Day 1: How To Write Better Blog Post Titles–25 Days To A Better Beauty and Fashion Blog Challenge #SBBC

This post is part of the Scandalous Beauty 25 Days To A Better Beauty And Fashion Blog Challenge! For even more tips, be sure to check out Erin's Guide to Better Beauty Blogging. Welcome to Day one of the blog challenge! Woo hoo! Let's jump right in.

When creating content for your blog, you need to be mindful of your headlines. You need them to explain what your post will show/explain readers. It's awesome to have titles that are quirky and fun, but if they don't draw your reader in, you may lose out on hits. On the flip side , your readers should love you and want to read everything you blog about!

Posts do more than just explain, they help with SEO (search engine optimization. This is how readers find you when using search engines.). A lot. There is also a concept out there called 'mind hacking', getting into the minds of potential readers to give them what they want. Will you include swatches in your post? Say it in your title! How about hosting an interview? Say it in your title! Will you show them how to make something? Add keywords like "DIY" in your title! Are you doing a review? Say it in your title! Get my drift?

Examples of "Bad" Post Titles:

The Death and Re-birth of the Urbanista Glossy: This is an article that I wrote from the heart. It was all about young black magazines that had folded, but are carving their way into our lives as web magazines. Unless you know that "Glossy" is another word for magazine, had you seen this on Twitter, you may not have clicked it. Had you searched the web for "black magazines for women", it may not have shown up. A better titles might have been "Where Did All the Black Female Magazines Go?" or  "The demise of the Young Black Women's Magazine".   There are other better titles, of course.

FAQ's: I created a long list of questions that makeup wearers, MAC lovers, and makeup artists had been asking for quite some time. This title doesn't tell you any of that. You have no idea what to find under a title called "FAQ". So dull, but packed with information. It would have been smarter for me to create separate posts, then title each "FAQ: Makeup Artist Edition" or "Makeup Artist FAQ". Even better, I could make each question a post, then compile it into a FAQ archive.

Assignment: Go through your old post titles and see if any of them need to be altered. Be sure to add detailed keywords! Remember, your goal is to intrigue readers to draw them in, plus to have relevant keywords for SEO.

Tomorrow, we'll organize your content with tags, categories, labels and pages. It's a great way to help readers find your content, and you'll be surprised how often you'll refer to them! Looking for the rest of the challenge? Head over to the Scandalous Beauty Better Blogging HQ!