No, no. Not Martin Short. Short, as in not very long.

Bloggers have been told for a long time that the longer and more detailed the title, the more likely it will be that people will click on them. We have seen quirky titles popping up for a long time and they definitely have an extra clickability factor to them that shorter blog post titles do not. However, the singular benefit does not compensate for the negatives associated with longer titles.

First, the shorter the title, them more search engine optimization clout it has. Google and Bing look to title tags as one of the most important onsite factors when determining rankings. It's a mathematical scale - the longer the title, the less "juice" each individual word and character has when it comes to SEO.

Second, shorter titles are more likely to be shared on social media. Call it psychology, call it "too long to retweet" fear, call it whatever you want, the stats show that blog posts with longer titles get shared less often than shorter ones.

Finally, and this is arguably the most important thing to remember, shorter titles that get to the point are better for getting the focused reader. It's true, longer titles are more likely to get clicked, but your real blog visitors are more interested in getting to the point and staying focused on their goals rather than getting to see how clever the blogger was in their posts. That's not to say that you shouldn't be creative with your titles or that longer titles are against some arbitrary rule. It's just that all too often bloggers will extend their titles because some blogging expert told them to get wacky. If you don't need to get wacky, don't do it.

You're reading this post right now so something about the title compelled you to read further. That's a good sign. If you can recognize the importance of having titles that get to the point, then you can appreciate the abilities that shorter titles have for SEO, sharing, and focused interaction.