Title Tags
What is a title tag?
Title tags show up in search engine results and affect keyword rankings. They tell search engines (and users) about a web page.
The keywords (e.g. “seo companies” and “houston”) tell search engines that our page is about SEO companies and Houston. This helps them interpret our content.
When users see this title tag, they also understand what our page is about.
Those are the two functions of a title tag.
- Alerting search engines to page contents
- Helping users navigate search engine results
In code, title tags look like this?
<head>
<title>This Is Your Title Tag!</title>
</head>
Most websites have built-in title tag functionality and no code is required.
How to optimize title tags
Insert keywords at the start of the tag. For example, if you’re targeting “large screen monitors,” write a tag like this…
Large Screen Monitors: LCD & LED | CompanyName
This title tag gives more weight to “large screen” than LCD or LED.
If your primary target is “LCD monitors” and “LED monitors” try something like this…
LCD & LED Large Screen Monitors | Company Name
This title tag gives more weight to “LCD” and “LED.”
Length
Stay under 70 characters. Otherwise, your tag may get cut off in Google. 50-60 characters is ideal.
Clickthrough rate
Write tags that encourage users to click on your result. Improving clickthrough rates (clicks divided by impressions), means you get more clicks.
There is evidence that suggests higher clickthrough rates increase rankings.
Catchy titles, lists, numbers, and keywords are all ways to improve your rankings and clickthrough rate.
Don’t spam your title tag. Make it user friendly. Optimize tags so they are comprehensible to search engines and user friendly for people.