An eye-catching headline can make the difference between a glance and engagement. This is beyond obvious, right? So why aren’t you doing it?
You probably spend a fair amount of time writing and testing your website’s headlines.
And if you’re running AdWords ads, you certainly understand the importance of a good title.
Yet many companies fail to capitalise on the advantages of an SEO title that’s optimised for human beings, as well as Google’s spiders.
This is an enormous mistake, as when people search for whatever you’re selling, it’s the page titles that will jump out at them in the results.
When I searched for London law firm in the UK, the first ten results show as much imagination as you might expect from a law firm:
Wikipedia take the first spot not only because of their authority and relevance, but also partly because their page title is the only one that in any way compels a click.
A search for order beautiful flowers hampshire produces the following:
If you were looking for beautiful flowers, which would you be most likely to click?
This is where so many companies get it wrong.
They choose between an eye-catching headline or one that has been crafted for Google.
Why not go for both?
Suppose, for example, that you’ve written an article on effective keyword research.
Let’s consider a number of different approaches you may choose to take for the title.
Factual: Effective keyword research.
Eye-candy: How keyword research can improve your sex-life (and income).
SEO: Advanced keyword research.
Really bad SEO: Advanced keyword research. Advanced keyword research. Advanced keyword research. Advanced keyword research.
Combination: Advanced keyword techniques as used by the pros – these really work!
Never overlook the headline or title as something to be dealt with at the last moment before publishing an article or page.
Click-through-rates are as valid for organic SEO as PPC. The better the headline, the more likely the link to be clicked, and assuming that the visitor finds what they are looking for, this can only be beneficial to your rankings in the long run.
Be greedy. Optimise for both people and spiders. In that order.
