I’ll let you in on a little creative secret. The most important part of your blog post is your title. How well you write, how well-researched your content is, or how pretty your images are means nothing if you can’t get readers to click through and see your post. And the single most important thing when it comes to getting readers’ attention is your blog post title.
It’s also the most important on-page factor when it comes to SEO. So if you’re hoping for lots of free traffic from Google and all your favorite social media sites, you need to get good at crafting great blog post titles.
Start With Your Keyword
The key with great blog post titles is to strive for a balance between a title the search engines will like and one that your readers will find interesting and engaging enough to make them want to click on it. To get that balance just right, I like to start with a keyword or key phrase that I want to rank for in the search engines.
Open up your favorite keyword research tool – like the Google Keyword Planner for example – and play around with it until you come up with the keyword or key phrase you want to rank for.
For the sake of illustration let’s say our keyword example is “best blog hosts” and the post will be a review of five of the best hosting companies for WordPress blogs. “best blog hosts” is the keyword we want to rank for in this example.
Be Interesting!
Now that we have the keyword, it’s time to make it interesting for our readers. There are plenty of different ways to turn our example keyword into an interesting blog post title. Here are a few ideas:
- The Three Best Blog Hosts Reviewed – Read This Before You Sign Up
- Looking For a New Home for Your Blog? The Best Blog Hosts Reviewed
- My Top 5 Best Blog Hosts Revealed – Here’s Who I Recommend
- Wondering Who The Best Blog Hosts Are?
- Is Your Host One The Best of The Best Blog Hosts List?
Do you see how this works? Start with the keyword and then try to think about why your readers would be looking for this information. Focus on what’s in it for them by sharing content that will help them out.
Be Creative!
Last but not least stay authentic and stick with your own style. This is particularly important if you’re an established blogger. Don’t just copy and paste the blog post titles above. They may not reflect the style and tone of voice of your blog posts. In other words, they may not be you. Balance the need of the search engines to easily find what you’re content is about, the need to keep things interesting for your readers, with your own voice. This is why I added Creatively Crafting to this blog headline since my web-site is Create Meow and I love to be creative and crafty.
You may find it helpful to write a few different blog post titles down and then chose the one that resonates most with you (and hopefully with your readers). Be Creative but don’t forget to add the important keywords for SEO.
Check out more Blogging Tips
Cheryl says
I would like to get more people to find and read my blog. This is one of my goals this month for the UBC p. Thank you for this information.
Martha says
Great ideas especially just in time for the UBC!
Roy A Ackerman, PhD EA says
Interesting topic! Especially with key word in the blog title.
Laurie Cover says
Love your cat theme!
And this is important. I admit I’ve done a lot of ignoring key words and SEO lately. Just writing from my heart and experiences and not worrying about it for now. But I know that if I want to get noticed I ultimately have to follow these steps.
You’ve organized this nicely. I appreciate the time you took to lay this all out.
Blessings!
Laurie
Another cat lady. 😉
Amanda Myers says
Yay! I love that you signed from Another Cat Lady!
PAMELA says
YOU GOT THAT RIGHT! PEOPLE SCAN THINGS TO SEE IF THEY WANT TO READ YOUR PIECE- I DO NEED TO LEARN HOW TO CHOOSE THAT GREAT BLOG TITLE BETTER I AGREE BECAUSE I DO GET OVERLOOKED OFTEN. ALSO HAVING THOSE H2, H3, H4, AND OTHER HEADLINES IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT CAN KEEP THOSE SCANNERS ATTENTION ON YOUR ARTICLE/ POST AND NOT CLICK AWAY! RIGHT?!?!?! IT’S ALL ABOUT GETTING THE ATTENTION FIRST- ALSO GETTING GOOGLE TO RECOGNIZE YOUR PIECE AS TOP NOTCH (FIRST PAGE OF SAY “WAYS TO LOSE 10 LBS” ETC…THEN IT’S UP TO YOU TO HOLD THEIR ATTENTION AND THEN TAKE AN ACTION! RIGHT?!?!?! AND TITLING THOSE IMAGES TOO! GOING BACK TO REALLY GET TO KNOW MORE ABOUT CRAFTING THAT GREAT BLOG POST TITLE!
Babs says
Thank you for the advice. So much to learn about the blogging world.
PAMELA says
YOUR THE CAT’S MEOW! HAHAHA!!
Amanda Myers says
Thank you so much for your great comment.
Dr.Amrita says
Some excellent advice I must say.Keyword planners are definitely a big help.
Angie Vallejo says
Good info. In the past the recommended way was to do a number title like “9 Steps to …”. That gets old! One question- how do I find the Google “keyword planner?”
Amanda Myers says
Hi Angie, You have to have a Google Ads account. Here’s a blog post with great step-by-step setup instructions. https://www.monsterinsights.com/how-to-use-google-keyword-planner/