19 Comments to “Titles that Grab Readers”

1. November 7th, 2005 at 1:45 pm
   pcunix said

   There’s a downside to clever titles: while they may grab the attention of RSS readers, search engines are usually incapable of drawing the correct inference and thus may fail to see the relevancy of your post. You can offset that to some degree by using “title=” tags in the href to detail more easily digestible information for the spiders.

   I’ve been experimenting here and there, but can’t say much yet. It’s very hard to make conclusions because you don’t know what the popularity might have been had you done X instead of Y. But with enough data, everything eventually fits to a curve, so someday..

2. November 7th, 2005 at 1:59 pm
   Andy said

   I’ve been testing out different titles with my posts also, and I’d agree with you, that spending a minute thinking about the title has a huge impact. Kind of like in advertising.

3. November 7th, 2005 at 2:03 pm
   ME "Liz" Strauss said

   Hi pcunix:
   I wouldn’t go for the clever title anyway. Posts that Draw Readers–the most straightforward answer–is my choice because people have the same problem drawing inferences from short out-of-context phrases as RSS readers do.

4. November 7th, 2005 at 2:06 pm
   ME "Liz" Strauss said

   I should add though that I’m really interested in what your research comes up with. The deeper I get into this tagging information the more I feel like I’m going to need a map to get back home again.

   Liz

5. November 7th, 2005 at 2:21 pm
   ME "Liz" Strauss said

   Hi Andy,
   Yeah, it’s pretty basic, if you think like a reader. You’re right. It’s advertising what the post is about.
   Liz

6. November 7th, 2005 at 6:05 pm
   pcunix said

   Yes, but there are titles that any ordinary human will comprehend but that will baffle a search engine.. and that title might draw more RSS readers than a more direct title.

   I think the trade-off is going to be this: if your article tends to be the type that lasts a long time and will get traffic from searches, the straight forward title is probably best. On the other hand, if it is topical or unlikely to draw engine traffic, it may be best to attract RSS and tag site readers by an intriguing title.

7. November 7th, 2005 at 6:34 pm
   ME "Liz" Strauss said

   Hi pcunix,
   I think I hear what you’re saying. There certainly is occasion for both I could agree, but could you give an example of what you mean by an intriguing title that would attract RSS and tag site readers? I don’t want to put titles in your mouth, so to speak.
   Liz

8. November 7th, 2005 at 8:52 pm
   Mike said

   On TravellingGolfer and Simplenomics, I use titles that will let you know what to expect when you get there.

   On OfficeFreaks, we’re consumer oriented, so we have to be specific about the post with the title, or we won’t draw the targeted reader we’re after.

   #1 - I don’t want you to feel tricked into coming to the post

   #2 - Search engine traffic to old posts is enormous and they come looking for keywords, not cheeky phrases.

   Works for me, but to each their own.

   My motto is…If you’re gonna do it anyway, why not do it as good as you can and get paid to do it ?

9. November 7th, 2005 at 9:00 pm
   ME "Liz" Strauss said

   Hi Mike!
   Great to see ya! Good thinking all around as far as I can see. I like your motto, especially the getting paid part.
   Liz

10. November 8th, 2005 at 7:32 am
    pcunix said

    Re: confusing titles

    I’ve actually had this happen to me more than once.

    One frequent problem is the word “string”. In programming parlance, that’s a storage place for display characters, and usually Google can figure that out from the other context. But sometimes it gets confused and has thought that the post was about musical instruments. Anther trouble word is “mirror”, which Google can sometimes confuse with reflective glass rather than disk drives.

    Other places that can cause confusion are cultural references: the general public can become aware of a new word usage long before a search engine understands.

11. November 8th, 2005 at 9:14 am
    ME "Liz" Strauss said

    Thanks pcunix,
    Glad you stopped by with the examples. That wasn’t where my over-thinking brain was going. I can see where explicit titles of that nature that would be a problem for Google, but not for people. I also see how every niche has to have their own words that work that way as well. It would be fun to compile a list of what those might be.
    Liz

12. November 8th, 2005 at 12:06 pm
    Teh Blogfather said

    For me, a catchy title is only one of many steps I employ to get readers to keep reading.

    I follow with an equally catchy first line, then keep inserting “attention hooks” in between each paragraph to keep ‘em reading and reading until they find themselves at the end.

    My motto in this area: if you can’t get them past the title, you’ve lost them. If you can’t get them past the first paragraph you’ll lose them in the second.

13. November 8th, 2005 at 12:08 pm
    Teh Blogfather said

    As an example, I might have done this post as follows:

    Title: Grab Them By The Neck

    First line: No, not that clown stealing your lawnmower, I’m talking about the readers.

14. November 8th, 2005 at 12:31 pm
    ME "Liz" Strauss said

    Hello Blogfather,
    That works on your blog, Blog Father because your titles don’t point to things that search engines would look for anyway. Am I right on that? Your pieces are more descriptive and creative writing than informational, which makes catchy titles the right way to go.

    I love your examples. Could you also catch the guy who’s got my lawnmower too, though?
    Liz

15. November 8th, 2005 at 6:34 pm
    Teh Blogfather said

    That blog is purely for human consumption due to the complexity in the humour techniques employed - search engines would have trouble making sense of it (let alone humans in some cases).

    However I cater to search engines by asking readers to submit “seach engine catchy” content like jokes, quotes, facts and more recently, news. For e.g, there’s someone who now navigates to me via MSN by searching for “quotes from Godfather”. They’ve done this about 3 times this week.

    PS: I can take care of your lawnmower problems. Just say the word

16. November 8th, 2005 at 7:18 pm
    ME "Liz" Strauss said

    Hi Blogfather,
    You have some serious strategy behind what looks like a light-hearted, yet classy parody review blog. Thanks for sharing your thinking.
    Liz

    PS I’ll contract, er contact you about that lawnmower thing.

17. January 20th, 2006 at 7:30 pm
    Dorai’s Techlog » How Do You Choose a Blog Title? said

    [...] Titles that Grab Readers [...]

18. February 16th, 2006 at 10:03 am
    Dorai’s Techlog » Blogs About Blogging said

    [...] Titles that grab readers [...]

19. June 1st, 2008 at 7:49 pm
    The Ultimate Guide 2: Surely You Have a Goal? - Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You’re only a stranger once. said

    [...] be drawn to find out more about. One way to draw them is to include Key Words in your blog title. Titles that Grab Readers are titles that simply say what the blog is [...]