During a discussion with lawyers at a leading law firm we touched on a common question that arises when blogging: the difference between the title of a post and the title tag used for SEO purposes.

Many legal bloggers may not realize that these two titles serve distinct purposes. The post title is what your readers will see when they visit your blog or receive updates via email or RSS, while the title tag plays a key role in how your post is indexed and displayed on Google.

Using WordPress and the Yoast Plugin
WordPress based platforms, when combined with the Yoast SEO plugin, make it easy to adjust these titles.

As you draft a blog post, you can customize the title tag separately from the title seen on the post itself. This flexibility allows you to craft a more reader-friendly title for your audience while optimizing the title tag with important keywords to boost search engine visibility.

Why It Matters
For legal bloggers, this distinction is important because search engines like Google prioritize certain keywords and formats in the title tag. Optimizing your title tags with terms your target audience might search for (like specific legal issues or jurisdictions) may increase the visibility of your blog posts in search results. However, when writing the actual post title, you might prefer a more engaging or creative approach that appeals to your readers.

When no custom title tag is provided, Google will typically default to using the post title as the title in search results.

Best Practices

  • Post Titles: Keep these concise and compelling. The goal here is to attract your regular readers and subscribers. Avoid stuffing keywords; focus on readability.
  • Title Tags: Be more strategic. Think about the terms your potential clients or colleagues might use when searching for information. Include the main topic or legal issue you’re addressing and consider your geographic location if relevant. Don’t focus solely on keywords; instead, consider that Google typically displays around 50-60 characters of the title in search results. It’s important to craft concise, relevant titles that fit within this limit for better visibility.

Yoast Makes it Easy
Yoast provides an easy-to-use interface to manage these differences. After writing your post title, you hit a strategically located Toast icon or scroll down to the Yoast section and manually adjust the title tag for SEO purposes.

The Yoast Plugin will be included in established publishing and blogging platforms, including LexBlog’s. If you’re not using the Yoast SEO plugin, I recommend having it included in your WordPress setup.

For legal bloggers, paying attention to these small technical details can improve your blog’s reach, helping you connect with more potential clients or colleagues. Only takes a minute or two to add the Title Tag.

Yes, I’m guilty of spending 30 minutes to an hour writing a blog post and then not taking the extra minute to perfect my title tag with Yoast.