Why did so many LiteracyBase titles earn a red light from Co-Schedule?(Image from a public domain photo by maude22/Pixabay)
SEO criteria change all the time. What used to be the big deal – like exact keyword matches – can later change in some way, or may simply not be an important factor at all. The hot thing for titles these days isn’t keywords: it’s emotional triggers. Using words that stir up the reader’s passions, fears, desires, or need for financial security makes your title more appealing.
In the old days of SEO, we just wanted to pack the title with keywords and be direct about whatever we had to say. Titles were short and sweet – just a few words to file your content into the right category in the reader’s mind. Today’s titles can still have keywords in them. But it’s even more important to hit on those power words that trigger emotion. Words that make the reader think about glamour, danger, intrigue, exclusiveness, sex, or money increase the likelihood of someone clicking your link or sharing it on social media sites.
Sites that publish user-generated content are often knocked about pretty hard by their critics. Both content sites and social writing sites tend to have a reputation for derivative texts, poor quality writing, and just a general lack of know-how on the part of contributors when it comes to both writing and content promotion.
Is it true? Well, let’s just say that it doesn’t have to be true. There are sites that place greater emphasis on quality of content, on SEO, and on making sure everything they publish is legit – no plagiarism, no spinning, no purloined pics or misleading image credits. Then there are the sites where the admin either doesn’t care too much, or just really don’t know enough to be providing appropriate guidance to their writers.
LiteracyBase falls somewhere in the middle of that continuum. The staff do want to encourage contributors to create the best quality content, but the support and guidance provided at the moment are pretty minimal. As a member, you pretty much have to figure things out on your own and hope you’re doing it right. And that can be a pretty steep learning curve.
Titles are one area where LiteracyBase writers could use a lot more help. But it’s not so easy to just tell people a thing like that! It can get a lot of backs up and make people angry, when what you really want is to help people make something better from their writing. I hoped that showing might work better than telling in this instance, so I chose 10 titles from recently published LiteracyBase articles and I compared them to 10 titles that were shared on a Facebook writing group. I ran each title through a free online tool that analyzes titles. Then I compared the two sets of scores. This is the third part of that comparison.
So how did LiteracyBase do when it comes to titles that use power words or emotional triggers? I ran each of the headlines through Co-Schedule’s Headline Analyzer to see how many of these trigger words would come up.
The Headline Analyzer gives each title a score expressed both in a letter grade (for the grammatical component and readability of the title) and a percentage (an overall grade, based on emotional and power words, type of headline, and length of the title.)
In terms of the grammar and readability, LiteracyBase titles did fairly well. Although half earned only a C- (usually assigned because there are words missing that impact on the reader’s comprehension of the title) the other half earned a B+. The Facebook group did get better results for grammar: 90% earning a B+ or better, and 20% achieved a coveted A+. Only one title earned a C-.
So some of the titles could be written a bit more like a sentence and less like bullet points. And a few were probably dinged because the author’s syntax was awkward – something that matters more in titles than it does in the body of the text. But overall, it’s not really the grammar that was the big problem: it’s the lack of emotion.
Of the 10 LiteracyBase titles I scanned, 60% had no power words and no emotional words at all. Only one title had both a power word and an emotional word, and none had more than one of either type of trigger. In a word, the LiteracyBase titles were bland. They lacked punch. They just sort of lay there, passively hoping that someone would click and read.
The highest overall grade that any LiteracyBase title earned was 65%. The lowest score – and unfortunately there were two titles that received this grade – was 0%. Not one of the LiteracyBase title earned the 70% or better required to get a “green light” from the analyzer.
The Facebook sample also received some very poor overall scores – one as low as 26%. But 40% did earn the green light. Whereas 60% of LiteracyBase titles were given a red light for very poor overall scores, of the Facebook group only 20% fell into this category. This leads me to believe that, while other writers are still struggling to compose an effective title, the LiteracyBase group has just a little further to go.
I want to propose a challenge for everyone who writes here at LiteracyBase – and you can apply it to your writing elsewhere too. Here’s what you need to do:
1. Over the next week, pick just one of the three keys to writing an effective title. Then be sure that every post and article you publish this week makes really great use of that one important factor. Put in your best efforts, and scan your titles with the headline analyzer. See if the scores improve even just a little bit, or if you can see a difference in your earnings and the traffic to your posts.
2. Next week, choose a different key to focus on. And the week after that, practise using the third one.
3. During the last week, work on putting them all together each time you write a title. See if that doesn’t help you get better results than you’re getting now! Then come back, and let me know how things are working out for you. I want to hear about all your struggles and your successes!
