
Book subtitles are getting longer because of SEO - neonate
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-subtitles-are-getting-ridiculously-long-what-is-going-on/2019/06/04/3150bcc8-86c3-11e9-98c1-e945ae5db8fb_story.html
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JoeSmithson
This is seems to be true of apps names as well. For example, to pick a few
random examples;

\- Spotify's actual name on Google Play is "Spotify: Discover music, podcasts,
and playlists" (so catchy!)

\- SoundHound's actual name is "SoundHound - Music Discovery & Hands-Free
Player"

Rather than fixing whatever search behaviour incentivised this, Google seem to
have just joined in;

\- Google Maps is actually called "Maps - Navigate & Explore"

\- Google Keep is actually called "Google Keep - Notes and Lists"

When I got a new phone recently I actually found it really confusing and had
to check I wasn't installing phishing apps by mistake.

Thankfully Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are currently named with their actual
names!

~~~
qwerty456127
Why the heck would Google itself need this kind of SEO junk?

Why not just let people search by app (and book) description text (does it
really not work this way already?)?

~~~
notatoad
Google needs that kind of SEO junk as much as anybody else who publishes in
the play store, because somehow depsite google's general excellence at search
the search function in the play store is still garbage.

------
falcolas
They have a ways to go, if they want to compete with some of the Japanese
Light Novel titles.

I Came to Another World as a Jack of All Trades and a Master of None to
Journey while Relying on Quickness

or

There was a Cute Girl in the Hero's Party so I tried Confessing

or the rather tame

Didn't I Say To Make My Abilities Average In The Next Life?

It's kind of interesting to see what is done to make titles stand out in an
age where anyone can write a novel on the web (or publish a book on Amazon).

~~~
TheAceOfHearts
I was about to say the same thing. Some light novel titles are literally a
long description. These are two of the longer titles:

* (I've Already Saved This World and Taken Its Wealth and Power and I Live Happily in a Castle with a Female Knight and Demon Queen, So To All Other Heroes) Stay Out of This Fantasy World.

* Sew It Up! Take It Off? Change!! My Girlfriend Failed Her High School Debut and Became a Hikikomori, So I Decided to Coordinate Her Youth (Fashion)

You also see the same trend with some manga titles:

* I'm a Middle-Aged Man Who Got My Adventurer License Revoked, But I'm Enjoying a Carefree Lifestyle Because I Have an Adorable Daughter Now

* A Story About Treating a Female Knight, Who Has Never Been Treated as a Woman, as a Woman

Indie publishing has also made high quality cover art much more important. I
don't know about other people, but I regularly judge books based on their
cover. There was a book in my recommendations list which I skipped for years
just because I thought one of the guys on the cover looked like an asshole.
Ended up enjoying it and regretting that I waited so long to pick it up. This
isn't always the case, but more often than not, low quality cover art means
poor writing as well.

~~~
itronitron
How do they title their Haiku?

~~~
52-6F-62

        The title
        Is the haiku is
        The haiku

------
aeharding
SEO is making all titles/descriptions be less creative and use more targeted
keywords.

For example, Skydiving dropzones. Some in Wisconsin:

    
    
      1. Skyknights -> Skydive Milwaukee
      2. AtmosphAIR -> Wisconsin Skydiving Center
      3. Green Bay Skydivers -> Skydive Freefall Adventure

~~~
jetrink
Back when people used phone books instead of search engines, businesses would
choose names that would be listed first alphabetically[1]. Even now, there are
three unrelated AAA Plumbing businesses within 10 miles of me.

1\. [https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-
xpm-1992-11-08-920411...](https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-
xpm-1992-11-08-9204110246-story.html)

~~~
Jarred
My dad's small business construction company was called "AA1 Construction"
because he wanted it to be the first in the phone book.

~~~
itronitron
I know a shop that picked a 'Z' name so that they would be the last place that
a prospective client called, their reasoning being that they would only get
interesting jobs (the ones that everyone else said NO to) as a result.

~~~
marvy
did it work?

~~~
itronitron
yes, it was a 2+ person prop shop and most of their projects involved some
trial and error

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hirundo
I can confirm it's also true for web articles:

    
    
      mysql> desc articles; 
      +--------------+---------------+ 
      | Field        | Type          | 
      +--------------+---------------+ 
      | id           | int(11)       | 
      | kicker       | varchar(255)  | 
      | body         | longtext      | 
      | headline     | varchar(255)  | 
      | sub_headline | text          | 
      | teaser       | text          |
    

We used to have varchar(255) for sub_headline as with headline. A few years
ago I caught a ticket to turn it into a text type (65 KiB). SEO was the
motive. If we ever get a request to make it longtext (4 GiB) I may cry.

~~~
benatkin
It isn't 191 characters?!?!
[https://github.com/rails/rails/issues/9855#issuecomment-2887...](https://github.com/rails/rails/issues/9855#issuecomment-28874587)
[https://github.com/rails/rails/issues/30305](https://github.com/rails/rails/issues/30305)

Kidding. I have used 191 as a length because of that though. :)

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icebraining
Seems like a return to book titles of the past, which often were a short
summary of the whole book: [https://evareadsbooks.wordpress.com/tag/really-
long-old-book...](https://evareadsbooks.wordpress.com/tag/really-long-old-
book-titles-a-series/)

~~~
Freak_NL
I love them:

> Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel
> Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships

Or another all time classic:

> The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of ROBINSON CRUSOE, Of York,
> Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited
> Iſland on the Coaſt of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of
> Oroonoque; Having been caſt on Shore by Shipwreck, where-in all the Men
> periſhed but himſelf. With An Account how he was at laſt as ſtrangely
> deliver'd by Pirates.

~~~
Freak_NL
I'm forry about the long-f there, but the title doefn't look right without it.

