That First Impression: Title Considerations
Enzo F. Cesario
Article Title:
That First Impression: Title Considerations
See TERMS OF REPRINT to the end of the article.
Article Description:
While it certainly isn't as much work as crafting the body
of a superior article, selecting a title for a piece is
definitely an important element of the entire process of
content creation. Here are some thoughts on crafting a
perfect title.
Additional Article Information:
===============================
860 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line
Distribution Date and Time: 2011-09-19 10:00:00
Written By: Enzo F. Cesario
Copyright: 2011
Contact Email: mailto:ennzo.f...@thephantomwriters.com
For more free-reprint articles by Enzo F. Cesario, please visit:
http://www.thePhantomWriters.com/recent/author/enzo-f_-cesario.html
=============================================
Special Notice For Publishers and Webmasters:
=============================================
HTML Copy-and-Paste and TEXT Copy-and-Paste
Versions Of Article Are Available at:
http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/c/blog-article-titles.shtml#get_code
---------------------------------------------------------------------
That First Impression: Title Considerations
Copyright (c) 2011 Enzo F. Cesario
BrandSplat
http://www.Brandsplat.com/
While it certainly isn't as much work as crafting the body of a
superior article, selecting a title for a piece is definitely an
important element of the entire process of content creation. The
title of an article is a multifunction web tool, providing
opportunities for engagement with the reader and search engine in
equal measure. Putting some thought into the title and how best
to leverage its effects will help title choices provide a solid
return on investment instead of burdening an otherwise good
project needlessly.
Making Wordplay Work
The necessity of a good title is rather self evident if one plays
a small game. Borrowed from Christopher Hitchens' autobiography,
Hitch 22, the game basically goes like this: Pick a popular movie
title and change it just slightly to get a "title that didn't
quite make it" � Quiet of the Lambs, American Pastry, Mister
Zhivago, the American Samurai and such all demonstrate the
importance of getting things just right. A small change can
eliminate the value of good wordplay or an entertaining twist of
phrase in favor of something more bland and pointless.
To that end, try to put some thought into the title. Reference
popular works � for example, a comparison piece doesn't go wrong
by referring to "A Tale of Two..." Alternatively, the title
could reference a key quotation or phrase within the body of the
text itself. Don't ignore something that seems to work, but
double check creative title ideas against someone else's
opinion, just to be sure.
Words are Key
The title is a crucial part of the Search Engine Optimization
process. Keyword spiders and algorithms often look at the first
words in an article, and the title is no exception. Having the
core keyword worked into the title will consistently help return
better results within Internet searches.
However, this comes with particular caveats: Some keywords,
particularly keyword phrases, are long and clunky and can
interfere with the aesthetics of a title. If the keyword phrase
in question is "how to brew your own beer," that's one thing.
A clever preface can be put before it, with how to brew your own
beer as a subtitle or addendum to the main line. On the other
hand, the keywords might be "Legal Advice Auto Accident," which
is more difficult to work into a clever title. Experiment with a
few approaches, and consider putting only a few of the keywords
into the title or breaking them up into a fresh sentence.
Another trick concerns where to put the title. In many blog posts
the title will have its own section. However, also consider
putting the title and its keywords into the body of the paragraph
itself. Some search engines ignore separate title fields and
focus on the content of the article itself, so this can help keep
a writer from robbing themselves of good keyword return.
Brevity, Please
Particularly in the academic world, titles of articles and papers
tend to be long and quite dense. "An Analysis of the Savior
Archetype in Modern English Literature" certainly tells us what
the paper is about, but could also easily be summed up as "The
Savior in Modern Literature" and loses nothing of its statement
of intent.
Further, keyword optimization becomes less effective the further
into a document one gets, and this includes the size of the
title. Proper keyword effect selects for shorter, more efficient
use of titles, so avoid the temptation to put the whole topic
into the title line. Go for simpler, brief word choices that
allow expression of the important information without going on
and on.
