Page Title Tag
It is an HTML element that specifies the title of a web page. It is one of the meta tags that represents the title of your web page and found in the <head> section of the HTML code of your web page. It is displayed on the title bar of your browser window. The title tag is displayed on search engine result pages as the clickable headline above the url of a website. The page title tells users and search engines about the type and nature of the information available on your page.
Some important instructions to write optimized title tags are listed below:
- Relevant: It should be a relevant, accurate, and concise description of your page’s content.
- Length: It should be a maximum of 60 characters long, i.e. Google usually displays the first 50 to 60 characters of a title tag. So, if your title is too long, it may be cut by the search engine by adding an ellipsis (“…”) that may hide important words. However, it is not only the no. of characters, but the space taken by letters also matters. For example, the “M” is wider than a lowercase character like “I” or “t”.
- Don’t overdo SEO keywords: Although there is no penalty into Google’s algorithm for long titles, you may face a problem if you stuff your title with keywords in a way that results in bad user experience, for example, Buy Smartphones, Best Smartphones, Latest Smartphones, Smartphones on Discount. So, avoid titles solely made up of keywords or which are the repeat variations of the same keyword over and over. The search engine is aware of variations in a keyword, so it is unnecessary to stuff every version of your keyword into a title. For example, seo tutorial, seo tutorial for beginners, seo tutorial in hindi, etc.
- Keyword Placement: Place the targeted keyword at the start of your title and keep the least important words at the end. The closer your main keyword is to the beginning of the title, the more will be the chances to show up higher on the search engine result pages.
- Add Modifiers: You can add modifiers to your title like “2019”, “best”, & “review” to rank higher for long-tail versions of your target keywords.
- Place your title in a <h1> Tag: H1 tag is headline tag. Most of the Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress are designed to add the H1 tag to your blog post title automatically. So, you may check your site’s code to make sure your title is placed in a <h1> tag.
- Unique title for each page: Use unique titles for every important page of your site. Modern CMS allows you to create unique titles for every important page of your site. For example, an e-commerce site may have thousands of product pages with a database of product names and categories that can be used to generate unique titles such as Product Name, Product Category, and Brand Name. Furthermore, avoid using titles like “Home” or “New Page” as they may cause a search engine to think that you have duplicate content throughout your site or other sites on the www. To avoid duplicate content issues.
- Keyword separation: Use vertical lines or pipes to separate targeted keywords and phrases, i.e., avoid the use of commas, underscores, dashes, etc.
- Don’t repeat title tags: Write different titles for different pages, i.e., don’t place the same title on multiple pages.
- Simple: Your targeted keyword or phrases should be simple and short, i.e., avoid the worlds such as if, and, then, but, etc.
- Website or company name: Don’t use a website or company name in the title tag unless it is very popular or part of your important keywords.
Why are Title Tags Important?
It is the title tag that helps search engines understand what your page is about, and it is the first impression users have of your page. Title tags can be used in three important places; search engine result pages (SERPs), web browsers, and social networks.
Meta Title Tag: Syntax