Do not be fooled into thinking that Article marketing is just about the articles--what title you select for your article also could have an enormous impact on how many readers click through to read your article and how search engines view the content you have created.

Just the other day I received a question that perfectly demonstrates the confusion surrounding the topic of article titles.

"I have been told by some people that I should create titles for my article submissions that are as close to my key phrase as possible and other people have told me I should focus on my readers. So which is it--should I be writing my titles based on what the search engines are looking for or what readers want to see?"

This really is a great question to ask and has a surprisingly simple answer. In an ideal situation your title will appeal to both the search engines and human readers alike.

If you are not able to achieve both then you need to let your readers take priority. At the end of the day, if publishers are not interested in an article, it will not be republished so there is no benefit. First and foremost you must produce a title that humans find attractive, however, that does not mean that you can't also be keeping your keywords in mind.

These two objectives are not mutually exclusive, and with a little effort you should be able to produce captivating titles that will appeal to Google, the search engines and your target readers.

Here are some tips for achieving that:

1 - If possible, try to put your keyword phrase as close to the beginning of the title as possible, preferably within the first three words. For example, if your keywords are "Dog Training", you could create a title that places those words at the beginning of the title, such as:

Dog Training For Beginners

Dog Training: 7 Tips for Teaching Your Dog To Walk On A Leash

2 - If your keyword phrase has a grammar or spelling issue, then don't use it, especially not in the title.

3 - There are different types of key phrases-- "long-tail" ones are usually 3-8 words long and are much more specific than the shorter main word keyphrases that are usually 2-3 words long.

Using the example above, "dog training" is the main keyword phrase.

One of the long-tail key phrases on this topic might be "how to house train a dog".

As you can see, the long-tail key phrase would make a nice title just as it is. Many times the longer phrases are easily converted to titles that are reader and search engine friendly.

4 - Just because you're trying to write a title that incorporate words that people are searching for in Google doesn't mean that you can't add words to the title to make it more interesting.

Let's say that your keywords are "organic vegetable gardening". You could make tons of titles from this phrase:

Organic Vegetable Gardening: How To Plant A Winter Garden

Organic Vegetable Gardening For Beginners

What is Organic Vegetable Gardening?

5 - Stay away from titles that just look like keywords. The title should tell what the article is about, specifically. That's the real purpose of the title, to help readers know what the topic of the article is.

So, don't think that producing a keyword rich title means that you're handcuffed and cannot make a title that's also interesting. Ensure that always remeber what the title is for—explaing what your article is all about. The title is primarily to serve humans, but with a little creativity and thought you can also craft your title to appeal to search engines as well.