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How to Boost Your SEO with 6 Quick Headline Hacks
By Cat Johnson
The Freelance Cat
March 17, 2016 — Santa Cruz, CA
(Photo above, source: The Freelance Cat)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be a wormhole. The further you go down it, the more tools and analytics and best practices there are to sort through. But, if exploring the depths of the SEO universe isn’t your thing, don’t worry. You can still do some simple things to boost your chance of Google finding you and listing your posts in its top results.
One thing you must do is think seriously about your blog post headlines. Google uses your headline to determine what your post is about, and it gives headlines some hefty SEO weight.
That means that your headlines should be clear, concise, keyword-rich and targeted. If you’re going for SEO traffic, then, before you write one word of your blog post, you should know what the headline is going to be. What is the topic you’re going for? What have other people written on it? What keywords are you targeting? What results does Google serve up for those exact keywords? How can you create an even more valuable, more focused post than what’s in the top spot?
With some headline research, you can save time and energy and, ideally, get Google to love you. Back it up with quality content and you’re on your way.
Here are 6 headline hacks to help you boost your blog’s SEO.
1. Longtail Keyword Phrases
Don’t worry about getting found on Google for a single word or two, such as “coworking” or “Sacramento hikes.” There’s too much competition for those phrases—you’ll get buried in the search results. Instead, focus on longtail keyword phrases, such as “Best Coworking Spaces in San Francisco,” or “Family-Friendly Hikes in Sacramento.”
This way, you narrow your target to attract exactly the market you’re going for and increase your chance of getting onto the front page of the results, which is exactly where you want to be.
Further reading: The Ultimate Guide for Mastering Long Tail Search
2. Write in the Same Way that People Search
Google’s job is to serve up the best results possible for each search, and Google’s algorithms are getting smarter at doing that. Rather than static searches, such as “galleries art Brooklyn,” the search engine increasingly aims to return results in the way that people generally search.
For instance, if someone enters “What are the best art galleries in Brooklyn,” Google wants to serve them up the answer closest to their query. Knowing this, you can frame your blog post and headline around the keywords: “The Best Art Galleries in Brooklyn.” You can include additional information at the end of the headline, such as “for Newcomers” if you want to niche the focus of your blog post down, but keep it as concise as possible.
Further reading: Google Turning Its Lucrative Web Search Over to AI Machines
3. Put your Keywords at the Beginning
Google gives more weight to the words at the beginning of a headline, so make sure your keyword phrase is as close to the beginning as possible.
Continue reading article here: http://thefreelancecat.com/boost-seo-6-quick-headline-hacks/
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Cat Johnson is a freelance writer and content strategist based in Santa Cruz. http://thefreelancecat.com/
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Tagged SEO
