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How to Title Your Blog!

By Sandra Beck

Services for Real Estate Pros with Motherhood Incorporated

June 30, 2008 06:16 AM

by Sandra Beck and Shannon Penrod

Would you like for 1 million people to read your blog? It's possible. It could even happen today. There are a great number of news services and news readers that troll the internet looking for interesting content to disseminate to their readers. Everyday your blog competes with billions of other blogs for a star studded position on one of these services. Does your Blog have the "Write Stuff" to get picked up? Let's start with the title.

First of all have a title - and putting the date and the name of the weblog don't count as a title! If we think of the title as part of a billboard that you are sending out to the universe then it seems obvious that we wouldn't want to waste this opportunity on anything as mundane as the date.

Blog titles can be cute and clever, but make sure you don't outsmart yourself. If people don't understand it they are likely to pass it by. Try to include one or two keywords in your title, if you are an escrow company and escrow is what you are writing about, don't be afraid to use the word escrow. A blog title should suggest content.

You may be blogging as a way to market your business, but for the title focus on content driven info. For this blog I titled it "How to Title Your Blog", in hopes that people who are interested in maximizing their blogging time will find their way here. Part of marketing yourself on the internet is sharing your expertise, so title your blogs to let readers know what you will be sharing.

Lastly, keep titles short. Different search engines and news readers accept a different number of characters, and you don't want your title to be cut off right before a keyword.

Check back for more blog marketing tips. Next time I'll be talking about your blog's all important first sentence.

Comments(17)

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Ron Moore

RE/MAX Professionals/Regal Builders - Retired - Florence, SC

MOORE Thoughts

Sandra, can you give examples with your suggestions? Thanks.

Jun 30, 2008 06:22 AM

Patrick Lambert

ALLY Real Estate - Waikoloa, HI

Hawaii Real Estate Expert

Thanks for the info. Taking the time to do this stuff the "write" way, gives you google power. Have a great day.

Jun 30, 2008 06:22 AM

Dana Hollish Hill

Hollish Hill Group, JPAR Stellar Living - Bethesda, MD

REALTOR * Broker * Coach

Good ideas and great title. I think a lot of people have odd laundry lists as their titles and it becomes too confusing.

Thanks for your tips,

Dana Hollish Hill

Jun 30, 2008 06:28 AM

Peter Nikic

Broad & Bailey Realty LLC - Valhalla, NY

Sandra, what do you think were some of your best titles?

how about other peoples titles that really caught your attention?

anyone else have any to share?

Jun 30, 2008 06:36 AM

Anne Hensel

South Beaches Real Estate Professionals - Saint Petersburg, FL

Realtor - Broker - St. Pete Beach, Treasure Island

Hi Sandra

Thanks for the information, and it makes sense BUT

I have the hardest time to figure out what is a good title.

What will catch their interest?

What will show up in the search engines?

What keywords do people use?

Jun 30, 2008 06:44 AM

Jimmy McCall

JimmyMcCall.com - Cunningham, TN

The Ex-Mortgage Consultant

Sandra, Good points. I mean how many Jimmy's Blog do you think are out there? I chose my city to title mine. Clarksville Mortgage Blog. I think it lets people know what I am focusing on in the blog.

Jun 30, 2008 06:46 AM

IMNJ - Internet Marketing Specialist

Internet Marketing NJ - Red Bank, NJ

Page titles are critical to a successful post. There are two ways to think about a title:

1. An eye popper that begs to be clicked

- or -

2. A Search Engine Optimized Title

I think in most cases you are better off with 1 because the SEO of page title is somewhat limited in AR. Specifically, if you look at the URL formed when you create a title it is limited to the first four words. For example look the URL of this post has "how-to-title-your".

Think creatively. Look at the posts you have recently clicked on. Look at some of the top bloggers and blogs posts. Try to analyze why that caught your attention, then try to apply lessons learned in your own blog titles.

Hope this helps.

Jun 30, 2008 07:03 AM

Zachry Feuer

eXp Realty - Denver, CO

Thanks for the simple tips. I am fairly new at this and this seems to be a good place to start!

