I'm a bit stuck for titles! How important are they?

1. 68

   Sottwayposted 13 years ago

   After receiving some comments and messages it seems I'm getting a good few readers reaching my hubs which is great, however what isn't great is that a lot of visitors are being mislead without any intention. What I mean is I usually explain more than just one topic as a whole in my hubs and pick just one title... Is it a good idea to pick multiple titles together for one hub? For example I would like to keep relatively short and snappy titles, would a long one hinder my chances of being searched?
   
   How important are titles to our hubs?
   
   Many thanks, sottway

   replyreport
2. 59

   paradigmsearchposted 13 years ago

   Search engines aren't coordinated enough to recognize quality yet. Thus, one must put multiple keywords in titles. This is definitely just my own personal opinion.

   replyreport
   1. 73

      DzyMsLizzyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      This is what they mean by "long-tail" titles, is it not?

      replyreport
   2. 60

      couturepopcafeposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with paradigm.  When I started using title tuner and figuring out ways to incorporate their suggestions, I definately saw jumps.

      replyreport
3. 72

   DreamsInBloomposted 13 years ago

   Titles are Very important because they are what readers (and search engines) use to determine what an article is about. If a title does not accurately reflect what the article is about a reader may skip over the article in favor of another one. Or they might start to read it and think, "What does this have to do with Apples? This is about oranges!" A search engine kind of does the same thing...but it looks at your title and article and tries to put it all together as best as a bot can.
   
   Sometimes writers will have written something very good, but people aren't able to find the article as easily because the keywords in the title they used isn't actually something many people use to find information on about that subject. It's good to read about the basics of SEO (search engine optimization) to learn about this. Don't stress over SEO too much, much of it's just "theory" or more in depth than most writers need to know. But the basics are useful to know.
   
   Looking at your hubs I see you have one called, "Running Program For Beginners." But when I open it the first words I immediately see is, "So what is the Couch 2 5K? The Couch to 5 Kilometers challenge more commonly abbreviated as C25K..." So it looks like the topic of your article is the Couch 2 5K, but your article does not reflect that. Now obviously a lot of people (like me) would not know what that is. I would maybe make the title something like, "Couch 2 5K: A Running Program For Beginners." That is a very long title, which isn't really great (but too short can be bad too). But it will make it easier for people looking for info about the Couch 5 2K to find it. It will also attract people interested in trying out running to it since it explains what it is.
   
   As for your Cardiovascular System hub, which I am guessing is what prompted this question (based on the comments about it) I would maybe title it "The Basics of the Cardiovascular System"? But the "What Is The Cardiovascular System?" seems okay too. Maybe not for SEO purposes, but for readers I think it's just fine.
   
   I'm confused about your statement saying you write about more than one topic in a hub. I do not see where, for example, you write about Ferrari's and Wuthering Heights in one hub. All of your hubs seemed to be about just one topic to me.

   replyreport