A good title invites. Like a house with high curb appeal that pulls house hunters inside, a great title draws people to your post and can turn an also ran blog post into a bestseller — sometimes by changing a single word. Good titles give your posts curb appeal that will arouse a reader’s curiosity and invite them to look inside to discover what comes next.
SEO adds the house number to the curb appeal of the title. A great title that might arouse a reader’s interest is useless if it’s lost on the Internet. The SEO component puts titles into the search engine results pages (SERP). The best titles get the best page rank — at the top – and like the eye level shelves on a magazine rack, entice a reader to choose.
What if you have the right address and the house is shabby, paint peeling, shutters askew and an unkempt lawn? Not an inviting picture. A house hunter might stop, but it’s unlikely they’ll bother to get out of their car if the house isn’t inviting. A person searching for information on the Internet isn’t likely to click through from the SERP to your post if the title is shabby.
A title is an invitation to the dance, an invitation to come and visit your blog. What if potential readers pass up the dance because the partner lacks sex appeal?
Quality Internet content demands quality titles. SEO alone can’t do it. Titles that appeal to readers aren’t enough by themselves. You need both to succeed on the Internet.
Good titles aren’t clever or cute. That never works. Good titles are searchable and memorable. SEO keywords bring visitors because they match what Internet visitors are looking for, but without the curb appeal of human curiosity, few visitors will stop to read the content behind the title. The anatomy of a good title is a careful balance between the need to be found and once found, irresistible enough to stop a visitor in their tracks and compel them to stay and read your post.
