SEO can be very time consuming but doing a simple thing like ensuring you add relevant title meta tags to all of your pages is an extremely valuable investment. Most small businesses or individual web site publishers simply do not have the time to ensure their web site(s) are optimized head-to-toe, not without an SEO professional, not with a website which is any larger than 10 pages and certainly not if you are running your own blog pages along-side of a full-time job. If there were only time to do one thing for your website’s SEO and one thing alone, I would recommend treating yourself to well thought-out title tags.

Having good title tags for all of your website’s pages can make a huge difference above and beyond that of any other single on-page factor, with the exception of ensuring you have lots of relevant content. As I am sure you have already heard, content is king. Your Title tags are seen highlighted in the SERPs, listed as your bookmark, call your visitors to action or attention, increases brand awareness and above all, demystifies what the page is going to be all about if and when clicked.

Keyword Use in Title Tag

Take a look at the following examples:

  • oceantowels.com
  • luxury pink towels – oceantowels.com
  • OceanTowels.com | Cotton Towels | Luxury Pink Towels
  • Luxury Pink Towels ‘ OceanTowels.com
  • Luxury Pink Towels ‘ Cotton Towels ‘ OceanTowels.com
  • Luxury Pink Towels | Cotton Towels | OceanTowels.com
  • Buy Luxury Pink Towels » Cotton » Ocean Towels | FREE DELIVERY

The 7 examples above offer a range of Title tags you may hypothetically find for a web site’s product page. You will clearly notice that the order in each of the title tags switches around and the level of detail increases. Balance is the key.

Although the full title tag will always be read by the search engines, the maximum number of characters that google displays in it’s listings has changed slightly over time (At the time of writing this article the maximum number of characters you may use before the infamous ‘…’ appear is 68). The number of characters you can see in the favorites list is also limited in some cases. It is important to remember that the order in which the keywords appear dictate their importance. First words are seen as being the most important in the title therefore carefully consider the order in which you will be employing your most important terms or words for this important SEO job.

3389581452_2a5b6a8ba0_m1Important things to consider when writing Title Meta Tags:

  • Order the key phrases effectively
  • Make your titles enticing to the eyes
  • Keep titles targeted and relevant to the page copy
  • All pages should have unique titles
  • Use separators

Things you should never do with your Title Meta Tags:

  • Never leave the title tag blank
  • Never use ‘default’ titles
  • Never write irrelevant titles
  • Never stuff your titles with repeated keywords

It is important to understand that the type of website you are publishing will determine the way in which you want to title your pages. Unique, specific and targeted title meta tags will help the search engines better understand what your page is all about and will increase the quality of the visitor as they become better targeted for action. A good title tag can help a page in the SERPs, bad title tags throughout can ruin a web site.

You must be logged in to post a comment.