So following up on that last post I made...
I realized that naming this blog was the first editorial decision I made as far as this blog is concerned. And, keeping with the theme of this blog (which I'll explain later), I'm second-guessing myself.
I originally titled it "We'll see about that..." because that was the first thing I blurted out when a classmate suggested a blog name to me. I thought it was just non-descriptive enough to avoid any silent judgement from the rest of my classmates.
But then when I came back tonight to make my post in accordance with the J420 syllabus, I realized I'm an idiot. A title should reflect what the blog is about, not to avoid silent judgement. But there are other factors that go in to that decision, too. For one, it should include Google-able words, if you ever want anyone to see it. I think I did a pretty good job there.
It should also tell people what the point of the blog is... you get it, right?
So please look at the name of your blog... think real hard about it. It might be the most important editorial decision you make as far as your own blog is concerned. Isn't second-guessing fun? You'll be doing it a lot this semester if you're a J420 student.
The theme of this blog will be calling into question editorial decisions from around the country. The way I envision it, some will be humorous, and others pathetic. All of them, however, will be debatable. As much as we journalists like to believe we're objective all the time, we make subjective decisions without even thinking about them. Hundreds every day.
So... let the second guessing begin.
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Although my blog title may be the most nonsensical of the bunch, I'm not very concerned with it.
ReplyDeleteI created my blog with every intention of making it private. It's ability to be picked up by search engines or be understood by the casual reader isn't very important.
With that said, I agree that the title of your blog is what search engines are looking at first. Jargon: it is the "h1" tag. Web site developers used to insert meta-tags in the "head" tag, but I believe they are becoming less important. I haven't taken J425 yet, but this is based on experience with Web site job and talking to people who have a lot of experience hard coding Web sites. I didn't look anything up.
Point is that I agree with you. It is an important editorial decision. Online titles/headlines are important for not only catching readers' attentions but also increasing traffic to your information.