Corporate Blogging by Any Other Name – Not as Sweet for Search: Part Three

Titles matter –  in blogs, anyway.  That’s because the very first thing both readers and search engines are going to encounter is the blog post title. The keyword phrases included in that title will help the blog get “indexed”, or placed where the online searcher is most likely to find it. The title itself verifies to searchers that they’ve come to the right place to get the information they need. 

 I’ve been using headlines from the August 4th issue of the Indianapolis Star as a way to illustrate different elements Indianapolis blog writers ought to include in the titles of business blog posts.

As a corporate blogging trainer, I explained that blog titles have three jobs to do:

• engage readers
   
• offer an overview of the topic of the post
   
• incorporate keyword phrases to attract search engine matches.
   

The headline reads “Buyers could flock to this auction”, and the article featured an announcement that the artwork of birds seen in Peterson Field Guides will be auctioned off next month. 

While Indianapolis blog content writers might appreciate the nice play on words (“flocking” to an auction of bird pictures), this headline would make for an ineffective blog title.  Remember, one of the main motivators for having an SEO marketing blog in the first place is to “get found” by the ‘right people”. (Who are those? People already interested in what you have to sell, what you know, and what you know how to do.)

Although the art auction would obviously be of most interest to bird lovers, there’s no mention in the title of anything to do with birds, bird artwork or Peterson Field Guides.  In order for targeted audiences to flock to your blog, they first must find it, then be induced to click on it!

Consider home-delivered newspapers passé, but at Say It For You, we know there’s nothing old-fashioned about carefully crafting the title of each business blog post!