Your Article’s Title Is Your Marquee
The Importance of a Well-Constructed Title
Dictionary.com defines marquee as “a tall roof-like projection above a theater entrance, usually containing the name of a currently featured play or film and its stars.”
In the first half of the 20th century, before information started traveling at the speed of light and advertising became common place, marquees were a major way to draw people into the theater. They’re still used in that fashion today, but obviously don’t have the same importance with all of the other advertising options available.
Think about the body of your article as being a movie and your title being the marquee that will draw people in to read it. Without a compelling title that captivates the reader, it’s likely they’ll leave without ever reading the content you worked so hard on writing. And without carefully positioned keywords, it’s unlikely your readers will ever find your article to begin with.
Creating a Marquee for Your Article That Will Make a Huge Impact
Here are some tips that you can implement to help you create a splash with your article titles:
- Start your article title with your article subject.
- Avoid starting with “junk words” or conjunctions, such as “a” or “the.”
- Try starting your article title with a verb and then rolling directly into a dense keyword relating to the subject of your article.
- Consider using two article topic hooks in your article title.
Example: Yoga Moves – 7 Tips To Flatten Your Abs With Yoga Moves
Techniques Used:
Topic hook #1 is “Yoga”
Topic hook #2 is “Flatten Your Abs” and “Yoga Moves”
Are You Writing Keyword-Rich Titles?
Let’s go through a couple of examples to help give you a better understanding if you’re writing titles that are drawing people in, or if you still have some work to do in building your marquees.
Example 1: Television Audio
* This article title is too short to get any hooks, and the reader has to guess what your angle to the topic will be about.
Example 2: Television Audio and Visual
* We’ve now picked up a 2nd keyword, “Visual”, but it still doesn’t explain why someone should read the article.
Example 3: Television Audio and Visual That You’ll Want to Have
* You now have 2 keywords and a reason why someone should read your article. It’s getting there, but it could be even better.
Example 4: Television Audio and Visual Components – 7 Tips to Amp Up Your TV
* Here you provided multiple high-value keywords, gave a reason to read the article and even used a high value keyword as a verb, “Amp.” This is your winner!
Become An Article Writing Expert Quickly!
For more tips like the ones shared above, check out The EzineArticles Formula Home Study Course. This course is loaded with value, including 5 weeks of EzineArticles Premium membership ($121.25 value) and Chris Knight’s Article Production Strategies Course ($77 value).
Most courses of this nature are in excess of $1,000, but you get everything this course has to offer for only $197. Trust the experts at EzineArticles to help you turbo-charge your article writing efforts. Click here to make your investment today:
http://EzineArticlesFormula.com/HomeStudy/
Hi Karen-
There is no hard rule for separating keyword phrases like you laid out above. Testing is always the best option. Try an A/B test where you use a dash to make that separation in a few articles, and then maybe try a colon in a few others and see what your results are.
In this particular case, I don’t think you’ll see a huge difference either way, but in general, testing is the only way to be sure about things. :)
May 25, 2011 at 11:03 AM[Reply]