Okay, quick question. When it comes to creating content marketing, why waste hours and hours and hours spending time creating good quality content only for your titles to be letting you down? There’s no point. It’s just wasting time. You need to make sure your titles are working for you and that they are packing a punch. Now, in this video guide today, what we’re going to be doing is we are going to be looking at eight key areas for you to focus on when it comes to creating titles, and I’m going to be giving you an actual tip for each key area.
So let’s kick off with making sure your titles are targeted. You want to be making sure that your titles are working for you, that they are fulfilling a need and fulfilling a purpose. You want to make sure that there’s an audience out there which your content marketing titles are going to captivate. The best way to do this it to use analytics. Analytics give you insights into data so you will be able to see which blog posts have worked well, what titles have worked well. You’ll be able to see which products work well, [and which] services. You’ll be able to see search queries. You’ll be able to look at things like bounce rates, exit rates, entrances. You’ll be able to see not only how popular a title is, but what people are doing when they reach that content marketing title.
Secondly, you need to make sure that your content marketing titles are optimised. Now, it’s one of those things that people have kind of neglected or do forget about from time to time, but you need to make sure you are using keywords. So the best way to do this it to enter your root keyword into a tool like Google AdWords to check the search volume. You then want to compare that against the competition. So add that keyword into Google, have a look at the search results. You want to be focusing on keywords that are high in search volume and low in competition. Now, when it comes to adding them into your titles, really you can either use the root keyword or you can use modifiers, qualifiers, synonyms. You can use plurals, anything around that keyword. Just make sure that you’re using a variety of those and just make sure it’s optimised.
Third point, you need to make sure that your content marketing titles are shareable. So it goes without saying that the content that we create isn’t just created just for search engines. We do it for social media as well. The best way to do this is to use a tool like Followerwonk. Followerwonk enables you to see what content marketing blogs and titles have worked well in terms of being shared amongst followers, but specifically you’re also able to see who has shared that. Google Ripples is another good tool as well. This basically enables you to then use that data and use that information so you can go away and create something that you know will be shareable. In addition to this, it is really a good idea to make sure that your content marketing titles are to the point, short. A good way that I always remember it is “short and sweet, easier to tweet,” and that rhymes, so it’s got to be true.
Fourth point, you need to make sure your titles are unique. There is no point in doing something that everyone else has done. There is nothing worse than entering a search term into Google to see the exact same results. So what you are going to be doing is getting your title, entering speech marks around it into Google, and if it returns no results, then happy days, you’ve got a unique title. Again, the reason behind this is really down to things like duplicate content. You want to be very careful, you don’t want to be doing that, and also it just doesn’t look good if everyone else has covered it. There’s no point in it either.
So this moves us on nicely to point number five. You want to make sure your titles are creative. So find an angle. Do something that is slightly different to all the other posts out there. Look for gaps, look for niches. If someone has written a really good blog post around one topic, counter that with a different argument.
Point number six, you need to make sure your titles are engaging. So it kind of goes back with being shareable as well, but if you ask questions, if you open debates, if you kind of provoke a response, you’re going to be getting people commenting on your posts, which is all good. You want people sharing it as well. The more interactivity and engagement you have, the better it is. So that’s one really to focus on as well.
And then the last two points are really kind of either/ors. Either make sure they are current, and that gives you a good sort of peak in traffic initially, but then it will kind of tail off. If you use a tool like Google Trends, you’re able to see queries and search terms that are rising in traffic, and then you’re able to piggy-back off that. So a good tip would be to look at current affairs, look at current events, work out how your content is going to tie in with that. Don’t crowbar it in with something that is completely irrelevant, but do look for trends that you can piggy-back off.
And then to counter that would be to make sure you are creating content and content titles that are evergreen. So this is something that sustains over a period of time. These are real solutions to real problems, things like guides, white papers, stuff like that.
So that pretty much brings us to the end. As mentioned, these are the eight areas that you want to be focusing on. Please do go ahead and practice some of these actual tips. Do let me know how you get on in the comments section below.
And that leaves me just to say thank you for very much for watching, and for more information, please do visit our website at Koozai.com or visit any of the social profiles coming up after this video.
I think using the actual number in titles is much more effective.
When scanning seaerch results, if you see a number you instantly associate it with a list, a summary, familiar layout and an easy to absorb form of content!
Hi James. Love your videos here at Koozai.
Just a quick question. Titles such as this one “8 Ways To Create Effective Content Titles” leave me a little confused because, as a copywriter, numbers below 10 should be written as words (one, two, three etc). Do publishers in the SEO industry deliberately flout this rule because it’s more shareable or what not to write 8 instead of eight, for example?
Hi Gareth, thanks for the feedback. Your’re absolutely correct, writing any number under 10 should be written as words. However, from a usability perspective we wanted to see what effect the number 8 would have as opposed to writing ‘Eight’. There is a thought that this would be easier to scan for readers and allow them to quickly get an idea of what the post is about. I hope this answers your question.
Hi James.
I thought that might be the case as I’ve seen it everywhere, particularly in tweets promoting content.
I totally agree with this. I think it is way more scannable and will catch a readers attention way before a written number. Plus, it saves space when crunched to make an effective title that meets a character/word limit.
This was so helpful! I have quite a bit of experience with writing and editing but am pretty new to the concept of SEO and marketing our content online. I have subscribed to your daily blog and will start using the tools you mentioned:)
Thanks Annie, glad you liked it. There’s plenty of resources on the Koozai website and we will have a Content Marketing Whitepaper out soon, so well worth checking out ;-)
I actually just downloaded my first copy! Thanks:)
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