• Categories
    • Tutorials
    • Beginners Guide
    • WordPress News
    • WordPress Security
    • Best WordPress Plugins
    • WordPress Themes
    • Product Reviews
    • WP Tips & Tricks
  • Guides
    • Start a Blog
    • Make a Website
    • WordPress Hosting
  • Themes
    • Elegant Themes
    • Thrive Themes
    • OptimizePress
  • Hosting Reviews
    • WPEngine
    • Flywheel
    • A2 Hosting
    • SiteGround
    • Kinsta
  • Coupons
    • WPEngine
    • Flywheel
    • HostGator
    • A2 Hosting
WordPress Tips & Tricks

How To A/B Test Blog Post Titles In WordPress & Improve CTR

Last Updated on: July 30, 2018 Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

How To A/B Test Blog Post Titles In WordPress & Improve CTR

The title of a blog post is the most important aspect of SEO that you should focus on above all else. Because, no matter how many keywords you stuff into a title, all your efforts will go to waste if no one reads the blog post.

What if there’s a way you can figure out which titles your readers are most interested in so that you can bring in more traffic to each and every blog post on your website?

This is actually not only possible but you can also do it quite easily and for free using a simple WordPress plugin.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to A/B split test your blog post titles to optimize your titles for SEO and reduce bounce rate. Keep reading to find out how.

How CTR & Bounce Rate Affect Website SEO

Click through rate (CTR) is one of the major ranking signals Google uses to rank website pages. It’s an important part of optimizing the search results for offering a better user experience. So Google always optimizes search results based on each link’s click-through rate (CTR) and bounce rate.

For example, if more people are clicking on a link at the number 9 spot on a search results page than the link on the number 1 spot, then Google will bring the link to the top ranking spot to help people discover it easier.

Google also uses website bounce rate to find out the percentage of people who actually stay on your blog to read an article. Then improves ranking for links based on bounce rate. This system is in place to get rid of scammers and low-quality blogs that use click-bait titles to attract traffic for terrible websites.

For example, if more people click on a link on the search results page but immediate hits the back key on the browser, then Google sees it as a bounce and the link loses its relevance to targeted keywords and search phrases.

As you can imagine, crafting the most effective and attractive title is the key to getting higher rankings on Google and generating the most traffic.

What Is Title Experiments?

If you’re like most bloggers then you probably often struggle to decide what type of a title you’re going to use for a blog post. Which is better, a list-type title with numbers or a how-to guide title?

If you’ve experienced this dilemma, then Title Experiments plugin is for you.

Title Experiments is a WordPress plugin that allows you to A/B split test your blog post titles to find out which titles people are most interested in so that they get excited by the title and read the entire blog post.

How The Plugin Works

Once the plugin is activated, it will allow you to enter multiple titles when creating a new blog post. Then, whenever a visitor comes to read a blog post, the plugin will randomly choose a different title and show it to your audience.

The plugin then takes care of all the heavy work and calculate which titles convinced people to stay on the webpage longer. This helps you figure out which title is the most effective and managed to get people to read the entire post. Then you can make it the default title for the post.

How To Install Title Experiments Plugin

Setting up the Title Experiments plugin is quite easy. Here’s how it’s done.

Step 1: Login to your WordPress admin dashboard and go to Plugins >> Add New. Then search for Title Experiments Free. Then click the Install button and Activate the plugin.

Step 2: After the Installation, go to Settings >> Title Experiments Settings page to customize the settings for the plugin.

Step 3: If you’re using a caching plugin on your website, tick the first checkbox on the settings page to use JavaScript to set titles.

Step 4: In the “Search Engines should see” the section, choose First Title. This will ensure that you don’t confuse Google by showing different titles every 5 minutes.

Step 5: You can also set a custom time for recalculating. This determines how often a title is recalculated when showing different titles to your audience.

You can leave rest of the settings as it is or change to your preference.

How To A/B Test Blog Post Titles

After customizing the settings, you can start using the Title Experiments plugin.

Now, when you’re creating a new blog post or editing an existing post, you’ll see an option to add more than one title.

All you have to do to start an A/B split test is to add multiple titles to your blog post. Make sure that you add different types of titles using power words, keywords, and numbers.

Once you’ve added the titles, publish the blog post to start running the experiment.

After a while, you can go to the Edit Post page to see how each title is performing.

The plugin will show which titles were shown the most times and which performs better. To disable any low-performing titles, all you have to do is untick the checkmark next to the title.

If you want to see advanced analytics and detailed reports for your title experiments, you can upgrade to the Pro version of the Title Experiments plugin, which comes with lots of advanced features such as the ability to add multiple featured images for a post and get detailed statistics on title performance.

