Am I the only one who finds a significant amount of irony in the title of this story:
Changing of the Guard: How Dan Pulcrano Became The Point Man in the Historic March From Old Media to the New World Online
If it’s all about new media how about you write a title with a search engine in mind and not a magazine or trade paper. How about you write with some keywords that people might actually search for? How about you stop putting in useless words? How about we stop pretending we are coming up with names like “brisk and misty autumn dawn” for a paint color that’s really orange.
OK fine how would I do it …
Dan Pulcrano Building Domains into Media Businesses
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Interesting point. So easy to forget those search engines sometimes, when the literary gene takes over!
Admittedly, the original title is a bit long-winded and leaves something to be desired… but, to be honest, I would probably click on the original, before your examples.
Yeah for sure an interesting point… i also rather do short title, then the longer ones.. although in the long ones are more words, that can rank for that title.
DNJournal is a highly respected publication in the domain industry, consulted almost without exception when the mainstream press does articles on the domain market and anyone seriously interested in the subject will find themselves there regardless of search engines.
The pages are written to be read by people and Ron writes headlines he believes will appeal to people, not Google’s bot. When your entire online business is nothing more than just a commodity dependent on rankings because really, let’s face it, your sites could fall off the internet overnight and nobody would really care, you need to suck up to the search bots.
When you add true and unique value to a market not available elsewhere, people will find you. Try it sometime, you might even find it more personally rewarding than sitting around bitching about Google’s latest changes to THEIR website.
The long title? Forget it. After the 5th word or so I’ve lost interest and I will go on without clicking it. I prefer short titles that tell me what it’s about. I am more likely to click a short title than a long one. And the long title in this post, Not only did it loose my interest, it was confusing.
let’s face it, your sites could fall off the internet overnight and nobody would really care, you need to suck up to the search bots.
Wow, I don’t really know who DP is, but I’m guessing not an expert on promoting positive personal brand awareness.
Constructive Criticism – It’s not a bad thing.
“How about we stop pretending we are coming up with names like “brisk and misty autumn dawn†for a paint color that’s really orange.”
I wish I had written that! Very well said!!!!
@dp you missed the point, why use 50 words when 5 will do?
I’m allying with the “long-winded” camp. It’s a sensibility thing.
Moreover, since the subject’s name has no authority for me, Michael’s proposals don’t draw me in at all.
I *will* admit you have to *find* an article before you can *read* the article, so SEO *does* have a place at the table.
It’s just not always the *head* of the table!
Even the long title does not tell me who Dan Pulcrano is, nor why I should read about him doing what so many others are doing.
I see both sides of the argument, but in this case think that I’ll side with the author.
DNJournal is the de-facto industry publication for the domain industry. Ron writes long, in-depth articles that have the feel of a magazine feature rather than that of a blog post (which is how most of us think these days).
If he was writing a paragraph or two post, a short title might be better. But in the context of his articles, his site, and the way they are written the titles he does use fit better with his articles than any of the short titles that are written.
Maybe it doesn’t look good in a feed reader and it may not drive as much search traffic – but in the context of his site and his audience I actually prefer his title vs any of the suggested ones.
@gordon but why not make the HTML title different from the post title, this way you get the best of both worlds. You appeal to the spiders with a short KW rich title where they want it, and on the page you give people what they want (I hate that long title but some of you seem to prefer it … go figure).
here’s a more in depth tutorial
http://www.wolf-howl.com/seo/seo-wordpress-titles-posts-filenames-slugs/
I’m sure there’s a CMS hurdle to clear, but after that it’s smooth sailing
Michael – Completely agree on the page title for SE’s needing to be better…i just like the current article title….
plus, it looks like this in the google serps
Changing of the Guard: How Dan Pulcrano Became The Point Man in …
I think the solution lies somewhere in #12 above. There is obvious (& ironic) work to be done on this article. However I like the article title as it stands, think it’s the meta and slug that should change. just my $0.02
There’s merit to both being creative and getting to the point. I think the essence of writing a good title for an article is that it includes a word or two relevant to the article and something that makes it stand out, be unique.
