How to choose the perfect title for an online course

Choosing the title of an online course is an extremely important aspect for the success of a course educational. The title is in fact the first element of the course that users see when scrolling through your site or the search engine results (before the program, duration or teachers involved) and is therefore the first opportunity to capture their attention. A good title will help you stand out from the mass of content on the web and will determine whether or not the user will click on the course.

We have already seen in this article how to evaluate the effectiveness of the online course title, but let's go deeper into the issue.

But what are the characteristics of a title that works? A good title should be descriptive and interesting and able to arouse the curiosity of users. But not only: a title should work also in SEO optics, so that it is well positioned in the search results.

Choosing the perfect title is therefore far from simple and at the same time decisive for determine the success (or failure) of your course. Here are some suggestions for
choose the perfect title for an eLearning course.

1. Brainstorm

What is the topic of your course? Start by asking yourself this question and prepare a list of related words the subject matter or the objective of the course. Collect all the ideas that come to your mind, even those apparently more ridiculous or curious.

2. Analyze search queries

Search engines are a mine of free and easily accessible ideas to find out what searchers are looking for users online. Access any search engine (e.g. Google), start typing your words key and wait for the autocompletion to suggest some phrases searched for by users. To example, if your course is dedicated to Public Speaking, try typing "public speaking" on the engine of search and take a look at the suggestions that appear: you'll immediately see that "anxiety" and "no fear" are both terms often associated with "public speaking". Why not use them in your title?

See both the list of the most frequent searches and the list of "related searches" located at the bottom of the page. This will help you find a title that winks at SEO and allows you to get a good ranking in search engines. You can also write an impeccable title, but if does not match the search intent of your target audience, users will hardly find your course.

Another useful free tool to analyze users' searches is Google Trends, which allows you to identify the words and information most searched for on the web over a certain period of time or in a specific area geographical. With this tool you will also be able to compare two or more search terms, to understand whether the terms chosen by you are really the most popular with the public. For example, with Google Trends you can discover that in the last 12 months "public speaking" has generated more searches than the "public speaking" query.

In addition, scrolling through the graphs, you will be able to analyze searches by geographical area and find out what areas of the world (or of a single nation) in which the search term has been most used and which are the most used research related to that term.

3. Identify your audience

Who is your course for? Answering this question is fundamental in order to identify the following characteristics of your audience and choose the language and style best suited to it. These are beginners or professionals? Young or old? What knowledge do they have of the subject? Better to use a language simple or technical terms?

4. Choose a short and memorable title

Make sure your title is easy to remember (so it's word-of-mouth). For the length, keep present that Google shows about 50-60 characters in the titles of search results. If you aim at a good positioning on the web, insert at the beginning of the title the message you want to provide and leave it at the subtitle or to the description any additional information.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator