Choosing Article Titles

The title of your article is one of the most vital components. If you choose the wrong title, you're not likely to rank in the search engines, and when you do, people aren't likely to click to visit your article.
Article titles should always contain keyword phrases, but they should rarely contain only a keyword phrase. This is a mistake a lot of people make, and it costs them a lot of traffic!

For one thing, Google likes to see more than just a keyword phrase in an article title, because it looks more natural. How many people are naturally going to title their page "Best Golf Clubs"- But a lot of people might title their page "How to Choose the Best Golf Clubs for You!"
Because the second title is more interesting and engaging, and it describes the content of the page more accurately, people are also much more likely to click on the second article title than the first, too.
So the first step of crafting an article title is to choose a good keyword phrase to base your article on. I use the Keyword Hunter keyword tool for this.
http://exzorders.com/keywordtool/
I simply enter a keyword related to my niche, enter the CAPTCHA text, and click the "Get keyword ideas" button. This generates up to 150 keywords I could base my articles on.
I always look for keywords with at least 300 searches per month, but usually no more than around 10,000. Those that have so much traffic will usually be too competitive.
I narrow down the keywords I'm given by the tool to those between 300 and 10,000 monthly searches, then I search for each of these in Google in order to find out how many people are actually using these phrases on their pages. These are my competitors.
I always put the keywords in quotes when I search, because this gives me a more accurate idea of my true competition. I don't have to worry too much about people who aren't using the keyword phrase in the exact order, because they aren't likely as relevant as I would be.
I like to see fewer than 30,000 competing pages, although I will compete against up to 150,000 if the keyword seems very strong and the competition seems to be relatively weak.
Once I have chosen a list of keywords, I start turning them into article titles. Let's take a look at some ways we can turn the keyword phrase "Best Golf Clubs" into a great article title.
* How to Choose the Best Golf Clubs for You
* The Top 10 Best Golf Clubs for 2010
* 5 Secret Tips the Pros Use to Pick the Best Golf Clubs
These article titles are much more interesting and captivating than simply "Best Golf Clubs". These titles make more sense, give the user more information about the content of the article, and attract more attention.
You want your article titles to grab attention and make people curious. Plus, by using these interesting titles, you can write more than one article on a single keyword phrase and capture a larger segment of the market.
For example, you could write these articles for the same keyword phrase:
* The Top 5 Best Golf Clubs for Women
* Choosing the Best Golf Clubs for Your Husband
* The Very Best Golf Clubs for Seniors
* How to Pick the Right Golf Clubs for Professional Golfers
* What are the Best Golf Clubs for Kids-
You could twist the same keyword phrase into several different article topics in order to capture different segments of the market. For example, women might be interested in finding out which types of golf clubs are better for them specifically, and seniors might want to know which types of clubs would be best for those who are advancing in age.