[This post is part of the WordPress Guide for Beginners – Step by Step Tutorials]
No matter how good your content is, it is useless unless people read your post. People will read your post by just looking at the headline.
So headlines matter a lot! If you have a catchy headline that surely user will check your post.
As a blogger we always try to write a catchy headline so that people read our post. That means we write a readers friendly headline.
Then what about search engine? We always try to get organic traffic from search engines. For this we need a search engine friendly title.
To make it more clear let’s discuss it with an example.
For example, you can write a reader friendly title like ‘How I made $600 from Infolinks‘ You write this title because you want a quick action from your readers and you know people love this types of title. In the terms of Search engine, it is not a good title as people will not search for the terms how you made $600 with InfoLinks. ‘How to Make Money Online with Infolinks‘ could be a good title for the search engine as people use this type keywords on search engine.
So our target is to write a post title that is reader and search engine friendly.
Now the question is how to achieve such scenario by which we can keep our post title Search engine as well as reader friendly.
Here is a simple way. Check it out!
How to Optimize Post Title for SEO and Readers
There are several plugins which offers you to write a different post title for search engines which is known as meta title. Check the below snap to know the difference between post title and meta title.
Post title is the normal title what you write on WordPress Editor. Meta title is the custom title which is written for search engine.
To write meta title you can use ALL in one SEO pack, WordPress SEO by yoast etc. After installing one of the plugin you will get some options like this at the end of the post editor page.
In the title box, write your search engine friendly title which will be shown on Search results. And also write a unique description with your targeted keywords in Description Box.
If you are using thesis theme then it has a built in option called ‘SEO Details And Additional Style’ which help you to customize meta title.
Now here is an example for better understand.
Readers Friendly Title
Search Engine Friendly Title
Search Engine Results
Maintaining two titles will surely increase your CTR. Here are some tips for writing readers friendly title and SEO friendly.
For Readers Friendly Title
- Make your titles scary (Like Don’t have Privacy Policy Page! Create it Now?)
- Ask questions in title (Like Do you want more profit from your blog?)
- Tell your secrets (Ex: How I made $699 from a single post)
- Use numbers in title (Ex: 10 Awesome tips to…).
For Search Friendly Title
- Do keyword research properly.
- Finish your post title within 65 words.
- Use unique words (Like Top, Tips, Awesome, Ways etc).
- Use ‘How to’ words if needed.
It seems time consuming or kinda tough to write a two titles for your single post. Once you make it habit you’ll find it easy. I hope it will increase your CTR.
- WordPress Blog Post SEO Checklist Before You Publish the Post
- How to Write a Good Meta Description That Increases CTR
Over to You
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36 Comments
Short & to the point. I also experimented the same post reading your content. For one of my client’s health blog, I changed the title from benefits of pineapple to Top 6 benefits of pineapples, the results were astonishing. The CTR for the page improved from 2.3% to 4.1% which was followed by increase in ranking. I am now doing an A/B testing of same for other blogs.
Thanks a lot dude.
Great post! Readers friendly title is a great strategy to attract people to read the content. And writing a post title that is reader and search engine friendly is an effective way to rank in search engines and also help to increase the CTR.
Two headlines for both readers and search engines is a great way to increase CTR. But, should I select keywords from those headlines?
Thanks for the amazing tips Istiak!
Yes, you should have main keywords on both titles. However, I don’t use separate titles all the time. I use it occasionally.
Hi Istiak,
I agree with you title is most important to catch reader and search engine. Because as a normal reader I always find interesting title. If I get any interesting title then I visit the post.
Thanks for amazing post
Yes ! this is the very good information for those who are not sure how to optimize their blog titles and makes mistake when they create blog . It is also very help full tips for optimize blog title.
Really very great article… good job
Ya Jasmine !!!! U r right
Hi Istiak,
Great tips for people who are not sure how to optimize their blog titles. I have a hard time sometimes coming up with something catchy that will want to make people want to click on the title and begin reading.
I currently use the All In One SEO pack and I really like it. Thanks for sharing these tips and I will implement them the next time I write a blog post. Have a great day.
This is an awesome post Istiak. I do not have too much experience and knowledge about optimization and this post is really the thing I needed to. Thanks for sharing.
Glad to know that this posts seemed useful to you.
This is very interesting. I don’t use this method of having one title for search and one for readers, but I do always try to be mindful of the search engines when writing blog posts. It’s a tricky thing to do sometimes.
Yea, It’s good if you can satisfy both the readers and search engines with one title. But sometimes it’s really tough to satisfy both with one title.
Yaeh thaz called to be a perfect article. Thanx
can u tell me which SEO is goood.
All in one. Or
yoast seo.
For wordpress website. Thanx
http://tricksburg.net see ma site and tell me the faults there. Thanx its newly maded blog.
Hey Ashu, Welcome to my blog.
You can use All in one SEO pack.
Great tips, Istiak. It’s indeed important to optimize blog post titles, both for your readers and for the search engines. I am sure your tips are useful for all of us, the bloggers. :)
Hope so, thanks for the comment.
It’s really Important to optimize the post title so that google search engine can easily find it and index in google search result… I wordpress this is the one the amazing feature which I love to use…
Thanks for your comment.
Awesome post man!
When I write my blog posts, I normally write so that it grabs the attention of my readers. I hardly write to please search engines.
This is because I value my readers more that search engine bots.
But it is good when you can please both readers and search engines.
Thanks for this lovely write up!
Hey Kharim, agree with you. Reader first, Search engine is next. But it is better to optimize for BOTH.
Hi Istiak,
Agree … attractive headlines start everything. It’s like the most important “3 second” you have to make visitors stay longer in your blog.
Thanks
Yep, people will read your post just by looking your headline.
Hey Istiak,
Cool tips. I remember buying a course where one of the modules were about copy writing; similar content that you’ve shared with us here.
thanks for the insight!
Akos
Glad to know that!
Not often, but I keep my page titles somewhat different. That just makes it easy for the reader and gives it a personal touch you see!
PS – There’s a giveaway of CommentLuv Premium on my site!
If we talk about the SEO, title for a post really plays an important role. Thanks for sharing this post.
Hey Rudraksh, Agree with you. Title is also important for readers.
Good tips on how to optimise your posts. If one wants to rank, these tips will be useful. All attempts should be done to optimise with utmost care.
Hey Shalu,
Welcome to RTB.
Optimizing post title is very important for your reader and SEO.
Thanks for your comment.
Yes Istiak, Headlines plays a big role so you must make it as catchy and able to capture people’s mind. Other than that you can also use sub-headlines to make it more catchy.
Yep, Using sub-headlines can make post more catchy. Thanks for the tips.
Really Nice Explanation Actually Title Optimization help alot in SEO… but some how blogger’s blog dosen’t have that option….
Yes, it is very helpful for SEO. BTW Why don’t you use WordPress platform?
Excellent post! Well yes, writing a readers friendly headline is a good strategy and catchy headline are effective to attract people to read the content. And writing a a post title that is reader and search engine friendly is better and effective, so as to increase the visibility of the content and to improve search engine rankings. Thanks Istiak for sharing these tips :)
Yes, It is very important. Thanks for the comment.