Advice; Is a clever title always best, or a more google-able title?

1. 67

   Justin Earickposted 11 years ago

   
   Does it boil down to whether I am more concerned with fishing for more clicks, or making a quality product for my own pride? 
   Is a google-friendly title selling out for mere pennies, or just a means to an end?
   I guess once I start writing it down... I talk to myself, I know.
   I need more opinions.
   
   http://justinearick.hubpages.com/hub/Je … r-Liberals
   
   Do I want more Christians to read it and see how liberal Jesus was... or do I want more liberals to read it and have more bible verses to reference?   WWJD?

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      wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I don't see an SEO title as selling out.  If google won't rate you no one will ever see it anyway - you have to tell google what the hub is about if you want it read.  Google doesn't learn much from catchy, attractive titles.
      
      Use your title to let big G know what you're writing about, then, and use the summary (hopefully shown by google) to attract and hook the readers you want.

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      1. 67

         Justin Earickposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         You are right.  I guess I was weighing hubpages-generated traffic too heavily, when google searches are more effective so long as my title fits a search query.  Thanks.

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         1. 84

            Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            A lot of newbies make that mistake.  The active HubPages community is actually very small, and you'll run out of readers extremely quickly if you target them as your main audience!    Write your title for Google and your summary to catch your reader's attention.

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2. 83

   Simone Smithposted 11 years ago

   Hahaa, that's a lot of questions!
   
   Re: titles- we find that if you don't have a descriptive, search-friendly title, you're not likely to even show up in search engine listings.
   
   Does it help if the title is witty, too? Absolutely! It could help a searcher choose your Hub over the article of another. But that searcher won't even see the title if it is not, first and foremost, search-friendly.

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3. 60

   LindaSmith1posted 11 years ago

   Also use keyword in title but the title has to make sense too.

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4. 0

   Miriam Weissmannposted 11 years ago

   My titles are obviously designed with Google in mind, but if I can make something clever using keywords, then it's an added bonus. Concentrate on your meta description/summary to entice potential readers.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      What meta tags?  They do not exist on HubPages.

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         weekendposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Miriam is talking about what you call the 'summary'.

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            Miriam Weissmannposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Right. The meta description is the summary you see in search results. I should have explained better.
            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_tag#T … _attribute

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               Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Ah, you edited your post to change "meta tags" to "meta description" after I posted my question.

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                  weekendposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  From what I saw, she only added the word 'summary'. Not that I think it really matters to be honest.

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                  1. 0

                     Miriam Weissmannposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     It doesn't matter, so please leave it alone.

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                  2. 84

                     Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     No, in her original post she referred to "meta tags", not "meta description".   I know what a meta description is, so if Miriam had used that word when she first wrote her post, I would not have felt any need to make a comment.
                     
                     There is no way you can tell what Miriam changed when she edited her post, because when you change the original quote, it changes all instances, even ones which have been imported into another post.
                     
                     I'm not sure why you think it's worth commenting on, though.  I was not having a go at Miriam, only explaining why I had made a comment which didn't seem relevant.

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5. 67

   Astra Nomikposted 11 years ago

   I asked some writers from Hub Pages who write poetry whether they ever used the word poem or poet or even poetry in a summary or description of their poetry hubs. Many did not do so, saying that those "words" were not part of their poems.
   
   On the web, things are presented differently from in print. Magazines would look funny with cloud tags on the pages. And many writers don't bother with descriptions or keywords.
   
   In an analog world, some things still work only a certain way, and that's the way it may always be. Who knows.

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6. 58

   A Driveby Quipperposted 11 years ago

   Take my advice. I never use it.

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