Hyphenated titles are very popular for this reason. A single word
can capture the intent of the message, such as "Betrayed," and
then be followed with keywords. To take an example from the news,
perhaps the keywords are "WikiLeaks" and "PayPal." The title
could then be "Betrayed � WikiLeaks Banned from PayPal."
To Joke or Not to Joke
Not every lighthearted article responds well to a joking title.
People are oddly finicky and picky about when they'll accept
humor, and the use of puns in a title is a risky gamble. Yet it
undoubtedly works � consider the example of the Focker movie
trilogy starring Ben Stiller.
Obviously if the article is a serious piece, a pun should be
avoided unless it's executed in the vein of dark humor. Serious
work demands a serious title.
However, an important rule of thumb is to be very cautious about
industries or groups in jokes. Consider for whom the article is
intended. If it is aimed at a wider public audience, such as a
newsletter or advertisement intended to bring people into a site
for discussion or purchases, then an excellent inside joke would
be misplaced. Not everyone understands the jargon, so it should
be limited. On the other hand, a specialty letter crafted
specifically for professionals of the plumbing craft could easily
get away with jokes about piping and other internally-recognized
puns. As with any online venture, the goal is clearly to keep the
audience first and foremost in mind when selecting a title,
rather than simply hoping they'll "get" it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist
and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content
agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos
and social media in the "voice" of our client's
brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more
recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to
http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at
http://www.iBrandCasting.com/
--- END ARTICLE ---
Get HTML or TEXT Copy-and-Paste Versions Of This Article at:
http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/c/blog-article-titles.shtml#get_code
.....................................
TERMS OF REPRINT - Publication Rules
(Last Updated: May 11, 2006)
Our TERMS OF REPRINT are fully enforcable under the terms of:
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2281.ENR:
.....................................
*** Digital Reprint Rights ***
* If you publish this article in a website/forum/blog,
You Must Set All URL's or Mailto Addresses in the body
of the article AND in the Author's Resource Box as
Hyperlinks (clickable links).
* Links must remain in the form that we published them.
Clean links should point to the Author's links without
redirects having been inserted into the copy.
* You are not allowed to Change or Delete any Words or
Links in the Article or Resource Box. Paragraph breaks
must be retained with articles. You can change where
the paragraph breaks fall, but you cannot eliminate all
paragraph breaks as some have chosen to do.
* Email Distribution of this article Must be done through
Opt-in Email Only. No Unsolicited Commercial Email.
* You Are Allowed to format the layout of the article for
proper display of the article in your website or in your
ezine, so long as you can maintain the author's interests
within the article.
* You may not use sentences from this article as an input
for any software that steals sentences from others in
order to build an article with software. The copyright on
this article applies to the "WHOLE" article.
*** Author Notification ***
We ask that you notify the author of publication of his
or her work. Enzo F. Cesario can be reached at:
ennzo.f...@thephantomwriters.com
*** Print Publication Reprint Rights ***
If you desire to publish this article in a PRINT
publication, you must contact the author directly
for Print Permission at:
mailto:ennzo.f...@thephantomwriters.com
.....................................
If you need help converting this text article for proper
hyperlinked placement in your webpage, please use this
free tool: http://thephantomwriters.com/link-builder.pl
Would you like to learn how to improve the performance of your
article marketing campaigns? Download our F.R.E.E. 108-page
Article Marketing Ebook at:
http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/advanced-article-marketing.html
*****************************************************************
*
* This email is being delivered directly to members of the group:
*
* Learning...@googlegroups.com
*
*****************************************************************
=====================================================================
ABOUT THIS ARTICLE SUBMISSION
http://thePhantomWriters.com/ is a paid article distribution
service. thePhantomWriters.com and Article-Distribution.com
are owned and operated by:
Bill Platt
3010 E Raintree
Stillwater, Oklahoma USA 74074
Learn more about our article distribution services by visiting:
http://thephantomwriters.com/x.pl/tpw/info/article-distribution/index.html
The content of this article is solely the property
and opinion of its author, Enzo F. Cesario
http://www.Brandsplat.com/
---------------------------------------------------------------------
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
---------------------------------------------------------------------