Which article would you rather read? One called “Small Business Tips,” or “Top 10 Small Business Tips?” If you’re like most web denizens, you’ll probably choose the latter. While you may not realize it at the time, modifiers like those found at the beginning of the second title are very effective at drawing in readers.
While it may be difficult to believe that adding a few words to your titles can make a significant difference in your rankings, a test by Anvil Media revealed that certain modifiers are much more commonly searched for. For instance, Anvil found that while “greatest restaurants” is searched for about 28 times every month on Google, “top 10 restaurants” sees around 1300 monthly searches. Better still, “best restaurants” shows a reported Google monthly search volume of 14,800. With such data, the importance of effectively using the right modifiers becomes clear. Before you see how effective these modifiers can be, however, it may be helpful to learn exactly what they are.