You just finished writing your first post—congrats! But, wait: Did you remember to fill out the page title and meta description fields? Not sure what to write for them? Learn more about how to leverage these two elements to grab readers’ attention and get them to click on your post.
Creating Magnetic Title Tags
Title tags—usually the same as the name of your post—are one of the most important ways to attract readers to your blog. According to Copyblogger, eight out of 10 people will read a headline, but only two out of 10 will go on to read the rest. Here’s how to create compelling titles that grab attention and make readers want to click.
There are four main pillars to crafting a killer headline: show a benefit/meet a need, grab attention, keep it simple, and use keywords.
- Show the benefit/meet a need - When people use search engines, they’re looking for information to fulfill a need or solve a problem they’re having. For example, busy moms are always looking for new ideas on meals they can make for their families that are fast and easy. If you write a post on this topic, be sure to include the benefits—quick and easy—in your title. Get creative with it to make yours stand out (e.g. 5-minute Meals for Moms on the Go).
- Grab attention - Writing attention-grabbing headlines is easier than you may think. A great source of inspiration? Magazine covers. They’ve mastered the art of short titles that draw you in and make you want to read more—often by using how-to’s, top lists, etc. Titles written to make a user think they may be missing out on something also work well (e.g. The Top 5-Minute Meal Every Mom Should Master).
- Keep it simple - Titles should be short and to the point so users can quickly and easily grasp what your post is about.
- Use keywords - After you’ve completed keyword research for your post, you should incorporate these terms into your title. This 1) helps Google understand what your post is about and 2) shows users your post is relevant to their search query. Focus first on writing for your readers, and work keywords in naturally.
When it comes to displaying titles in the search results, Google will typically show the first 60-65 characters. Try to keep your title within this range so the full text is displayed vs. truncated.
Marketing Your Post with Meta Descriptions
A meta description is the text displayed under your page title on a search engine results page. Google only shows the first 150 characters of your meta description tag—anything longer than this will be truncated. If you don’t provide text for the meta description tag—or Google doesn’t find it relevant enough to a search query—Google may instead opt to use content found within your post. Check out the examples below of 1) a truncated description 2) an instance where a tag wasn’t provided, so Google chose content from the page to display and 3) a description written to fit the 150-character guideline.
While meta description tags no longer provide SEO value, they do give you an opportunity to create engaging text to make users want to read your post. When writing your description, be sure to include your most important keyword (in the above example, it may be “cooking blogs”). Why does that matter? Well, when someone searches for your keyword, that term will be bolded if it appears in your meta description. This helps the user quickly identify that your blog is relevant to what they’re looking for and makes it more likely they’ll visit your page.
In addition to keywords, write a description that tells readers what your post is about and how it can help them solve a problem they have or fulfill a need–just as you did with your page title. Back to the cooking blog example, the third result—Delish.com—does this well. They start the description with an action verb to draw people in (“enjoy”), then go on to list the benefits of the post, which would be recipes for good-tasting, healthy, and easy-to-prepare vegetarian foods. Then they end it with a question to make readers want more.
So, there you have it. To get people to click on your post, just remember to focus on your audience and the problem you’re solving for them, include a few keywords, and you’ll soon be attracting new readers to your blog!
