The title of a blog post, article, or press release plays a major role in attracting visitors to a site. A catchy title creates a good first impression and on web first impressions matter a lot. Also, it plays an important role SEO wise. If you are looking for ways to write great title, here are some tips that will help you:
Title should be based on the content
Before assigning a title, go through the content. The title should reflect the points/facts presented in the content. If the visitor lands on a site where the title has nothing to do with the content, he/ she is very likely to be annoyed and will avoid the site in the future. An ideal title should be short, focused, informative and concise. Avoid diffused titles as they do not provide clarity to the reader. And remember search engines love what web-users love! Here's an example how to go about it - if you are an SEO company offering services in New York, have New York included in the title with the keywords for that page. A suitable keyword can be- "affordable SEO services in New York".
Avoid using keywords too much (avoid stuffing)
It is not always desirable to use the popular keywords in your title as competition on that keyword is also going to be high. Use right (generally higher search volume) keywords near the beginning of the page title. Also avoid using too many keywords in the title. If your title is just a collect of many keywords, your site will preferably not be clicked. (keep highly searched keyword at first position)
Use numbers
"10 tips for the perfect anniversary" is much more effective than "tips for the perfect anniversary". Percentages do equally well. "65% of our customers select mango jelly" is more effective than "most of our customers select mango jam". Numerical increase the click rate which in turn positively affects search engine rankings.
Create a sense of urgency
Creating a sense of urgency in your title is a great way to make visitors click your site. Titles like "50% of flight deals end Friday", "Just 30% of art work left", make a sense of urgency that instigates readers to click and visit your website. But make sure that the urgency is real and not fake.
Chuck out needless words
Cut out words like as, of, at, over, in, on, into, etc. that are not really necessary. They are waste of space in a title.
Not more than 65 characters
Finish off your title within 65 characters. Google ignores text written after that.
Brand promotion
It is better not to include brand name in the title. But still if you insist, use them towards the end of the page title.
Use plurals
Plurals will optimize your page for both the singular and the plural version. Supposing, a finance company offers home loan services, then the title should have home loans and not home loan. Home loans will optimize the page for both home loan and home loans.
Both upper and lower case
Using either upper case or lower case letters completely in title is not recommendable as most people do not like such presentation. Blend upper and lower cases appropriately.
Avoid value proposition
Avoid stating in the title that site should rank #1, without knowing why it's helpful to searchers. Do not use titles like- "we are number 1 in offering face messages", and the like.
Well all the tips that you have highlighted are just great. I do feel that titles must be relevant to your content. Apart from this, chuckling out unnecessary words and also make it as short as possible. A short title is always more preferrable than long ones. Thanks for the share!!