All too many pieces of content – well-written, researched and captivating – can fall through the cracks in the world of search engine optimization, social media and the broader public. There can be several reasons for this. Perhaps the website is not properly optimized in regards to SEO. Maybe the keywords targeted are not the ideal ones for maximum exposure. Perhaps another reason behind the struggle is that the titles used are not maximized to resonate with both search engines and readers alike. Content titles and sub-titles in this day and age matter on multiple levels, so optimizing them accordingly is essential. We’ll discuss how you can get the most out of your titles from both technical and abstract angles in the following article.

What Makes People Click?

When it comes to titles and headlines, the first and most important question to ask is: what makes people click on them? A variety of components go into the creation of good headlines, but pinging users with a headline optimized for their tastes is above all else the underlying theme. Three key data points have been observed from studying headlines and titles that do better than their competitors. The first is that there is clarification as to the type of content; this means that somewhere in the title, it says (PHOTOS), (VIDEO), (INFOGRAPHIC), etc. The second boost to a title’s performance is naturally including the word “photo” in it somewhere, which is different than the method mentioned prior. The third way to make someone click is to include the personal descriptor “who” in the title. These three tactics have been shown – both by themselves and when combined – to generate stellar results for content creators.

Title Parameters

Not only is the content of the title important for success, but the overall length matters in most circumstances, too. When sharing on social media networks such as Twitter, you want to be able to share the full title along with a link to the content: this means keeping the title at 115 characters or so. When maximizing visibility in search results, a title should aim to be 65 characters or less in order to be fully visible. The highest click through rates on article titles fall in the 80-100 character range, while the lowest click through rates are generally associated with the shortest titles. Oddly enough, the most engagement after clicking on the article seems to occur in articles that have titles between 20 and 40 characters.

Reducing Negative Effects

What can be done to avoid negative elements of title creation? For starters, the avoidance of pinging users with buzz words such as “now”, “free”, “easy”, “magic”, and so forth is a definite must-do. People subconsciously view these words as being associated with scams or less than truthful claims from precedent, and they are usually right. Not only will this lead to people not clicking on your article at ideal rates, but it tangibly affects the percentage of those who stick around (and those who convert).