The Mechanics of Blogging

I'm starting a new series called Blog Mechanics where I break down some of the various "mystical" components associated with blogging. I'll be defining blog nomenclature, explaining some of the technologies inherent to most blog platforms, and generally helping you to get a better understanding of how blogs work. We'll go "under the hood" so to speak.

I plan to do one or two of these per week, and I'll try to present the information in some type of logical order to make it easier to follow. For this installment I want to talk about the blog post title. Take a look at the main column of this blog, the one you're reading now. What do you see?

The first thing you'll notice is the title of the post. That's important for a number of reasons. First, it identifies the topic of the post. I recommend using practical titles as opposed to esoteric ones, though you don't have to forsake creativity in order to do so.

The title is important also because the blog software turns it into what's known as a title tag. Look at the top of your browser window at what's known as the title bar. (If you're using Internet Explorer, it's most likely colored blue.) Notice some words in it? They are the title for this post.

That's important because Google, the leading search engine, puts a lot of weight on the title tag.

Not only that, depending on the blog platform you use, the title will be incorporated into the unique URL for the individual post. Again, that's a search engine-friendly thing.

If you're smart, you'll keyword optimize that title to make the search engine work even more in your favor.

In our next installment, we'll talk more about components in the main column and try to reveal their importance and reason for being. In the meantime, go practice writing good, keyword-rich titles!