Whenever I sit down to write a blog post, the first thing I always struggle with is my title, and a number of fellow writers have also told me this is something they struggle with.  What is it about those 20-65 characters that demand so much attention? Simply put, First impressions are everything, and when driving traffic to specific articles on your site the first thing readers see is the title.  When creating a title, you want it to not only explain what the article is about, but it should also catch the readers attention and spark their interest.

Back To Basics

There are three basic elements that every title should have:

• Be Descriptive
  • Does your title tell the reader what they are getting themselves into?
• Use Trigger Words
  • There are certain words/tactics writers use to establish an emotional response in the reader.  One example of this would be Danny Brown’s post “When PR Has It’s Head Up It’s Ass”  Titles like this make the reader engage in dialogue with themselves about the validity of your claim, enticing them to read your article.
• Skip The Gimmick
  • Titles that make promises of amazing things sound like a good idea, but from a consumer perspective they stick out like a sore thumb.

Questions Anyone?

If there is one thing that will bug internet browsers sub-conscious it’s an unanswered question.  This makes it a great tool to use when crafting a title, and can easily be accomplished by asking a question that you will answer in the subsequent post, “Will Publishing A Blog Drive New Customers?“.  This method can be especially effective when you are trying to drive more traffic through cross links, as it will spark the readers interest.  Answering a question can also be just as effective, often times titles that answer questions (or allude to the answer) perform better on search engine traffic where the question has already been asked (the search query).

What Are YOUR Readers Attracted To?

Knowing what your readers like can also help you optimize your titles.  Arkayne Metrics give you a number of tools to help you determine which articles your readers seem to be attracted to most, studying these is another great way to increase the click-worthiness of your articles.

To view page metrics, from your Dashboard (on the left hand side) select partner traffic.  Then under the pages tab you will find detailed information on each article including hits, clicks in, and clicks out.  When optimizing titles for cross linking, the most important data are your clicks in.  This tells you the number of times a reader has come to your site through an Arkayne cross link on a partner site, while “hits” data will give you a better idea which articles are performing best organically.

Related post plugins have become very popular over the last few years, offering users new ways of connecting content.  Users are also excited about the variety of statistics that Related post plugins have been shown to increase, including reader engagement, time on site, and pages per visit.  Beyond inner linking, some related post plugins will also allow users to generate cross links with other sites, here at Arkayne these are generated through relevance and user recommendations.  This ensures that the links that are being generated on your site are real cross links between you and the sites you are connecting with.

How Can I Tell If My Links Redirect?

Usually, this can be determined fairly quickly by mousing over the link and looking at the status bar on the bottom of your browser window.  Often times, if the link is being redirtected through your plugins servers you will see their web address.  This check is pretty accurate, and will tell you where the link ins being sent.  If you still are not sure, try opening the link and watching the status bar as the page loads.  If you are being redirected to another page, you will see the web address flash for a quick second.

How Will This Affect My Site?

This depends on what kinds of links your plugin is creating.  Anyone familiar with SEO understands the value of cross links and a good internal linking structure, but if your plugin redirects your links then you won’t have either.  Inner links will look like out bound links to the plugin’s site, and your “cross links” will be seen as links from your plugin provider through the lens of a search engine.