff. I particularly appreciate the SEO Title Tag Plugin recommendation.

I look forward to reading more phenomenal content.

Have an awesome day.
Dali Burgado

Dali Burgado’s last blog post..Online Productivity Enhancement
Matt Helphrey Says:

November 19th, 2008 at 4:16 pm

Great tips to keep in mind and thanks for sharing. Often I get caught catering too much to the search engines and not enough to the people who are actually reading my blog.

Thanks!

Matt Helphrey’s last blog post..Work at Home Jobs that are Not Scams
Jason Says:

November 26th, 2008 at 3:57 pm

Andy,

Thank you very much for your tips in naming blogs. Great insight and helped me direct my posts better for my company. If you get a chance, please check out my company website and our blogs and how we have put these methods to practice! Here is our website http://www.compendiumblogware.com

Thanks a million!
Monica - current accounts Says:

November 27th, 2008 at 6:38 am

It’s really great to read from the best man online. Very useful information. Thanks, Andy!

Mon
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December 1st, 2008 at 1:50 pm

[...] Blog Marketing Tips #1: How to Optimize Blog Post Titles [...]
Anaokulu Says:

December 6th, 2008 at 6:45 pm

It is also useful to have long titles.
80 characters – begin with a keyword phrase followed by keywords.

Like this blog post “Blog Marketing Tips” as a phrase and “Professional” & “Bloggers” as the keywords in a title that is 71 characters long.
amr rezk "blog marketing tips" Says:

December 22nd, 2008 at 1:11 am

This is a great tip article, you really know what you’re talking about. I also have a series on my blog called “Blog Marketing Tips” and I would love to see what you have to say about them Andy.

Cheers, Amr

amr rezk “blog marketing tips”’s last blog post..Blog Marketing Tips # 4 “Forum Marketing”
Watch Seven Pounds Online Says:

December 22nd, 2008 at 11:30 am

Thank you so much, these are some GEMS in here!
Wii Says:

January 13th, 2009 at 4:33 am

I made this mistake early on in my blogging career but now I make sure I try to optimize the titles.
Elazığ Says:

January 13th, 2009 at 6:15 am

Thank you so much, these are some GEMS in here

Elazığ’s last blog post..Jandarma personel alacak
Ali Hussain Says:

January 17th, 2009 at 2:01 am

Thanks for the post, but i have read someplace else, that if using wordpress you should use the .html extension in blog post like you have done. Is there any guide to do so?

Ali Hussain’s last blog post..Color Overlay
YouTube Marketing Says:

January 18th, 2009 at 9:47 pm

this is a great post I am just now getting into blog marketing and this helped sum up a lot of Q’s I had thanks for the wonderful post
WMJ Says:

February 16th, 2009 at 12:40 am

Really useful tips~it is helpful for blog marketing~
Scott Drozd Says:

February 18th, 2009 at 4:07 pm

Great article…

Googles keyword tool is phenomenal for creating keyword rich titles
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

One of our articles went from “Go Bananas for Guerilla Marketing” to “Guerilla Marketing and the Key Tactics to New Business Marketing and Advertising”

Hard to get a great title that is short and sweet and keyword rich.

Scott Drozd’s last blog post..Guerilla Marketing and the Key Tactics to New Business Marketing and Advertising
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Sanjeev Mehra Says:

February 26th, 2009 at 8:52 am

Thank you so much, these are some GEMS in here!
sohan Says:

May 18th, 2009 at 7:27 am

This Really a Good Article. Thanks For Sharing
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May 25th, 2009 at 11:23 am

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Sathish Says:

May 27th, 2009 at 3:00 am

Hi Andy…
Good work its very helpful for us thank you for the information keep it up…
reddy Says:

May 27th, 2009 at 3:02 am

Interesting information thank you..
Cherilynn Stone Says:

May 29th, 2009 at 2:26 pm

Great tips! Thanks for sharing!
Catherine Says:

May 31st, 2009 at 1:12 pm

I agree 100 percent, but I am having trouble convincing others of this fact about writing on the internet. I have a blog called 8 Women Dream where 8 women post their progress on going after a long-held dream. I have given them guidelines for writing for the web – most specifically for blogging and a couple of them really fight me on it. They want to write these titles that don't make sense, don't really cover the subject of their post or are an attempt to be clever when they aren't.
I just don't know how to further emphasize how important the title is, especially once the post leaves the front page of the blog. The only way the post then can be found is through search engines. I am thinking of sharing this post with them, but it is a funny thing – almost like they don't get that I am trying to help their posts be found.
The blog does belong to me … any thoughts?

Marketing Pilgrim