This post the third in a series. To get the most from this series, please start with “LiteracyBase vs Facebook Shares: Who Won the Battle?” and then read “Why Generic Headlines Fail – and Secrets to Boosting Success.” It will help you get a better understanding of the informal test I conducted here on LiteracyBase.
Want more tools for rehabilitating your headlines? Check out this article on what makes a great headline and then take a look at how I turned three boring, generic titles into killer headlines!
Original content © 2016 Kyla Matton Osborne
This article was published on LiteracyBase. If you are reading this content anywhere else, it has probably been stolen. Please report it to me so I can address any copyright infringements. Thank you!
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View Comments
Excellent Post. Well said
@support I'm glad this series was taken in the spirit it was offered! I'm sure there are going to be some ruffled feathers, but the truth is what it is.
If we want to grow this site, the work has to be done on both ends. For you & the rest of the staff, it's a matter of keeping the site running smoothly and of being seen to be doing your job efficiently. For us as writers and contributors, it's all about honing our skills: learning not only to write better content for SEO but also to make great graphics, write a proper image credit if we use someone else's pics, and most of all promote the site and its content.
If I am not totally out of the context probably if you have the right balance of power words, common, or not so common or even emotional headlines that would do the trick. That sure are more readable while grabbing attention of your readers.
@sunil The most important bit seems to be the emotional/power words, and maybe one or two key words. The other words are important not so much for a percentage balance, as for creating intelligible phrases.
I shall do a study of what I have already written and know where I stand.
I am with you on this as a title can do or undo a post. Most who read our blogs are ordinary people and so our titles should draw them to our blogs.
@bestwriter The titles are read more than the actual text of the blogs, so it's important for people to communicate some kind of message in those first 70 characters. If there is no clear message in the title, it's highly likely the entire post will be skipped.
Let me know what you learn from your study! I'm eager to hear what your results will be.
@Ruby3881 - I tried 4. I did get 60 for 'Wealth from Waste' and 0 for 'Garbage Management' What was your score for this blog?
The score from Co-Schedule was very low for this post, as I am now experimenting with a new headline analyzer that uses a more up to date standard. I'm experimenting to see whether one of these tools produces better results than the other. The other tool is the Sharethrough Headline Analyzer (http://headlines.sharethrough.com/)
So, while Co-Schedule gives this post's title a very low 42%, Sharethrough rates it a 78%. The titles for parts 1 & 2 of this series rated 73% and 74% in Co-Schedule; Sharethrough gave them an 84% and a poor 65%, whereas this title got a 78%. As you can see, sometimes the tools agree and sometimes they greatly disagree on what makes an effective title.
"Garbage Management" only rates a 35% with Sharethrough, while "Wealth from Waste" rates a 34%. Both titles are really short, and they are also both generic titles that are composed in a style that is better suited to print than digital media. Because the words "wealth" and "waste" are power words, your second title rates better with Co-Schedule. Those are words you'd want to preserve if you were trying out other options for a headline.
You can boost your scores by composing longer titles that read more like complete phrases; switching from a generic style to questions, lists, or how-to titles can help too.
Instead of "Garbage Management," I could propose something like "3 Simple Ways to Manage Household Waste," which rates a 70% from Co-Schedule. It's only a 64% with Sharethrough. This is because the latter is looking for even longer and more emotionally-charged titles. Sharethrough prefers something like, "Save the Planet: 3 Environmentally-Friendly Ways to Cope with Household Waste." This title rates a 73% from them, whereas Co-Schedule thinks it's too long. (I find it a mite too long as well: I try to aim for no longer than 70-75 characters, even when I'm trying to please Sharethrough....)
I hope this helps you somewhat! Let me know how you're getting along :)
It's tough to get it right. Yoast wants me to put my keyword in the title, some subheading, and scattered throughout. I often pick a phrase that will fit in all those places, but will not necessarily convey emotion. The catchy titles I think up don't have keywords. Yoast doesn't like propositions and other short words in a title, either. Sometimes I feel like chucking it all and just writing.
@ruby3881 - I agree with Barb. It's is tough to “get it right” and keep your natural writing style too! I am glad for social sharing, especially the Google Plus network. It does help your links show up in search results. I share via Facebook and Twitter but rarely do I see my shares in search engine results and both of my accounts are public. However when I share via Google Plus, every now and then my shares actually appear on the first page of the search results. So even if you don't have great “SEO” or “keywords” in your post, you get a second chance by sharing your post link and adding appropriate hashtags when your share it via social media. Lots of people search by typing “#” before a word. :)
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