No, we’ve not made a typo with our title (though that’s how this idea for a post started off) and we’re not talking about the Sam Worthington big budget movie currently playing in cinemas across the country.
Nor are we talking about the original Clash of the Titans, starring LA Law’s Harry Hamlin as Perseus (for our money, a much better movie). No, we’re talking about a clash of the titles. This is nothing to do with the Greek gods and man’s epic struggle to defy them, this is the epic SEO battle that takes place every day when several websites all report the same story, or offer the same advice on their blog. Google, and to a lesser extent the other search engines (the names of many of which escape us now, Bong or something) have to choose which websites to feature at the top of the search results. This is especially poignant with Google News, as only a few websites featuring the same story are displayed on the front page – the rest are archived.
Now – you may be thinking that Google will go with websites that feature the strongest brands, such as the BBC, The Telegraph and Times Online. You would of course be wrong. While, yes, these websites are favoured (more because of their quality content than who they are) they’re not chosen by default over everyone else. No, Google will choose a website that features the most relevant title to match the user’s search query.
Clash of the Titles!
This means (as we’ve mentioned so many times before on this blog) that your title is of the utmost importance when writing content for your website. Your title should include relevant keywords where possible, and without looking spammy. Your title should reflect what users might be searching for with regards to the news story. Your title must also be short enough to pack enough keyword density – something which is important with titles.
So, when writing content on your website, take extra special care over your title. It will be the difference between a front page listing in Google, and an archived listing that delivers little or no traffic.
- What are the nuts and bolts of digital marketing? - September 10, 2020
- What is Google RankBrain and how do you use it? - September 9, 2020
- Three dos (and three don’ts) of writing great content - September 4, 2020
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