Writing title tags for improved SEO visibility is perhaps one of the imperative elements to put strong attention to detail on. It is the one aspect in SEO though that tends to create the most amount of uncertainty. Should title tags be aimed towards the SERPs and crawlers? Should they be intended to invoke a click-thru? In reality, we would ideally like to acquire a definitive answer to all of those questions and ultimately satisfy the need of visitors.

Putting together a compelling headline that invokes an action is extremely difficult. In the legacy days it focused a lot around keyword insertion and more of a robotic approach to SERP satisfaction.

Current Challenges with SEO Title Tags

We live in a social frenzy world driven by influence. A vast majority of page rankings in the SERPs these days are preceded by a social signal from some of the well established social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, or even Pinterest. So, in essence the correlation from social media activity is commonly the causation for particular search signals that ultimate impact the ranking of pages in the SERPs. Specifically with information that contains some form of virality. Search engines are paying stronger attention to these social signals and those are about to become even more dominant. The recent Google-Twitter partnership is a clear affirmation that even though the demise of Google+ is around the corner, Google is not letting up on the importance of social activity in search.

If anything, social signals are about to take on a more prevalent role in search and Google wants to be the first search engine to take the lead in that direction.

The New Approach to Compelling SEO Title Tags

Infusing a more naturalistic and socially enticing messaging in title tags will in actuality invoke a click-thru from a visitor. Google specifically has even gone as far as differentiating search intent and authority. For example, say you were to compare your brand side-by-side with a competitor with a page that contains similar messaging. Your competitor’s title tag focuses deeper on searcher intent by providing naturalistic and free-flowing content that helps the user. Your title tag follows same structure except a bit more of a robotic approach consisting of stronger keyword inclusion. In addition, your domain has more links and authority over the competition.

In Google’s eyes, it will provide a better rank to the page that contains a more compelling headline rather than your page that carriers stronger level of optimization and authority. Serving the intent of a searcher will always prevail over SERP manipulation.

There’s a few determining factors you need to consider when attempting to write compelling SEO title tags with focus on searcher intent:

• Evaluate your brand’s goals and objectives. Find out what it is that you’re after exactly and how will you attempt to serve those goals and objectives to your audience.
• Think about what precisely your customers are really interested in. What in particular sparks their attention when seeking your product or service?
• Consider the topical build-out of categories on your site. Will one page suffice to encapsulate messaging across several areas? Should there be sub-categories within specific main categories that focus on individual products or services?
• Where will the clickbait play a factorial role? After all, adhering to searcher intent is imperative by the clickbait is the sticky that will contribute towards user retention.

When writing those compelling SEO title tags, think about the potential customer journey. If you’re driving them from social media then the objectives will be slightly different than from SERP. Searchers on Google are looking for information with intent to buy. On social media, users are enticed by entertaining pieces of information. So, give some thought to the user journey and attempt to write targeted SEO title tags that adhere to their needs.

What challenges are you facing with your SEO endeavors? Get a quick free assessment to find out more about the traffic potential you’re missing out on.