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SEO Benefits of Title Case in Blogging: A Deep Dive

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Sam Brown

Sam is an editor, ghostwriter and 7x Top Writer on Medium.com

• 10 min read

Photo of a person writing a blog post with a laptop on a wooden table by Justin Morgan on Unsplash

Photo by Justin Morgan on Unsplash

There are significant, measurable, SEO benefits of using title case in blogging.

So, if you’ve ever wondered “Is title case good for SEO?”, “Should your blog title be capitalized?” or “Does capitalization of title tags affect SEO ranking?”, you’re in the right place.

As a highly experienced writer and blogger who has successfully got my content to the top of Google search results, in this article I’ll explain what title case is, the benefits of using it, and how you can best implement it to boost SEO performance.

Let’s get to work.

Contents of this article

What is Title Case?

Title Case and Sentence Case are two key formatting styles used in titles, headlines, subheadings, and text for blogs, articles, and other content.

If you’re in a hurry, just remember these simple definitions:

  • Title Case means capitalizing all important words and leaving minor words lower case.
  • In Sentence Case only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized.

The title of this article, ”SEO Benefits of Title Case in Blogging” is formatted in title case. If we were to convert it to sentence case, it would be ”SEO benefits of title case in blogging“.

You can see that in title case, it has more impact. You’re forced to read a little slower and take in the key words. The same title in sentence case reads much faster and more conversationally, but you’re more likely to skip over it without fully grasping it.

To convert your blog heading or title to title case you can use our handy title case tool.

The Difference Between Title Tag and H1 Heading

A common pitfall in blogging is not understanding the difference between a title tag and H1 heading.

The title tag appears between the <title></title> tags in the <head> section of the page. This title is what appears in search results and also in the browser tab.

This may be different from the actual title of your blog post, which should appear within the <h1></h1> heading tag in the <body> section and appears prominantly at the top of the article.

If you’re building your own webpage old-school style, you can manually code these but if you’re using Wordpress, Medium or another blogging platform there should be fields or settings where you can specify them. We’ll come onto that in more detail later.

You may ultimately choose the same text for both elements, but it’s important to grasp the difference because they have different purposes. The <title> element is about encouraging clicks from search results whereas the <h1> element is about engaging the reader once they are on the page.

Let’s explore that in a bit more detail next.

Why Should Headings and Titles Use Title Case for SEO Purposes?

As mentioned in the above section, there is a difference between the <title> and the <h1> heading and it’s important to optimize both to help improve SEO performance.

Title tag

The text contained with the <title> element is what appears in search results.

The main aim here is to grab the reader’s attention and get them to click. For that reason it is important to use title case because this formatting style makes your title stand out. It is crucial to clearly and simply convey what your blog is about in a way that encourages them to click through to your article. It should be a maximum of 60 characters to avoid truncation.

Research by Semrush found that changing existing article titles from title case to sentence case reduced clicks by 2.4% in just 28 days.

Click Through Rate is a key metric used by search engines to rank pages. Encouraging users to click on your article through an intriguing title, formatted using title case, will help increase your CTR.

H1 heading

The <h1> heading is the main title of your blog post that the reader will see once they have clicked through. The main aim here is to convince the reader to continue reading.

The heading should be formatted in title case to drive home the key words and make it easy for the reader to quickly understand the point you are making.

In addition to being well formatted, your title should be highly engaging. Once you’re finished reading this article you might like to read my article Title Case Formatting for Blog Post Titles which contains 11 tips for writing better titles that will hook readers in.

The reason your <h1> heading is so important is because of another key metric that search engines use to calculate rankings: Bounce Rate. If readers land on your article but immediately leave because they aren’t drawn in by a strong title, your Bounce Rate will increase and your search rankings will be punished.

How Does Title Case Affect User Experience?

Titles and headings that are correctly formatted in title case positively improves user experience. As search engine algorithms have become ever more sophisticated, improving UX can have a strongly positive effect on SEO performance.

But how does title case improve UX? Simply put, it enables the reader to quickly grasp and digest the key points you are trying to make. It causes them to read slower and take everything in, rather than skimming over the text.

But that’s not to say you should use it everywhere. Excessive Use of Title Case Formatting Can Make Long Passages of Text Much More Difficult to Read and Diminish User Experience. See?

It’s therefore important to use it correctly. In blogs is good practice to use title case for the following:

  • Title
  • H1 heading
  • H2 subheadings

And good practice to use sentence case for the following:

  • Subtitle
  • H3 (and lower) sub-subheadings
  • Body text

Titles and H1 headings should always be formatted in title case and body text should always be in sentence case. There is no hard and fast rule when it comes to subtitles and subheadings and you may choose either title case or sentence case but whatever you do choose, make sure you are consistent. Not only throughout your article but across all posts on your blog.

How Does Title Case Affect Mobile User Experience?

Title case can have an even more significant UX improvement when it comes to mobile devices.

Because of the smaller size of cellphone screens, title case can help to improve readability and comprehension by reducing confusion that can arise from misinterpretation of words on a small screen. Mobile users are used to endlessly scrolling and use of title case can help your text stand out and stop their thumbs moving long enough for them to grasp what you are saying.

