Make Your Post Title Count

I don’t know about you, but I typically zoom through my feed reader. Most of the time I’m just skimming post titles and deciding from there whether or not I will read an article. My time is precious, so if someone can’t catch my eye in a sentence, I won’t be spending time on their site. Guess what? I’m not the only web user that does this, which means you better bring your A game when titling your post.

Keys To Better Titles

1. Include key words from the article in your title. This gives people an idea of what the post is about and helps with Google in the long run.
2. Don’t title your post too predictably. When deciding between two titles, always choose a more controversial one even if the article is not controversial.
3. Bring your personality into the titles. From recent titles on RailsTips, you can probably tell that I am slightly on the crazy side. HTTParty Goes Commando, Look at the Size of My Footer, and Git’n Your Shared Host On are just a sampling of them.
4. Title your post, write it, then re-title it. Personally, I need a title from the start so that I stay on topic. Typically, the first title I pick is very drab so I usually spend about 5 minutes contemplating other titles after the post is fully written and proofed.

Practical Example

It wouldn’t be very helpful if I just spewed out edicts on how to title if I didn’t give you a practical example, eh? A while back, several RailsTips readers mentioned that they would enjoy a post on jQuery and Rails. Having recently completed a bunch of jQuery, I put a post together originally titled “jQuery on Rails”.

You might say what is wrong with this title? Well, after analyzing it for a bit it occurred to me that it would only hit a small audience—namely people who are interested in jQuery but haven’t tried it. I thought back to when I was solely a Prototype user and how I typically glossed over jQuery articles because I thought why bother? I didn’t care about jQuery, thus, I didn’t care about apathetically titled jQuery posts.

Then it occurred to me: “jQuery on Rails: Why Bother?”. This would interest the same people who would have been drawn in by the first title, but it also hits two more demographics.

First, it would probably intrigue a few Prototype developers who have literally been thinking what is all the fuss? Why should I bother?

Second, it would probably intrigue jQuery developers who read the title as me saying, seriously people, why should anyone bother with jQuery. It is worth nothing. Those jQuery developers would flock to the post in hopes to flame me for knocking their favorite JavaScript framework.

By adding two words to the title of my post, I made it a little more controversial and the post was a great success. Despite being written over a month ago, it is in the top 15 most viewed posts on RailsTips. Next time you go to blawg, think about the title. Think about it from a reader’s perspective.

The more you put yourselves in the shoes of your readers, the more successful your blawg will be.