Titles and headings

Informative versus catchy

[bluecorr]

I was recently proved how important titles are in SEO. I had changed a title to focus on a new keyword. Although I had kept all the rankings for the previous keyword the number of clicks halved. That was a real wake up call.

From what I read, headings (whether in print or on the web) should be catchy, should stir the reader's interest and engage him or her in reading the content. I'm still trying to figure out how to write them but that's not the point.

Should titles in SERPS be catchy or informative? Should they tell the visitor what they can find on the page (and act as the first selection criteria) and once they're actually on the page have headings and the first paragraph catch and keep his or her attention?

Trying to make titles catchy AND informative is a very difficult task considering the number of characters displayed in SERPs. What is your experience?

[marek]

I believe that informative, keyword rich titles are far more powerfull then fancy ones. If in doubts, you can try AdWords and see almost imediately, which title gets higher CTR.

[bluecorr]

I'm not talking about fancy/vague/witty ones but catchy. Catchy is more than being informative I would imagine.

[EileenC]

I'm a copywriter, and in my experience informative will outpull catchy or clever every time.

Eileen

[pleeker]

Here's some recommended reading about page titles [webmasterworld.com].

[patoruzu]

An important criteria is simply that people tend to click on titles in SERPS that best match their search terms. If you are searching for “widget prices”, you are likely to click on the title “widget prices”. An important part of writing a good title is, thus, figure out the most common combinations of search terms. You can add something more in the description meta tag, which could be showed in SERPS if it includes the search terms.

[lucertola]

Another vote here for informative over catchy -- especially concerning indexing for feeds like moreover and alert services like google.

A catchy headline throws these services into a tailspin -- we're resigned that every headline now has to contain our keyword and the most broad category that might get it plugged into another feed or put into an alert.

Though much of our traffic comes from search results of archived stuff, using the simplest key words, broadest categories makes a big difference in how well the story does when posted...

[vkaryl]

I would think this depends much on the product or service being provided. "Informative" might "sell" articles on anthropology at PHD level; "catchy" might sell thong underwear....

[lucertola]

Context matters to an extent -- if you can manage to be catchy AND have at least some keywords when writing your thong headline, all the better.

Otherwise better to save the clever bit for the text and not the headline -- there's just too much static...

Someone tried to sell thong underwear to wear *outside* pants a few years back (post Monica Lewinsky, if memory serves me) -- the slogan was something like 'over the top thongs' gave the idea of being both exaggerated and thong...