How to Title an Online Article

How do you title an on-line article?

A great deal is written about the importance of the title for on-line writing. 

The title must:

• Describe to story
• Encourage readers to click on.
• Be attractive to search engines.

This is fine in theory.  I will come back to the three points.

Once I have chosen a title it is easy to test for aptness.  The first two are matters of judgement.  Does the title feel right?

I am a little more scientific with search words.  Try replacing words with their synonyms.  This can make considerable differences to the popularity of the title. To make this test I type synonyms into wordtracker. This reveals the number of people that are looking for the article (i.e. the demand).

When I tested Global Warming and Climate Change, Global Warming yielded 14,018 results and Climate Change yielded 1,859 results from Wordtracker.  I use these phrases interchangeably in conversation and yet Global Warming is nearly 8 times more popular as a search word than Climate Change. 

Keep an eye on sydonyms.  Phrases that we take for granted might not be fashionable or  used by other communities. (I also like to keep tabs on supply and demand but this is beyond the scope of this article).

This is all very well but my main problem lies in choosing titles.  I can see their aptness once I have chosen them.  How a I supposed to generate titles? 

I now have an eight point system that works for me. 

1. Keep a title pool
2. Record possible titles on a spreadsheet
3. Add phrases to the spreadsheet as they come to mind
4. On every other day review the titles for aptness (the three points I mention above)
5. During the review think critically and write down alternatives however weak as they come to mind
6. Repeat the processes 2 to 4 until the title feels right.  It will.  
7. Then write the article that fits the title (DO NOT write the article then the title. This isn’t traditional writing. The title is too important).
8. Whether an active writer or otherwise keep working on the title pool. It will generate ideas.

A title pool has other advantages too.  I find that it is increasing my online writing productivity.  I simply work my way through the list.  I no longer have problems wondering what to write.