What’s in a title?
In the world of digital marketing, I can say very confidently – “There is everything in a title.”
Do you know 5 out of 10 web readers judge and/or reject an article by simply reading the title tags in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages)?
And, 8 out of 10 readers don’t read beyond the headlines of the articles on a blog, only because they don’t appeal. They lack the infotainment quotient. They are not so promising enough to fulfill their needs.
Nobody wants to remember the old saying “Never judge a book by its cover.” Of course, I’m not against a book with a good-looking cover + even better content. So, it's true that people judge an article by its headlines.
Table of Contents
Let me clear…
Lots of newbie bloggers and webmasters don’t give emphasis on the difference between article heading and title tag.
Article heading: It’s the piece of prominent line, on the body of the webpage, and at the beginning of the article. There are HTML hierarchies like H1, H2, H3, etc. for sub-heading, sub-sub-heading and so on…
Search engines give less importance to article heading comparative to title tag while ranking content in search results. So the headline of an article or web-page is more to do with human readers.
Title tag: It’s the piece of meta-data that appears in the <head> section, and usually show up at the top of your browser window and on the search engine result pages. Most of the search engines show the initial 60 -70 characters of title tags of web-pages.
The main difference is – Article heading is what you show to your readers and title tag is what you show to search engines.
Why the hack…
You can lure your blog readers with your witty headlines. But can you do the same thing to search engine bots? Because they are the ones, who index your blog post, rank it in SERPs and send real human beings to your blog.
For getting real human readers, that also targeted, you have to convince search engine bots. Search engine bots are considered super-intelligent, but without eyes, ears and even real brain.
It’s the title tag located in your <head> section through which you should convey or you should make them understand – What your web-page is all about. What your blog post actually offers to web-readers.
Question: Why most webmasters keep the title tag and article heading same, most of the time? Why not a keyword-rich and genuine title tag for search engines, and a clever and witty one to blog post readers?
Answer: It’s such a game that you can’t hit 2 birds with one stone, even though you are a genius with IQ of 145 and over. But still, lots of webmasters and bloggers keep the title tag and blog post headline same. Not to hit 2 birds at a time; but to ‘be safe from search engine penalties,’ and may be due to ignorance.
Who knows, when Google will change the rule in the game of search, penalizing millions of websites. The reason – showing different things to search engine robots and human readers.
Showing one message (title tag) on the search engine result page and a different one (heading) on the actual article clearly violates the guidelines of best practices for webmasters. It’s an unwritten rule, which can be added anytime in the future. This is just like cloaking, showing one thing and offering something else.
So, What Should Be Your Approach?
Craft simple, self-explanatory and creative article headings, keeping your target keywords in your mind. Put your keywords judiciously and keep it for search engines. And reserve the witty part for your blog readers.
And always keep the ‘Article Heading‘ and ‘Title Tag‘ same; thereby hitting 2 birds with 1 stone! By pleasing the search engine and winning the hearts of your readers.
It’s such a game, where you can actually hit 2 birds with 1 stone. My apology for contradicting my previous statement 
So, what’s your take? Add your wit in the comments below.
2 Comments
Being part of SEO community i am completely aware about the importance of the Title. Title is the most important factor of any article. You have provided an absolute information regarding the importance of the Title. It would be very much helpful to the beginners to this field. Thank you for sharing this information.
Great Thanks Swati!!!