Jun 30, 2008 11:17 AM

Glenn Sanford

eXp Realty & Working The Magic, LLC - Bellingham, WA

I would say... Blog today and get a million readers in the future. Even though there is the remote chance that one will blog an amazing blog that gets picked up simultaneously by multiple bloggers who will in turn influence other bloggers and syndicate your post by reference, the more likely outcome may be that it gets picked up by Google and the other search engines and over time (days, weeks and months) some of the key phrases ring true to other readers to the extent that they read your blog and link to you, thus creating the upward migration of a blog post to full blown stardum...

Even though spiders like Google and other search engines will capture the content, it won't be until it sees how well other people rate your content that they will make it high search relevant.

So write a great piece today and watch a steady stream of traffic work its way to your site.

Jun 30, 2008 12:18 PM

Sandra Beck

Motherhood Incorporated - Beverly Hills, CA

I'll be writing more on this topic in the coming week, so stay tuned. But for those of you who asked for examples- try to think of who you are writing for -when you go onto the internet what do you want to read about?

If your audience is realtors and your topic is selling in today's market - don't title the blog "Today's Realtor", title it "How to be a Top Producer in Today's Market" or "5 Easy Steps to be a Top Producer in Today's Market" - let the reader know that they will get content they are dying for.

Sandra

Jun 30, 2008 08:55 PM

Peter Nikic

Broad & Bailey Realty LLC - Valhalla, NY

Sandra, are you talking about a blog title (subject) or your main blog page?

my blog is titled "Peter's Blog" (this was by default when I originally created my blog). I've thought about re-naming it, but haven't done so yet.

or do you mean the subject of a blog/post?

Jul 01, 2008 01:51 AM

Kerry Lucasse

eXp Realty - Urban Nest Real Estate Group - Atlanta, GA

Your Urban Nest Atlanta Real Estate Consultant

I've been planning to create my AR "outside blog" for the past week or so, but am stuck on the Blog Headline or Title. There are SO many blog sites out there with the name "XYZ City Real Estate Info / News" or "Buying & Selling Real Estate in XYZ City. That may help to get picked up by the search engines, but your blog will be #20 or #50 on the list of similarly-named blogs.

I guess my next step will be to go check out the competition in my local market and make sure my title stands out from the crown... and gets noticed by the search engines!

Thanks for the post!

Jul 01, 2008 02:18 AM

Mary Jo Schaffer

Sweetheart Realty - Bandera, TX

Bandera Texas Real Estate

I'm totally confused- should the title be short and sweet or long and all including?

Mary Jo Schaffer

Jul 01, 2008 01:32 PM

Ken Land

Fairway Independent Mortgage - Weddington, NC

NMLS#108157

Really good ideas here - thank you for the ideas, suggestions & dialog here -

Jul 01, 2008 02:34 PM

Sandra Beck

Motherhood Incorporated - Beverly Hills, CA

Peter - I was talking about the title of an individual blog (subject) but I would encourage you to add your area of expertise into the name of your overall blog. You could write the Pleasantville Albanian Investment Real Estate News, it would create more of the traffic you are looking for than "Peter's Blog"

Just a suggestion.

Shannon Penrod

Motherhood Incorporated

Jul 01, 2008 02:37 PM

Sandra Beck

Motherhood Incorporated - Beverly Hills, CA

Mary Jo,

It depends on the subject - short and sweet is always better when possible, sometimes you have to go longer because of the subject.

Shannon Penrod

Motherhood Incorporated

Jul 01, 2008 02:39 PM

William "Bill" and Karen Farragher

EXIT Blue Water Realty, Matawan, NJ 07747 - Matawan, NJ

SFR

Blog, Blog, Blog... lol for those of us that are not the y gen we have a lot of catching up to do. Syndication..what is that about... million readers? How does that happen.. where do these things go anyway... who else looks at them and how do they find them.... by now you have figured out that I haven't got a clue.

I started bogging because it is a great way to exchange ideas and information. Looking forward to learning more as I go.

Thanks for the information about Titles.

Sincerely,

Bill

Jul 01, 2008 04:41 PM