3 Reasons Why I Was Wrong and What I’m Going to Do About It

UTILIZING SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

If you’ve been here a while, on this weekly coffee (or tea) date, you might read that post title and think, “Excuse me, what now?” Which is fair. Because my post titles have always been vaguely existential and waver between tongue-in-cheek humor (a phrase I’ve never understood) and randomly assigned metaphors for the topic. But this week, I’ve begun to realize that those titles were neither that clever nor very helpful. And so, this week, we’re going to talk about the three reasons why I was wrong and what I’m going to do about it.

You see, when I began this blog back in 2013 (insert shocked exclamation here about the passage of time) I had no intentions of doing what was back then a new technique – writing for Search Engine Optimization, which basically means including keywords and certain strategies to make it easy to find your content online. I think back then, Ask Jeeves was still a viable search engine if you can believe it. (I just looked it up, it is now just “ask.com” which is much less fun and clearly not competing well with Google.) But I wasn’t writing to be found on the internet. I was writing for me. And maybe a little to help you understand me, and people like me.

MY BLOG POST TITLES IN THE PAST

My goals shifted over the years, but I stuck hard to my non-SEO stance. I didn’t care if you could search my name and find my blog. I started wanting to write funny, off-the-wall things, and also to write things that sparked conversation. And, most importantly, when it comes to mental health, to help others feel seen, understood, and valued. So I continued with my “creative” post titles, ranging from my favorite, “Thunderclouds and Whiskey Tears,” to my least favorite, “Looking Back.” (How boring is that?!)

But over the last few months, I started to wonder if I was wrong to avoid “sticky titles.” Titles that clearly outline the post’s content and are easy to find from a search bar. Like, “5 Ways to Skin an Actual Cat in an Emergency” or “How to Floss Your Teeth Without Damaging Your Manicure.” They’re not clever, usually. They’re factual and easy to understand. But I have chosen “art” over practicality for ten years. 

WHY I WAS WRONG

And then yesterday, I decided once and for all that I was, indeed, wrong. Let me tell you the reasons why. 

1. I find myself annoyed by myself. Do you ever annoy yourself? Because when I read back over my blog post titles, I annoy myself. They’re rarely as clever and unique as I thought they were at the time. Still, every writer gets annoyed by their own writing at some point, because we all grow and change. And I frequently annoy myself just by thinking, so this alone is not enough to declare that I was wrong. Just wait.
2. I can’t find a damn thing. I was applying to a freelance gig this week and I wanted to attach a link to a certain blog post. But I had to click through at least 16 other posts to find the one I wanted. And if I can’t find things, having been the one to write them in the first place, how can anyone else find what they’re looking for? What good is it to write a wonderful, heartwarming post, that someone wants to share or reread and they can’t find it because it was named something like “Melancholy Traffic,” which barely pertains to what I was writing about? A much more weighty reason I was wrong.
3. If I actually want people to feel seen and understood, I should want my posts to be easy to find. Why would I avoid being found, if at least 60% of my reason for posting is to spark conversation, hear from others, and connect them to my content? (That question was rhetorical; there’s no good reason I would want that.)

WHAT I’M GOING TO DO ABOUT IT

And so, it is with mixed feelings but determination that I inform you that my post titles will be more “catchy” from now on. Don’t worry, this post title was exaggerated to make my point. I won’t be writing anything that ends with “You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!” But I’ve learned that when I decide I’m wrong, I need to take note. Then I need to act immediately before I forget the whole thing and go back to my routine. So this is me, taking note of why I was wrong.

Out of curiosity, though, I’d love to hear your thoughts. How do you feel about non-cringy, click-worthy titles?

Or, if you’re feeling very brave, what have you been wrong about lately?