Now that your Title and Meta tags are set and you’ve set a strong description for your site, you can move on to the next step in your search engine optimization (SEO) plan. As with your pages titles, you should spend some time researching each of your post titles so that they include one or more of the keywords you would like your post to show up in search engine results for that keyword.

Once you have found some quality keywords to emphasize, you should take some time to come up with the best title you can that will include these words. Try to include a benefit to the reader, some form of motivation, raise their curiosity or promise a result for reading your post. Once you have your headline, write your post in a way that answers the question or fulfills the promise stated in it. Not doing so will reduce the effectiveness of your post as a whole and quite possibly irritate the reader into leaving you a negative comment. I recently had a post on my parenting blog that a couple readers found annoying due to the wording of the title. Even after reading their comments, I wasn’t convinced the title was wrong, but I did let them know I could see their point and apologized for wasting their time.

How many keywords should you use in your post title?

• You should always use at least one keyword, and as many as three or four depending on the length of the post
• Don’t make post titles so long that they look like a chain of keywords; write for your readers first
• Fill in the other words of your title with numbers, “how-to’s” and the “secrets of”. Make up your own, but entice the reader

Where else should you use keywords?

• You should repeat the keywords in your headline in the first paragraph of your post
• Depending on the length of your post, you should repeat your keywords another 2-3 times
• Never make your post look like a keyword farm; if you repeat them, blend them into your copy

How will I know if I’m using too many keywords?

• There’s no law about using too many keywords per se, but after rereading your post it felt awkward, you probably used too many
• If you are a number counter, 2-3% of your post copy is perfectly acceptable, but if you are able to fit more in naturally, go right ahead
• You can always take a look around the A-list blogs and see how they blend keywords in with their copy.

It’s easy to neglect your titles when you are rushing to finish a post or it wasn’t thought out in the first place. Your blog’s Title and Meta tags may be set, but you have to put that same type of effort into each of your blog titles and the posts that follow. If possible, set a blogging schedule and stay ahead of the curve. If not, fill some keywords into your title and keep your entire post focused on those words, repeating them in the first paragraph to emphasize their importance. Use this frame of mind until the last word of your post and in time, your posts will become stars of their own.

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