Internet users want their information fast. That means you've got about 10 seconds to capture and keep their interest or they're off to another more appealing article. If your title isn't eye-catching and informative, surfers will never get beyond it to read the article you spent so much time crafting. And, if they never read the article, they most certainly won't get to your resource box and the link to your site. Which means they'll also never get to your site to make a purchase. What a waste that would be!

If grabbing readers' attention weren't enough, your hard-working title also needs to help out your article's search engine rankings. When people search the Internet, they use search terms ranging from one to five words in length. The search terms are known as keywords. If those keywords appear in your article title, you'll have more chance of ranking highly on search engines.

Because keywords play such an important role in getting your article seen, it's imperative that you spend some time determining what the best keywords are for your subject. Let's say your website sells cake decorating supplies. Think about which words people who want to buy your items might use to find them through an Internet search. They might type in "birthday cakes" or "cake decorating." Using these terms in your title will help boost your search engine rankings.

If you're uncertain which keywords are most popular in your field, it's a good idea to do a bit of research. Many websites offer free research tools to help you find the most popular keywords. Or, you can purchase software to help you with the research.

When writing your title, try to make it both eye-catching and informative. Your title needs to quickly convey the gist of your article. When you read the title of this article, you immediately knew it would help you write better titles so that your article marketing campaign would be more successful. Your title needs to do the same.

Whenever possible, use your keywords within the first three words of your title. I might have titled this article "Good Titles Make Article Marketing Easier." However, that's just not as effective in terms of keyword use. A person searching for assistance with developing an article marketing campaign is likely to use "article marketing" within their search terms, so I made those the first words in the title.

Don't worry about keeping the title short. In fact, a longer title allows you to use more keywords or to use your keyword twice. However, avoid extremely lengthy titles since readers may seem them as complicated and avoid them. Your title shouldn't be more than one line long.

One final word of advice: It's also very important that you not engage in search engine spamming by using popular search terms within your title that have absolutely nothing to do with the topic. If you're writing about cake decorating, make sure your title tells readers that. If you don't deliver on the topic your title promotes, readers won't trust you and you'll damage your good name.