Web Page Title Tags for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Web Usability

Marketing Tip: People read from left to right! This may sound obvious but when it comes to writing strong Page Title Tags, which appear prominently in SERPS (Search Engine Result pages), most people are clueless. Since Page Title Tags are considered the most important piece of text on any given page, you should pay attention on how you are doing it.

Web Page Title Tags for Search Engine Optimization & Web Usability

Page Title tags definition: in HTML code, the title tag specifies the title of your Web page. It is code which is inserted into the header of your web page. The World Wide Web Consortium describes the title as a required element in an HTML document: Every HTML document must have a TITLE element in the HEAD section.

Now, here are some tips on how to write effective page title tags:

Page Title Tag Length:
Microsoft’s browser displays the first 95 characters of your title tag
Google shows the first 66 characters of the title tag (crops the rest) - it is not clear if the rest of the sentence is factored in for ranking purposes.
Yahoo shows the first 120 characters
Your page title should be composed of a primary title (Google) and secondary title (for Yahoo) separated by an hyphen (-)

Title Tag SEO Advices:
Make you Title Tags no more than 95 characters in length, even if Yahoo accepts more. The length of the browser bar is more than enough to write something compelling
Every page of your site should have a unique Page Title Tag
Put the most important keywords first at the beginning of the Title Tag (primary title), especially keywords related to the content of that specific page.
Put in your secondary title the information that is relevant for all the pages of the site (site theme)
Consider using Geographically specific keywords, especially if your business is mostly local
2 repetition of the same word is allowed in the Page Title Tag. You can do this twice. Make sure repetition is not side by side. More than this, it is considered spamming.
Capitalize The First Letter of Every Word To Make it Easily Readable.
You Don’t Need to Capitalize *stop* words like: the, of, it etc.
NEVER use the words “welcome” “site” “homepage” “introduction” “bienvenue” as in this example from the Canadian Tourism Commission on its home page
It is not necessary to put your web address in the beginning of the title tag as you can see in this example of bad Page Title Tag

Other examples of unoptimized page title tag usage:
Canadian Tire’s One Word Page title Tag
Starbuck’s Use of the word Homepage on their Page Title Tag
Walmart Canada’s Use of the word Welcome on their Page Title Tag

Here you can find the full description on how to write great Page Title Tags.

Permalink /// Comments (9)

Comments

1. I just started a new web site and this article really helps thanks

   Posted by promovare web on 11/28 at 01:45 PM

2. Your page title should be composed of a primary title!!

   Posted by offshore solutions on 01/29 at 08:38 AM

3. Fixing just the title tags of your pages can often generate quick and appreciable differences to your rankings. And because the words in the title tag are what appear in the clickable link on the search engine results page, changing them may result in more clickthroughs.

   Posted by seo services on 03/06 at 11:14 AM

4. It is important to use the keyword phrase throughout the page where it makes sense. As engines get more sophisticated, it’s not just the targeted keyword phrase that counts, but the mix of all the words on the page that help to determine what the page is about.

   Posted by arizona seo on 04/29 at 07:52 AM

5. With regard to keyword repetition, what about using keyword phrases made up of several words whereby each of the keyword phrases contains one word used in all? For example, consider the following keyword phrases:

   scope of work
   construction scope of work
   scope of work form
   scope of work template

   Point is, in searching for keyword phrases with low advertising competition and high volume searches, it’s often difficult to find ones that don’t repeat certain words. None of the articles I have found/read on Title tags ever seem to mention this.

   Posted by Martin Potokar on 10/10 at 11:43 AM

6. Just wondering, are these rules still true, considering several changes in algorithm from 2007 till now?

   Posted by Cristian Olteanu on 10/15 at 01:31 AM

7. I appreciate all the tips, every SEO expert must be aware of all these HTML tag details as they have a vital importance for the site. SEO techniques are very complex, they can start since the very creation phase of the site and the way they are being implemented decides the site’s future.

   Posted by Orange County SEO on 01/12 at 07:03 AM

8. It is important for any business to maintain public awareness. Without public awareness, people will not know if a certain business or operation exists. Before, public awareness can be achieved through a number of traditional marketing strategies such as direct mailing techniques, telemarketing, and direct response television marketing. These methods were very effective during its time. However, due to staggering increase of mailing and advertising, people hesitate before employing such techniques.

   http://www.ConsumerMailLists.com

   Posted by Consumer Email Lists on 03/15 at 01:31 AM

9. Hi,

   I actually like SEO, but if I had to say, the hardest part is definitely link building, usually just because it takes the longest.
   

   Posted by seo company on 03/15 at 09:57 PM