Article Titles–The first 3 words count!

Have you ever thought about how important your article titles are?

In your title your 3 objectives are: 

1) To convey what your article is about.

2) To capture a reader's attention, which will in turn inspire them to read your article.

3) To include your keywords.

But how to do you accomplish all 3 of these goals?

One tactic that works:

Pay special attention to the first 3 words of your title.

Remember, people are "reading on the run"–hopping from web page to web page, scanning lists of article titles and scanning search engine results.

Although your article title may be catchy or clever or funny, remember it's not a given that people have time to read long titles to get the gist of what your article is about. 

On top of that, search engines are looking at your title to try to decipher what your article is about, so you want to be sure that your title is descriptive, to the point, and accurately conveys to the search engines (and your readers) what's in store for them when they start reading your article.

Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't write longer, clever, funny or catchy titles–I love doing that, and I think it's a bit of an art form to write a creative title. 

But what I encourage you to do is to experiment with paying special attention to the first 3 words in your title, and be sure that those first 3 words say something that will let the reader know what the article is about. 

Here's an example from my own article submissions:

Article Marketing: How Small Business Owners Drive Traffic To Their Websites

Now, I could have used this title:

How Small Business Owners Drive Traffic To Their Websites With Article Marketing

But instead I chose to put my most important words at the beginning of the article–these are words that a potential customer might actually be typing into Google when they're doing a search to reach a site like mine. 

Bonus Tips:

Be sure that your title describes what your article is about.

It's fine to put your keywords in your title provided that your article is about the topic of your keywords.

Sometimes it may be tempting to squeeze your keywords into your title even when the article is not specifically about the topic of your keywords–RESIST! 

To be honest, that looks spammy, and it's something I hope you avoid doing! 

This means that if your keywords are "New Jersey Gyms", then if you want to include those words in your title, you need to provide information specific to New Jersey Gyms in the body of your article. If your article is just about gyms in general, then you wouldn't put anything about New Jersey in your title. 

Remember your human readers–your title can contain your keywords and still be creative and enticing.

Sometimes I see folks using the same titles over and over like this:

Article 1: Sailing Boats–Morocco

Article 2: Morocco–Sailing Boats

Article 3: Sailing Boats in Morocco

Article 4: Morocco's Sailing Boats

A bit repetitive and not that descriptive or exciting, right? We can do better than that!

Let's say your keywords are "Morocco's Sailing Boats", you can include those words in the title (and put them as the first 3 words), but you would also provide some more specific information as to what the article is about specifically.

(And remember, you can only include the word "Morocco" in your title if your article specifically deals with Morocco). 

So, we've got some very simple guidelines here–

1) Wisely choose the first 3 words of your title.

2) Be sure that your title conveys what your article is about.

3) Do NOT only put your keywords in your title–give more specific information in addition to your keywords, information that would entice readers to want to read your article.

Photo Credit:

Wooden Boat – Sailing – Port Townsend By tiarescott

Related Resources:

How To Appropriately Use Your Keywords In Your Article Titles

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