“Dan Pulcrano – Empiring Your Domain”
Silly? Yes, but at least it’s different, and short, and relevant. It’s all about doing it a little differently to everyone else, but still playing by the rules.
Great post about the difference in titles between the old world and the new.
But how did those publications ever get started on stuffy, academic sounding titles instead of titles that are easy to read and draw interest?
It reminds me of textbooks that try to be as unclear and full of jargon as possible.
I could scream.
For me, clarity above all.
Still, there’s another issue.
What about the possibly conflicting needs of an SEO-optimzed title, and one that is most effective at keeping the interest of the reader, and (if it’s some kind of sales site) getting them to take action.
It may be great to have a high page rank and traffic to the page, but if nobody is interested in reading it once they get there, than it doesn’t matter in the long run.
For me, testing is a big part of the answer to reconciling SEO with conversion. SEO optimize the titles, but then test them like crazy.
One testing tool that I have is muvar (http://www.muvar.com) from James Brausch. What testing tools do you recommend?
Today is my first day with a major online media company as their SEO Manager. Part of my role will be discussing topics such as this. The offline journalists will need to keep online visitors in mind. Perhaps even writing two different titles for articles.
I have a lot to do but am very excited about the role and the impact SEO will have on the organization.
Great post!
Brent D. Payne
Nice Michael…keep up the crusade. We’ll win soon enough!
Very good points made. Keep it simple always works
The truncation problem noted by a couple of you can be solved by making sure that even long titles have important keywords near the beginning. This is important for cognitive processing (i.e., reading) anyway, regardless of truncation.
I understand the importance of SEO but I sure hope we don’t end up in a world where writers online must choose robot friendliness over style. The long title is vague but it’s still more compelling than the shorter ones.
Isn’t is almost like which came first the chicken of the egg?
SEO or Sales Copy which trumps which.
Most copywriters say never compromise sales effectiveness for SEO.
On the other hand if no one finds your site you can have the best sales copy ever but it will do you no good.
I saw a previous comment mentioned a software program called MuVar. Thats written by a guy who writes a whole lot of statistical analysis programs that are supposed to help which ever area you are trying to work on.
His name is James Brausch. I happen to avidly read his blog. His logic seems sound. He compares the page you want to optimize to a database of thousands of web pages that are ranked. The software then scores your page in relation to the database. To improve your page you make changes, run it through again and see if you beat the last score.
He has the same logic in a number of different programs. There is one for sales copy. There is one for SEO called Rasof. He has one that will help you pick domain names.
It’s basically doing what copywriters do, take copy that has worked well and try and mimic it. Only this does it digitally. And he applies it to all kinds of different aspects of online marketing not just copy.
I have not invested in any of this yet. I am still learning the ropes on internet marketing, but of all the automation, or wizards out there that I would consider using to help me quickly create the best overall web page his method seems the soundest.
On the other hand, why hasn’t any one else come up with a similar type program?
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
-Scott
Jack and Scott,
I’ve heard about this James Brausch guy. His ideas are innovative. I really respect his attitude…he doesn’t put up with anything that wastes his time, including whiny people or excuses. Instead, he comes up with great products and great ideas, then relaxes with his family in Costa Rica while his business pulls the money in for him! I just read his recent post about freedom which really inspired me personally.
Everything he teaches advocates the idea that you shouldn’t make any choices for your website without keeping page rankings in mind. His program, Nemeas, helps you select keyword-rich domains. RaSof helps you design your web page to compete with the highest-ranked pages online today. It seems that Michael Gray has got some of the same ideas…why write a page title that will take you nowhere? Why not use it to boost your rankings?
I am a member of the audience that article is trying to reach – and I wouldn’t find nor click on any of your article titles because they don’t have that “certain something” or the keywords I find relevant. However, I would find and I would deal with the original, although there is certainly room for improvement.
The -key- keywords you’re missing are New Media and Innovative. My revision:
Dan Pulcrano, Innovative New Media Entrepreneur
Go ahead. Check the search count on that.
How about stop writing to the lowest common denominator for a change. If you have the attention span of a frog you shouldn’t own a computer. This is a good example of the dumbing down of America.
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