Don’t miss out on your blogs most powerful aspect – the post titles!
If you’re a newcomer to blogging it’s all too easy to get swept up in the excitement of publishing – and overlook one of the basics of blogging – the role of your blog post title in getting found in Google.
There are two kinds of bloggers: those who understand the part the post title plays in Google visibility and want exploit that and those who don’t (or do understand it but choose not to exploit it).
The first group of people would write a title for this post something like the one I’ve used above: “How to write good blog post titles” after thinking carefully about what someone looking for guidance might type into Google.
The second group of people would write a title for this post like: “There are two kinds of blogger…”
Broadly speaking, Google looks at each post created in blogging software like WordPress or Blogger as an individual web page. When someone searches for something, Google judges the relevance of your post / page through a number of factors – but principally by matching the keywords in your title, headers and first paragraph of text.
What does that mean for the blogger who wants their blog to be found by their intended prospects and to draw in new visitors?
It means the following:
1) You’ve got to use a blogging platform that Google can read and index easily (WordPress is acknowledged to be the best). If your web designer has knocked you up some kind of ‘blog’ to keep you happy but which isn’t Google visible, then you might be entertaining your existing website visitors but you won’t be bringing in any new ones.
2) Write post titles that reflect what people might be searching for. So many people write posts titles like esoteric diary entries: “A mysterious day at the office..” or “You got to try this” or “So long, friend – we’ll miss you”. Who is going to be searching for “A mysterious day at the office” in Google?
3) Try to avoid the dreaded “ramblings of…” blog subtitle. It’s a sure sign that you think that your blog’s purpose is to present your diary to a breathless waiting world. It isn’t.
To make the most of the power of blogging, we recommend you think of your blog as having two audiences and two entry points. One entry point is the ‘front page’ – where your existing friends and customers are likely to enter your blog. The other entry point is wherever Google brings people into your blog through a particular post it has given them in response to their search.
To illustrate this: you’re an existing customer of mine so I say ‘hey, come and visit our blog here”.
Or:
You’re a web designer in the USA looking for a solution to a problem – how to hide a site you’re building until it’s finished. You type “hiding a wordpress blog” in Google and get this. Your entry point to our blog is through that particular post, not the front page.
So remember, use a powerful blogging platform; write post titles, headers and content with the keywords your prospects will be searching with in mind and don’t forget you’re also writing to entertain and inform real people about real things.
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