In Conclusion

There you go. Now you know how to A/B test blog post titles and optimize your blog posts for better CTR, conversions, and reduce bounce rate at the same time.

You can further improve your title tags by optimizing each title for maximum effectiveness. This can be accomplished by using a tool like CoSchedule Headline Analyzer, which allows you to test and analyze titles by giving you helpful tips for optimization.

A better alternative is YoRocket, a premium WordPress plugin that lets you optimize blog post titles from your WordPress dashboard.

With the help of a headline analyzer and A/B testing, you’ll be able to improve CTR and get your new and old blog posts to rank much higher on Google.

+ Share
Disclosure

Editorial Staff

Related Posts

Back to all articles
  • Multiple Author WordPress Blog

    Multiple Author WordPress Blog: 7 Tips and Plugins for Success

  • 30 WordPress Firefox Plugins for Developers and Bloggers for 2021

    30 WordPress Firefox Plugins for Developers and Bloggers for 2021

  • WP Event Manager Plugin

    WP Event Manager Review: Your Ultimate (Free) Event Manager Plugin?

Coupons

View more deals
  • Nexcess coupon code
    Save 40%

    Nexcess Coupon

    Looking to save money on managed hosting from Nexcess?
    Get This Deal
  • 33% OFF

    Flywheel Hosting Coupon

    Hosting isn’t always the most simple portion of your websit
    Get This Deal
  • TailorBrands
    25% Off

    Tailor Brands Coupon

    Looking for a Tailor Brands coupon to save on your own custom log
    Get This Deal

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Full Disclosure This post may contain affiliate links, meaning that if you click on one of the links and purchase an item, we may receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). All opinions are our own and we do not accept payments for positive reviews.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

loader

THE BEST OF WPKUBE

Some of the best content we have published so far.

BEGINNER GUIDES & REVIEWS

1How to Start a WordPress Blog (Step by Step Guide)
2How to Install WordPress - The Complete Guide
36 Best Options for Managed WordPress Hosting Compared
4The 7 Best WordPress Hosting Providers for 2021 Compared
5Top 9 Landing Page Plugins for WordPress (2020)
69 Best List Building Plugins for WordPress In 2021
7How to Fix the 500 Internal Server Error on Your WordPress Website
8Beaver Builder Review: Is it The Best Page Builder Plugin for WordPress (2021)?
9What is a Gravatar and Why You Should Get One
10Thrive Themes Review: A Look At The Full Membership
117 Best WordPress Migration Plugins Reviewed and Compared for 2021
12OptimizePress Review: Create Landing Pages with Ease
13How to Make a Website: Complete Beginner's Guide
14WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: Which is Best for Me?
15Top 22 Best Free Stock Photo Resources For Your Site
1617 of the Best Google Fonts (And How to Use Them in WordPress)
17LifterLMS Review: Is it The Ultimate WordPress LMS Plugin?
18How To Fix '503 Service Unavailable' WordPress Error
1911 Best Contact Form Plugins for WordPress in 2021
20How to Use BackupBuddy – The Best Backup Solution for WP??
21How to Add a Custom Logo to Your WordPress Site
22Kinsta Review: Real Test Data + My Likes And Dislikes
23How to Fix Error Establishing a Database Connection in WordPress
24Thrive Architect Review 2020 – Best Landing Page Plugin for WordPress!

Exclusive deals

Flywheel Elegant Themes Coupon WPEngine Coupon A2 Hosting

WPEngine: 50% OFF Deal

Save 50% on one of the best managed hosting providers.

Get this Deal

Flywheel(our review)

Featured In Forbes Huffpost Entrepreneur SEJ

About WPKube

WPKube is an online WordPress resource which focuses on WordPress tutorials, How-to’s, guides, plugins, news, and more. We aim to provide the most comprehensive beginner’s guides to anything about WordPress — from installing plugins, themes, automated installs and setups, to creating and setting up pages for your website.

We have over 500+ tutorials, guides, product reviews, tips, and tricks about WordPress. Founded by Devesh Sharma, the main goal of this site is to provide useful information on anything and everything WordPress.

Useful Links

  • Behind the Scenes
  • Beginner Guides
  • WordPress Hosting
  • WooCommerce Themes
  • MeridianThemes
  • Exclusive WordPress Deals
View All Guides »

Reviews

  • WPEngine 33% OFF
  • Thrive Leads
  • Flywheel 33% OFF
  • Divi Theme 20% OFF
  • Thrive Architect
  • Elegant Themes
Reviews »

Deals

  • InMotion Hosting
  • LifterLMS Coupon
  • LiquidWeb Coupon
  • WPEngine Coupon
  • A2 Hosting
More Deals »
© Copyright 2020 WPKube ® All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Site Terms
  • Disclosure
  • Privacy Policy