How Important Are Headlines For Search Engine Optimisation?
Ensure Articles And Press Releases Gain Maximum Exposure With Good Headline Choice.
The headline is arguably the most important element in any form of copywriting, whether for an online audience, magazine or a newspaper. The reason why the headline is so important is that it helps the reader to decide, should I read this or shouldn’t I?
For search engine optimisation, consultants use varying techniques to ensure that their website’s appear in the top positions of search engine such as; Google, Yahoo and Bing. These techniques include article and press release writing and distribution. Not only does this generate back links and drive traffic to the website, but it also acts as a key brand building exercise.
However, to ensure that these articles and press releases are accessible to potential readers, SEO consultants need to place them in places with high levels of exposure and include headlines that will draw the reader in. They also need to think carefully about what the website’s customer is most likely to search for.
This is even more poignant due to the increasing use of social networking and bookmarking websites such as; Twitter, Facebook, Digg and Delicious.
Taking Twitter as an example; at just the push of a button users can spread a link to one of their articles or press releases to hundreds or even thousands of ‘followers,’ which can then be ‘re-tweeted’ numerous times. Essentially, the article or press release could eventually reach huge numbers of Twitter users.
Generally, Twitter users will include both the link to the post and the headline in their tweet. To stress the importance of the headline, in order for followers to re-tweet or even read the post it is essential that the headline draws them in and utilises popular key phrases.
Dan Zarrella from Copyblogger recently posted a blog, which included some of the most and least re-tweetable phrases. Here are some examples of how these could be included in a headline;
More likely to be re-tweeted-
- Take a look at this great new blog post about social media, please retweet!
Least likely to be re-tweeted-
- I’m really tired, going to bed, night!
As the web becomes more competitive than ever, it is really important that those practising search engine optimisation learn what Internet users are most likely to search for, optimising headlines is the first step towards gaining maximum exposure for articles and press releases.
