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Should you add your blog name to your post titles? This is an interesting question, with a relatively simple answer.
There are two types of titles that each blog articles has – the actual post title that appears on your website, and the title tag that appears in Google’s search engine results. Contrary to popular belief, these two things do not have to be the same. It is possible to have your article on your site titled differently than how it appears in Google search results.
To answer the question, it doesn’t normally make sense to include the name of your blog within the post title that appears on your website. Presumably, your blog post title will be near the top of your page – right by your logo or menu. People already know what website they’re on, especially if they are visiting it directly (and not from a search engine result page.)
However, there can be value in adding your blog name to your title tag, or the title that will appear in the search engine results pages. The primary two benefits are:
1. Branding
Even if people do not ultimately click on your article, there is still a tiny bit of value in having your brand name exposed to them. Over time, this will help your website appear as an authority figure in its niche.
There’s a principal in psychology known as the mere-exposure effect that causes people to like something more, simply because they are familiar with it. Therefore, getting your brand name in front of targeted people has some value, even if they do not click.
2. Memorability
If you’ve made a positive impression on a past visitor through your content, and they remember your name, they will look out for you in the search results pages again.
By having your blog name in the search results, you’re able to call out to these people. They may pick your blog even over others that rank higher than you, simply because they remember having a positive experience with your website in the past. This increase in click-through ratio may actually cause you to rank higher as a result.
Therefore, it certainly couldn’t hurt!
How To Add Your Blog Name To Search Results Titles
The easiest way to edit your page’s title tag if you’re on WordPress is to simply use a plugin like Yoast SEO.
As you can see, my blog name gets cut off on desktop, but I still consider this to be better than nothing.
Yoast SEO’s box will appear beneath each blog post, allowing you to make any adjustments to your SEO title or meta description. In my case, I have it set up to use this format automatically.
If you’re not using WordPress, you can define the title tag with the following code snippet:
<head><title>Example Title</title></head>
Note that in addition to displaying in the search engine result pages (SERPs), the title tag also affects what will be displayed in the visitor’s browser tab.
Conclusion
While it makes little sense to include your blog name within the post titles on your website, there can be numerous benefits to including them within your page’s title tag.
Plugins like Yoast SEO make this simple, so it’s worth doing for blogs of all sizes.
Finally, if you want to fast-track your blogging success, I highly recommend investing in my blogging course, which covers everything you need to know to build a successful blog through 60+ powerful video lectures.
To your success,
– James McAllister
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