Headlines in SEO are more powerful than one thinks. In fact, it may very well arguably be the top factor that search engines like Google and Bing take into account when indexing a site for keyword searches. In news sources, Journalists may call them headlines, and SEOs may call them title tags.
Image Courtesy of: http://newjerseyseofirm.com/h1-tags-seo-guide/
Case 1: U.S. President Barack Obama’s Inauguration
Yesterday Vanessa Fox, a contributing editor of SearchEngineLand reported how the L.A. Times really capitalized on a proper, simple headline that would show up on most search results. The title here was “President Obama’s second inauguration: When is it?”
What’s also noteworthy is that the article itself has useful content and not useless garble.
The result? The article appears on Page 1 of Google’s organic results for common searches like “when is the inauguration?”
Case 2: Super Bowl 2012 Start Time
The 2012 Super Bowl was another example of the value of headlines in SEO. Both Answers.com and nfl.com “got it right.” They both showed up for the search term “Super Bowl Time.”
The following photo, courtesy of SearchEngineLand, demonstrates this.
Conclusion
It’s clear that one of the most important aspects of SEO is a proper, yet simple headline. Try to also contain the headline in the URL and H1 tags and you should be good to go.
