Your dental blog title has one chance — just one chance — to grab the attention of people on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, WordPress, and those who see your blog blurbs (RSS feeds, email subscriptions). A snappy or clever blog title can trigger a potential patient to click through and read your client dentist’s blog, then call the dentist’s office for an appointment.
Humans, however, are not the only readers of your blog. Spiders, from Google, Yahoo, and other search engines, also read the content and use what they learn for indexing. In short, a search-engine-optimized blog title can make your blog rank higher for targeted keywords. The higher the ranking, the more potential readers your blog will attract.
So, how can a dental copywriter succeed in the challenge of balancing a blog title so that it intrigues humans and impresses search engines?
Promises, Promises
Your blog title needs to give readers and expectation, a promise, that’s fulfilled in the body content. If your title promises something you don’t deliver, you’ll tick off readers. They won’t trust you any more.
The title of a blog also promises something to search engine spiders — it promises to provide content related to keywords in the title. If your blog is about root canals, don’t put “skateboarding” in the title. This, too, is a bait-and-switch tactic that will cause heartache and suffering to YOU in the long run.
Deliver on your promises.
Questions, Anyone?
If your dental blog title asks a question, answer it in the body content. A question as a title implies that your blog post will provide an answer. This is a type of promise, and as you’ve read, you should fulfill your promises. (On a side note, questions are easily found on message boards across the Internet. Oftentimes, when I need a blog idea, I’ll search for questions on the topic. Message boards provide questions real people want answered, thus make great blog fodder.)
Always answer your title question.
Tips, Tricks, and Secrets
A tried-and-true tactic for magazine titles involves providing a specified number of tips or tricks, or a secret. Titles of this sort can easily incorporate keywords and capture the interest of human readers. Just make certain that your tips, tricks, or secrets share something new or interesting. Regurgitating tired information will bore readers and turn off search engine spiders.
Get creative and unique with your tips, tricks, and secrets.
