Article Marketing is not just about the articles–the title you select for your article will also have a n enormous impact on the volume of readers who click through to read your article. It will also effect how the search engines view the content you have produced.

I received the following question recently, and it perfectly conveys the confusion that can surround the topic of article titles.

“I have been told by some people that I should create titles for my article submissions that are as close to my key phrase as possible and other people have told me I should focus on my readers. So, what is the right answer? Should I be creating titles with the search engines in mind or my readers?”

This is a fantastic question, and the answer is that ideally your title would appeal to both search engines and to human readers.

If you cannot do both, then writing for your readers will take priority. After all, if the publishers aren’t interested in your article, then your article will not be republished and there’s no real benefit. Initially you have to produce a title that your human readers will find attractive, however, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep those keywords to the top of your mind.

With a little effort you will be able to create titles that are captivating to your human readers and appeal to Google and the other search engines.

Here are some tips for doing just that:

1 – If possible, try to put your keyword phrase as close to the beginning of the title as possible, preferably within the first three words. For example, if your keywords are “Dog Training”, you could create a title that places those words at the beginning of the title, such as:

Dog Training For Beginners

Dog Training: 7 Tips for Teaching Your Dog To Walk On A Leash

2 – If your keyword phrase has a grammar or spelling issue, then don’t use it, especially not in the title.

3 – There are different types of key phrases– “long-tail” ones are usually 3-8 words long and are much more specific than the shorter main word keyphrases that are usually 2-3 words long.

Using the example above, “dog training” is the main keyword phrase.

One of the long-tail key phrases on this topic might be “how to house train a dog”.

As you can see, the long-tail key phrase would make a nice title just as it is. Many times the longer phrases are easily converted to titles that are reader and search engine friendly.

4 – Just because you’re trying to write a title that incorporate words that people are searching for in Google doesn’t mean that you can’t add words to the title to make it more interesting.

Let’s say that your keywords are “organic vegetable gardening”. You could make tons of titles from this phrase:

Organic Vegetable Gardening: How To Plant A Winter Garden

Organic Vegetable Gardening For Beginners

What is Organic Vegetable Gardening?

5 – Stay away from titles that just look like keywords. The title should tell what the article is about, specifically. That’s the real purpose of the title, to help readers know what the topic of the article is.

So, do not think that producing a keyword rich title means that you are handcuffed and cannot make a title that’s also interesting. Ensure that always keep in mind what the title is for—describing what the article will be about. The title is firstly to serve humans, but with some creativity and thought you can also craft your title to appeal to search engines as well.

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