Web users usually skim and scan content before reading it. One of the first things they’ll come across is the blog post title. Everyone in the content business is talking about how to master the art of creating killer headlines and forgetting the title capitalization aspect.
It’s imperative to capitalize your blog post titles correctly and consistently. You can use sentence case or title case in a blog post title. In sentence case, you capitalize only the first letter. When going with the title case method, the APA style is preferred, where you capitalize major words and lowercase most minor words. Proper title capitalization gives users a good first impression that you have an eye for detail.
Otherwise, your readers will develop grammar concerns.
In this post, we’ll walk you through specific title capitalization rules and options.
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How to Capitalize Your Blog Post Titles?
The capitalization style you follow will dictate the words subject to capitalization. However, the rules slightly vary.
There are four main capitalization formats to choose from, but bloggers are advised to stick to the APA style.
Well, you will have two options when it comes to capitalizing words in titles:
- Sentence case
- Title case
Please keep in mind the other styles also use these capitalization options.
Sentence Case Capitalization Rules
It’s the easiest and most straightforward way to capitalize your titles. You capitalize the first letter in the headline and lowercase the rest except for proper nouns.
Title Case Capitalization Rules
Title case is the more preferred option, although it has more rules to follow. Generally, you’ll need to capitalized major words and lowercase most minor words.
Before we go even further, let’s briefly clarify what these phrases are and give examples.
When we say major words, we mean the words that fall in the following categories:
- Nouns ( name of person, place, or thing – Gabriel, bathroom, book, etc.)
- Pronouns ( I, he, her, you, they, etc.)
- Verbs ( run, cook, jump, dance, etc.)
- Adjectives ( beautiful, furry, faster, happy, etc.)
- At least four-letter words (away, from, area, between, alone, with, etc.)
As for the minor words, a blogger should pay attention to:
- Articles (a, an, the)
- Short conjunctions ( and, but, or, for, so, yet, nor, etc.)
- Short prepositions ( in, at, on, to, of, up, by, via, etc.)
By short prepositions and conjunctions, we refer to words with three or fewer letters.
Additional Rules to Follow When Capitalizing Blog Headlines
Like in the sentence case, the title case also requires capitalization of the first letter in the headline. It does not matter if the headline starts with a minor word.
There are few other circumstances where you’ll need to capitalize some words in a title.
If your heading has a subtitle, capitalize the first word, regardless of whether it’s a minor word.
The same rule applies to words that come after an em dash, colon, period, question mark, exclamation marks, and other end punctuation.
Many bloggers capitalize only the first part of hyphenated major words, which is wrong in the APA format. You need to capitalize both parts. For example, Evidence-Based would be correct, not Evidence-based.
Unsure about which words you should capitalize?
The capitalization of blog post titles can be confusing. Even those who know how to create perfect SEO headlines can miss some details and make mistakes.
The good news is that there’s an easy and effective way to avoid this altogether. You can use online converter case tools like Capitalize My Title. It provides you with all the capitalization options.
With converter case tools, you don’t need to remember any rules, although it’s good to be aware of them. All you need to do is either paste or type your title and select the capitalization style of your choice.
Whether every word is capitalized or in uppercase, the tool will automatically fix everything for you with a few clicks. The results are instant. Therefore, it is an excellent way to speed up a typical time-consuming writing process.
In Summary;
When writing blog post headlines, it’s advisable to follow all the same style and guidelines for all your work. That’s what the readers expect from a publication they get on a professional blog.
If you do it right, you can easily avoid unnecessary criticism and confusion. That way, it’s even easier to build trust with your visitors, boost engagements, and convert users into real-life clients.
