Title Tags… why they matter

Title Tags are the single most important on-page SEO element and will have a huge impact on your website’s search engine ranking when used in conjunction with your website content, so optimising them is essential.

What is a Title Tag

A title tag defines the title of an online document and appears in the top of the browser, the search results page and external websites as the anchor text.

Title Tag Code Sample

<head>
<title>Example Title</title>
</head>

Optimal Title Tag Format

Primary keyword – Secondary keyword | Brand Name

SEO Best Practice

Title Tags, much like book titles, need to be accurate and concisely describe the content of your web page.
Don’t underestimate the power of your title tags as this SEO element creates value and is critical to both user experience and search engine optimisation.

Relevant Title Tags
All the pages within a website should have a specific purpose and the title tag needs to reflect this. Relevant title tags will not only help the page rank well in the search engines but it will also increase the number of visitors to the site. When searches are performed the search engine will highlight the keywords used that also appear in the site’s listing, resulting in the user seeing that a site is relevant to their search query and increasing the chance that they will click through to the site.
Unique Title Tags
As every page of your site is unique and offers different but specific content your page titles also need to reflect this and therefore be unique. Using the same keyword phrase for all the pages is not good practice . Site visitors and search engines need to know about the content of the page they are landing on not the keyword phrase for the site.
Interesting and Convincing Titles
For maximum results the title tag should use convincing words. Title tags show up on a search engine results page and therefore need to be compelling in order to make anyone searching for your product or service want to click on your site instead of one of your competitors’ sites.
Optimum Title Tag Length
Google displays up to 70 characters in their search results page so take advantage of this by including the most relevant keywords for that page.
Keywords First
It is far better to place your best keyword at the beginning of the title tag as this is the prime place for searchers scanning results pages. The first words are also considered to be of more importance to search engines. Be sure to research and find the right keywords.
Keyword Stuffed Title Tags
Don’t load title tags with lots of keywords. Including too many keywords in the title tag will dilute the relevancy of the entire title tag and the site is also at risk of being penalised by the search engines, as they will view this as spam.
Brand your Title Tag
Including your brand in the title tag will help to increase return visits, however be sure to also incorporate the most valuable keyword phrase for that page.
Stop Words in Title Tags
Stop words are common words, like a, an, the, etc. These words do not increase a keyword phrases value and should be avoided as it can prohibit the site from achieving high ranking.
Local Businesses for Local Searches
Local based business should target a specific geographic area and include a suburb or city name in the page title as this will help the website appear when people search locally and there will be the added advantage of having far less competition.
Sharing a Page Link
When a web page is added to favourites or a page link is shared via social media applications the title tag is used as the link so it makes sense to have the most relevant title tag possible.

Bottom line…

Search engines use the titles of your web page to determine the content on the page and this has a huge impact on how well the site is ranked.
People use the titles to decide whether or not to read the content of your web page or blog. This can result in a possible interested customer or a lost prospect.

Title tags matter so optimising them is essential. Be sure to research the best keywords for each page of your website and optimse each page accordingly for the best results.

If you have any title tag tips, comment away in the box below. And don’t forget to share this post… thank you.

Hazel Jarrett.

More SEO information

For more SEO Information please take a look at my SEO blogs which are packed with useful optimisation tips to help anyone gain higher search engine ranking for their website.