~~~
jfk13
I confeſs I was ſorry to ſee you failed to uſe the proper ‘ſ’ while
apologiſing, and ſubſtituted the quite different letter ‘f’.

------
whatrocks
My favorite college professor was onto this way back in 1988 with the subtitle
to his great book `Another Sort of Learning`

`Selected Contrary Essays on How Finally to Acquire an Education While Still
in College Or Anywhere Else: Containing Some Belated Advice about How to
Employ Your Leisure Time When Ultimate Questions Remain Perplexing in Spite of
Your Highest Earned Academic Degree, Together with Sundry Book Lists Nowhere
Else in Captivity to Be Found`

[https://www.amazon.com/Another-Sort-Learning-James-
Schall/dp...](https://www.amazon.com/Another-Sort-Learning-James-
Schall/dp/089870183X)

------
ryandrake
Same with mobile app titles. Back when I wrote iOS apps, our marketer/growth
hacker advocated changing the app name to a ridiculously long string of
keywords. I thought it was the stupidest idea ever but we did it and it had an
immediate and sustained positive effect on our app’s AppStore ranking. Turns
out I was the stupid one.

------
d-d
If you're fascinated by the unintended consequences of technology it might be
worth picking up a copy of "Understanding Media" by Marshall McLuhan. This
hacking of book subtitles is a great example of what I like to call the
"McLuhan Effect", but honestly I just can't remember the proper term for it.

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coding123
Soon author pen names will look like this: Stevenking Shining

------
tracker1
New book idea...

SEO: Search Engine Optimization to expand markets both online and offline in
the face of competition and substance

------
gcb0
"...and lack of reviews".

If they had reviews (reason we had affiliate code) organic search would work
just fine.

Instead we give google the affiliate cut, in exchange of the privilege of
tweaking our content to their search.

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TheSoftwareGuy
I've noticed this for a lot of web pages too. It seems a lot of search engines
put a disproportionate amount of weight on keywords that are found in
titles/headings as opposed to text bodies

------
AznHisoka
Youtube video titles as well. Especially kids video where they stuff a bunch
of kid-related words in it like 'Play Doh Elsa Johnny Johnny Yes Papa Masha
Bear ABC'

------
ilamont
Another trend: Titles are getting shorter. Publishers use larger title text,
clearer images, and more colorful/contrasted covers so they stand out at
thumbnail scale.

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0xcde4c3db
This reminds me of the following creature from the Magic: The Gathering
"Unhinged" joke expansion [1]:

Our Market Research Shows That Players Like Really Long Card Names So We Made
this Card to Have the Absolute Longest Card Name Ever Elemental

[1]
[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multive...](https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=74237)

------
borne0
As an aside, Jon Ronson's podcast 'The Butterfly Effect' presents the same
issue with porn videos; before streaming sites and SEO producers were free to
name their videos as they wished but now they need to name them so they appeal
to multiple sub-genres and fetishes and that's why we get 'Step Daughter
Cheerleader Orgy Volume 4' rather than some play on Edward Scissor Hands.

------
tartinipaolo
This "trend" seems just so sad to me, but the truth is, the title sells.
Unfortunately that means changing the original name to something totally
different in translation just as the publisher wants to sell the book. I don't
think this is right but as long as it is the will of the writer it will make
just him look ridiculous because of the ways he used to sell.

------
jjp
Is it SEO or search result presentation optimization? I've noticed a load of
book/film titles on Amazon search results and had assumed that it was less
about SEO than a bit more of a descriptive title so that I was more likely to
click through and find out more about the book/film.

------
stunt
Everything is getting longer because of SEO. Books, Articles, News, blog
posts, and Youtube videos.

Even conference talks are getting longer because length is often more
important than the quality for most of the users.

------
tracker1
Song Title: Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand

------
gdcohen
So true. And interesting that the title of the actual article is also very
long, "Book subtitles are getting ridiculously long. What is going on?".

------
nacs
Article without ad/paywall:
[https://outline.com/XS9Yqt](https://outline.com/XS9Yqt)

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mrhappyunhappy
I wonder how much collective human time search engines and google in
particular has siphoned from us. Instead of getting straight to the point, now
you have to read a bunch of “long form” content. Think about all that wasted
time and multiply by billions.

~~~
gipp
You've gotta squint really hard to convince yourself that the internet has
_decreased_ the brevity of communication.

------
781
SEO is one reason, but the reduced attention span of today's people surely is
another. People just won't bother figuring out what a "mystery title" book is
about.

~~~
SerLava
I don't like the idea of attention span in the context of media consumption.
It presupposes that the producer has some kind of right to everyone else's
attention just because they made something. If you're not going to help filter
yourself out from people who won't be interested in you, it will be and should
be an automatic no.

~~~
inetknght
> _I don 't like the idea of attention span in the context of media
> consumption. _

You not liking it doesn't make it any less of a fact...

~~~
SerLava
It's not really a fact though- it's a framework for understanding engagement,
and it's a trash framework.

It's used my the laziest shills to place blame for their shit content on some
notion of public stupidity.

