Why do celebrity/gossip blogs use the same phrasing for post titles?

September 4, 2008 3:46 PM

Why do so many of the celebrity/gossip blogs use the same phrasing for post titles (ex: "Lindsey Lohan is Cured", "Tyra Banks is Angry", "David Duchovny is Addicted to Porn")?

Just curious why they all seem to follow this format and where it started from.

posted by deern the headlice to computers & internet (11 comments total)

Do you mean

Subject + Verb (+ Object)

or

Famous Name to draw you in + wtf did they do now?
posted by spec80 at 3:56 PM on September 4, 2008

Why wouldn't they include the subject of the post in the title of the post? I wish every blog did. Helps readers know whats what (particularly those of us following in RSS; helps me decide what to read and what to skip), helps people searching on Google find posts on the subject they're looking for.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 3:58 PM on September 4, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

They're all simple declarative sentences. They sum up the content of the post as simply as possible, without resorting to punctuation like "Lohan: Cured!".

Or is it some other aspect that you're thinking of?
posted by CKmtl at 4:01 PM on September 4, 2008

Celebrity is... (OK, I'm interested! What's next!?!) [INSERT VARIABLE HERE]! (Holy Cow! The source is so reliable that they reduce a topic to the most titillating wording possible and don't even add a qualifier or any explanation in the headline! This must be a good site, but as I'm not really interested in that celebrity, I'll scroll down to the next few posts... Oh, those were boring, but as I've already spent fifteen minutes on this site I might as well scroll back up and see what that first headline was about and I won't question the source/validity/relevance of the story too closely since I've already spent so much time here reading other stories and looking at the pretty pictures. After all, I'm not enough of a fool to read ridiculous stories in the first place...)
posted by Science! at 4:06 PM on September 4, 2008

TPS, are you saying you don't like ONTD posts labeled "NOT A DARK KNIGHT POST" and "NOT A MILEY POST"?????
posted by spec80 at 4:18 PM on September 4, 2008

Search engines effectively penalize clever headlines.

When someone is searching for info on David Duchovny's porn addition, they will tend to enter a pretty direct expression of the concept for the search term. They will not enter something resembling the clever headlines that some print editors were once so fond of.

When ranking a page for a given search term, Google seems to give priority to matching words found in headings and page titles because it's hard for sites to load them up with bogus keywords without alienating users. When ranking a page, Google definitely gives priority to words that occur frequently in the text of links to the page. Headlines and Page Titles often become that link text. Also when looking at a search results page, the page title will be the first impression a page makes on a potential reader as they scan (not read) the page.

As a result, sites have started favoring straightforward headlines & titles for stories.
posted by Good Brain at 4:24 PM on September 4, 2008

It's like any other headline, but instead of 'local man/woman' or 'Newbridge mayor' they get their easily-recognized proper name.
posted by tremspeed at 4:27 PM on September 4, 2008

I use to believe that creative titles for blog posts would make my celebrity blog stand out. And then I realized that, in RSS readers, a creative title that did not include any useful information was pretty darn worthless. When it comes to celebrity gossip, people care less about how clever the blog writer is than to see what an actual celebrity did. And,with many blogs stuck in RSS land, a simple and easy to read post title will draw readers in. Readers don't want to have to fight to figure out what your blog post is about - they want to know in the beginning so that they can get their proper amount of snark ready to diss the celebrity in the comments. A simple title will give the reader this. If you must be clever, you can then call the celebrity a hot mess or talk about your genitals in the 3rd person in the commentary section of your post.
posted by Stynxno at 4:34 PM on September 4, 2008

Because they are all trying to get traffic to their blogs, and it is a copy and paste kind of culture.
posted by chillmost at 5:07 PM on September 4, 2008

TPS, are you saying you don't like ONTD posts labeled "NOT A DARK KNIGHT POST" and "NOT A MILEY POST"?????

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. I read Crazy Days and Nights in RSS where the titles only pop up, and I never know what the heck the posts are about before I open them. "He Doesn't Know Her"? What Do You Think??
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:07 PM on September 4, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Thanks guys. It's hard to say whether or not they are actually doing it for SEO purposes. The authors/bloggers themselves don't seem all that SEO-inclined. I just thought it was more a stylistic thing that people began doing subconsciously because all the other gossip blogs were doing it. I was/am just curious who started it and/or how it started.

Maybe it is as simple as constructing the most straightforward name-driven post and I'm just overthinking it.

'Newbridge mayor'

Whoa - that was a not-so-subtle Scharpling secret handshake that just warmed my heart.
posted by deern the headlice at 8:35 PM on September 4, 2008