Guest Post by Brandon Hopkins, let me know if you would also like to get a guest post published on Cornwallseo.com
There is no shortage of people telling you how to write killer headlines (my personal favorite is Brian Clark’s, How to Write Magnetic Headlines), but what these headline experts fail to mention is how a headline affects your search engine rankings.
I wasn’t born yesterday, and neither were you so we both know that a good headline should use your keywords and be compelling. After all, you do want people to click right? In addition to being compelling and using those keywords, you also need to make sure that you’re different.
Take a minute and go to Google and search for just about any 3 word phrase that a normal person might search for. I searched for “funny cat videos” and “top 100 songs” those two searches give some interesting information if you know what to look for.
Take a look at the titles for the top 10 results. Do you see any duplications? Do you see 2 sites that have the same title? That right there is a big secret many people are missing and they don’t even realize it. Are you creating a new niche blog about funny cat videos? Guess what, if your title is “Funny Cat Videos”, you’ll have a hard time ranking on the first page since Google usually only allows one site with that title. This means for you to reach the front page Google will remove the other site with that title and move them to the second page.
Go ahead and look through the first 5 pages of search results for “funny cat videos”. Do you see any identical titles on any of the pages? I didn’t think so.
What does this mean for your website?
1. Avoid the Urge To Simplify. Even though you really want to rank for “funny cat videos”, make sure and title your page “Watch Funny Cat Videos Online!” Using a title that isn’t already in the top 10 will ensure that you don’t have to force Google to choose between your site and an already established site that is ranking well. There is room for you both to coexist! Hopefully you’ll exist in the number 1 spot!
2. Write Compelling Headlines for Every Page. Don’t be lazy with your authority (or Pillar) content. For many niche sites, it’s tempting to just use your main key phrase (funny cat videos) as the title. Make every title compelling (Top 100 Funny Cat Videos).
3. Check the SERP’s Before Finalizing Your Title. If you’re great title is already being used by a site in the top 10, I would suggest changing your title.
4. Reevaluate Your Titles. Just because you had to use a different title doesn’t mean you can’t eventually change your title back to your main key phrase. Once you’re in the top spot, you can experiment with small variations to see if you can increase your click through ratio by just changing a few words.
5. Use Your Company Name. If your keywords don’t lend themselves to compelling titles then you can always use your company name or domain name. Take Ezilon for example, in the web directory market, you have to make yourself distinct. Ezilon did that by creating a regional directory.
While duplicate titles might be a very small ranking factor, it’s definitely something to keep an eye on!
Brandon Hopkins builds links for small and large companies all over the world. You can contact him at his Fresno web design website for more information on getting your site ranked #1!