Titles of Online Articles: Are They Important?

In the slightly more-than-a-year that I've been writing for Associated Content, I've noticed a pattern. Though I've written a mere 14 articles, I have attempted to give each of them (and plan to give each subsequent) equal attention to quality. I can however, admit that some have turned out better than others have; that's going to happen every once in a while.

But the pattern I see emerging has little to do with the content of the story and more to do with the substance of the title. As I learn the intricacies of writing online, I find that gone are the clever or evocative titles of print. Instead, an online writer has to be mindful of search engines, spiders, web crawlers (not related to the web-slinging superhero) and other keyword analyzers.

For example, one of my earliest, least-sought-after, and yet quite possibly one of my most amusing articles, is "My Son's First, and Hopefully Only Encounter with the Belt." In the 16 months since first published, it has only 12 more page views than an appropriately titled article I published only three days ago. In my naïveté, I was going for the shock value of a vague title meant to evoke curiosity; something that were it in print, would make you stop and read further. At the time I didn't know about search engine optimization (SEO), so it didn't work out the way I planned.

Being a novice, I hadn't considered the importance of keywords; hadn't even given it a thought. The body of the story is a true, somewhat humorous, anecdote about a visit to a department store when my son got his fingers caught in a conveyor belt. I figued the story would carry its own weight. But the long, ambiguous title doesn't convey the content, so it shows up on very few if any searches.

According to ezinearticles.com, in order to have your article appear in search engine results, the first three to five words should be rich with keywords, those words that most closely define your subject. This article turns out to be a reflection of how parenting is an unknown and that, even when we are at our most diligent, our kids can and will still get into mischief.

More fitting may have been: "Raising Children: You Can't Take Your Eyes Off Them" or "Parenting Tips: Things Can Happen to Your Kids, Too." It goes without saying that people are more likely to search for 'raising children' and 'parenting tips' than 'my son's first encounter', which one year later makes far more sense. There is need for a blend between clever and specific when working with the Internet, one I am slowly starting to figure out.

In contrast to the above mentioned piece, people have visited my most recent article, "Ten Ideas for Feeling Young Again" at a much more acceptable rate. The title is clearer, and one doesn't need to read the article to know what's going on (though I hope you will). Also, having the words 'feeling young' in the title makes it a likely winner.

Similarly, my satirical "Interview with a Helicopter Mom" and "High School Graduation: 2009" are doing much better than "ICan't Believe She Said That". 'Helicopter parents' seem to be a hot-button feature at this time, and this is the perfect time of year to talk about 'high school graduation.' And the nice thing about such timely articles is that it will likely appear in search engines every year at this time. "I Can't Believe She Said That" will have to rely on click-throughs to my "Other Content" page.

It's true that the author needs to find a poetic balance between keywords and substance within the article as well. But for the purpose of this narrative the title is king. And so, while I haven't cornered the market on SEO or keywords, apparently I'm learning from my mistakes. Use this information, that you might learn from them as well.