Again, with evermore complex search engine algorithms that put an ever increasing emphasis on mobile user experience, proper use of title case can help improve your ranking and is therefore a key part of a good SEO strategy.

Once you’re finished here, you might want to check out my article Optimizing Titles for Mobile SEO Performance for more background on the impacts of titles in mobile SEO.

How Does Title Case Affect Social Media Engagement?

Title case can have strong positive impact on social media performance which can have direct and indirect SEO benefits.

The title or headline is likely the first thing that a user sees in a post that has been shared on social media and as we have already discussed, use of title case formatting improves click through rates so social shares are likely to translate into page views.

But it’s not only click through rates that can be improved by use of title case. Research by trustinsights.ai found that in a study of 100,000 social media posts, the posts that used title case received 94% more likes, 137% more views and 144% more comments.

How to Write SEO Friendly Titles and Headings

I think by now I’ve made a strong case for why you should format your blog titles and headings using title case. However, that’s only part of the story. It’s, of course, essential to write a strong title that is SEO friendly.

Here are a few tips to help you write SEO friendly titles and headings.

Include (but don’t spam) keywords

Hopefully you’ve done some keyword research and understand what keywords you are trying to target. Of course you want to include them in your title (ideally towards the start) but it’s also important not to repeat them or try to shoehorn many keywords in where it doesn’t make sense.

Readers will see straight through this strategy and search engines will downrank your content.

”Best Coffee Shop for Coffee Shop Lovers in the UK’s Coffee Shop Capital”

Nope. Don’t do it.

Use emotional hooks

Using emotive language is a tried and tested technique in writing engaging titles. “Struggling to X? Here’s What to Do”, “Missing out on Leads? An Expert Shares Her Top Sales Tips”.

Highlight why the reader should click

You’re competing against an almost unimaginable volume of other articles. Why should the reader click yours?

“In-Depth”, “Updated for 2023”, “Learn X in 5 Minutes”, “Exact Steps to Achieve Y”, “Exclusive Content”, “Explained with Infographics”… Whatever the subject of your post, try to find a hook so the reader knows why they should click your article.

Optimize length

A good <title> should be less than 60 characters. More than that and you risk having it truncated in search results. Much shorter than that and you’re leaving valuable characters on the table that you could be using to reel in readers.

There’s no maximum length for the <h1> heading but again it should be short enough to remain punchy but long enough to engage the reader.

Short, generic headings like “On Writing” do not do enough to convince the reader to scoll onwards. Instead consider something more specific like “I Published 300 Articles. Here’s Everything I’ve Learnt About Writing”

Only include your brand if you have space

I used to start every <title> with the name of my blog, like MyAwesomeBlog | Article Title. This is a common practice, but from an SEO point of view it is better to focus on the article title and only include your brand if you have space at the end.

You should naturally rank for your own brand and the precious 60 characters that you have available in your title can be better spent targeting keywords or hooking readers.

How to Set Title and H1 Heading on Your Blog

How you set your <title> and <h1> heading will depend on what platform you’re writing on but all major platforms should have the option to specify them.

If you’re building a website from scratch, include <title>Your Title Here</title> in the <head> section of your page and <h1>Your Heading</h1> in the <body> section of your page, positioned and styled such that it is the most prominent text on the page.

If you’re using a blogging platform such as Medium, Substack, Wordpress, Wix, or Squarespace the process is super simple.

How to set SEO title and H1 heading on Medium

The title you enter at the top of your article will be converted into the <h1> heading. To set the <title> text, when you’re in the editor, click the three dots, then More settings then enter the text in the SEO Title field.

How to set SEO title and H1 heading on Substack

The title of your post will be converted to a <h1> heading. To set the <title>, click Settings, then SEO Options and then enter the text in the SEO title field.

How to set SEO title and H1 heading on Wordpress

Again, the title of your post will be converted to a <h1> heading. To edit your <title>, the simplest way is to use Yoast SEO plugin. Click the Google Preview dropdown section and enter your text in the SEO title field, replacing any prepopulated content.

How to set SEO title and H1 heading on Wix Blog

As with all the other platforms discussed above, the title of your post will be converted to a <h1> heading. To set your <title>, when you’re in the post editor, click SEO on the left hand side and then enter your text in Title tag.

How to set SEO title and H1 heading on Squarespace Blog

You can probably guess by now what happens with your <h1> heading. To set a <title>, when your in your pages panel, hover the relevant page, then click the gear icon. Select the SEO tab and then enter your text in the SEO Title field.

Takeaways: The SEO Benefits of Title Case in Blogging

Well you made it to the end!

That was a pretty deep dive on how using title case can help improve SEO performance on blogs. Let’s recap on the key points.

Formatting your blog heading and title using title case helps to improve SEO performance in several key ways:

  • Improve Click Through Rate
  • Reduce Bounce Rate
  • Improve User Experience
  • Improve Mobile UX
  • Improve Social Media engagement

We also looked at some tips that will help you write better headlines and titles and exactly how to set the SEO title and H1 heading on many major blogging platforms.

So next time you’re writing a blog post, don’t forget to convert your text to title case using our free title case converter tool.

Hopefully you’ve found this article interesting and helpful. If so please consider sharing it.

You may also be interested in my articles Optimizing Titles for Mobile SEO Performance and Title Case Formatting for Blog Post Titles

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