Got a problem being succinct? Love a melodic, lyrically infused blog title? Or a mysteriously clever promo header? I know I do. Well, guess what? SEO doesn’t love it as much. BOO! I know, I know.
“Hands up, ‘Chatty Cathys’”
Another thing to admit: I have a teeny-weeny tendency to… waffle on. I’ve been told this affliction is a bit more common in those of us over 40. Rude, but probably true. We (I) have a lot to say, learn, and share. And while that can work, to a point in your main blog content, it’s an absolute SEO killer, and leaves all your juicy content floating-in-the-wind-dot-com. Completely unnoticed.
And no, you don’t need to be a blogger to care. Whatever your ‘thing’ is, your second-chapter business, or passion project, getting to and connecting with your audience is everything.
Your 1,000-word blog post or your 100-word captions need to land. That’s SEO. Keywords, Google, and playing nice with the algorithm is the game you have to win.
Whether you run (or are looking to run) a mobile DIY pottery studio. Or a hot air balloon rental, a premium adult travel company, or an online book publishing gig. If your title isn’t found, your story doesn’t get read. In plainer words, your business doesn’t get seen.
Your stuff won’t magically appear to your people, and while timing does play a huge role, SEO is the big dog here. It tells the algorithm what to push out, who to show it to, and when to shove your brilliant post into the world.
What Gets People to Click?
It’s your title. Or your image and title if they’re bundled together. And let me repeat it, ‘if your title isn’t found, your story doesn’t get read… your business doesn’t get seen.’
“But I Don’t Want to Cramp My Voice…”
I’m hearing you loud and clear. And no, it doesn’t have to suck. But this isn’t about choosing between art (your voice) and algorithm (SEO). You’re actually learning to package your real voice in a way that gets you seen by SEO. Your lyrical musings can still have a place, just not in your headline. Unless you hit that perfect sweet spot where SEO meets soul.
What Do I Mean?
SEO Wants It Direct
Get the idea? SEO craves structure. It seems to love numbers, too. ‘5 Signs You’re…’, ‘3 Ways To…’. From my research, lists with ‘7’ items or less work well if you’re solving a problem. But if you’re sharing a resource, then go big. Either way, it’s time to tighten it up.
2 ‘Tighten-It-Up’ Tools to Try
Whoa, that was a lot of T’s. You may have an SEO tool within whatever platform you’re using, like WordPress or Squarespace, but might not be taking full advantage of it.
I also run all my swanky ‘maybe’ titles through the following tools – both free, quick, and easy to use. And may the best SEO title win:
- Sharethrough Headline Analyzer: clean, easy use. Basic but does the job.
- IsItWP Headline Analyzer: More in-depth, scores can be very different from other sites but good feedback.
Then, once you’ve landed on a few you like, you get to ‘tweaking’. Add or swap words to increase your score. It’s a little dance, but you can get a much higher and ‘good enough’ title that SEO doesn’t hate.
Pro Tip
Save your top-scoring titles for later, don’t throw away the extras. You never know which one might work for your next post. I even add the SEO scoring right next to my top ones. On WordPress, the platform I’m on, a low score for me these days is anything under 82. Anything under 60 equals major issues. Red flag. Yes, I’m Bougie now.
As a fun test, here’s how this post’s title ‘The Truth About Bad Titles and Your SEO Score’ scored so you can see an example:
- AISEO (WordPress Plugin): [88/100]
- IsItWP: [88/100]
- ShareThrough: [85/100]
Is it perfect? Nope. But perfect is never the goal we’re striving for, right? You don’t need to hit 100% before you publish. With every piece of content you put out, you’re closer than you think to getting seen.
More coming soon on keywords, timing, and how not to lose your voice (or your cool) while still making the algorithm happy.
