In this article, we’re going to focus on one thing... and it’s one of the most important on-page factors for SEO according to Google’s guidelines... The SEO title tag.
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What is an SEO Title Tag?
You may have encountered it under many aliases...
SEO title, meta title, page title... or the most commonly used – title tag.
In simple terms, this is the title given to each of your pages. In the same way, the title of a book or film attracts the most attention, your title tag is the first thing that users see on a results page. In addition, it’s what search engines, like Google and Bing, initially see when crawling your site.
But just filling in your title tag isn’t enough. You need to make sure that it’s clear, descriptive and eye-catching.
A title tag is technically a piece of HTML code used to tell search engines what the ‘name’ of your page is. The title tag is part of the metadata, along with the meta description of the page. Both elements are invisible to visitors when visiting your website. However, they will show up on search engine results pages.
Important note: Your title tag is not to be confused with your page’s H1-tag. Heading tags (from H1 to H6) are the “SEO terms” for the titles and headlines that you put in your copy, and that are thus visible to the visitors of your website. For example, you would use an H1 as the article title of a blog post, or as the main title on a page (e.g. ‘Welcome on My Website!, ‘Our Products’ or ‘Contact Me’ ). Unlike title tags, heading tags don’t have major importance for your SEO.
How to Write a Good SEO Title Tag
1. Do Your Research
In order to write the best title tag, you need to find the best words.
In SEO lingo, we call these ‘keywords’.
These are two to five-word phrases that a person would type into a search box to look for you or a business like yours.
2. Put Keywords First
Once you have your keywords, you need to carefully place them in a natural way. Kind of like humans, bots tend to read from left-to-right.
Inserting your keywords at the start of your title tag will enable search engines to crawl those words faster.
And the quicker they understand the content of your page, the better.
This means that the chances of your page being shown for your keywords is higher.
Score!
3. Apply the Best Format
The main items to include in the title tag of your site’s main pages are:
- Your business name or site name
- A keyword
- And if you work in a specific area, it’s best practice to add the precise location
- Consider adding vertical bars to make your title easy to read and visually appealing:
Keyword or Page Name | Location (Optional) | Business Name
Example:
Title Tag: Italian Takeaway Restaurant | East York | Aria Home Delivery
Meta Description: Welcome to Aria Italian restaurant in East York. We offer a wide range of delicious Italian cuisine, including pasta and pizza for eat-in and home delivery.
4. Write for Humans
Overloading your title tags with keywords will put people off from clicking on your page.
If you have additional keywords you’d like to use, then your meta description is the best place to add them. It’s all about compromise.
Example:
Title Tag: Delivery | Catering | San Remo Ristorante
Meta Description: The best lunch takeaway in New York. Click here to view our full takeaway and catering menu.
5. Check Your Title Length
Google and Co. give you a limited amount of space to display your title.
We recommend that you keep your meta title between 55 – 60 characters, including spaces. One way to reduce your title’s length is to remove all ‘stop words’ such as, ‘the’, ‘to’, ‘in’, etc.
Remember, every character counts.
6. Write Unique Titles
If all of your title tags are the same, search engine bots may get confused and won’t know how to rank your pages.
That’s why you must write unique titles for each of your pages.
Example:
Title Tag: Contact us | Cafe Fresco
Meta Description:
Call us at 348 621 5424 email: info@fresco.com. Free valet parking available on weekends during dinner time.
7. Make it Attractive
For pages, make sure it’s aesthetically pleasing by using capital letters where necessary and watch out for typos. Nobody likes clumsiness.
How to Create the Right Meta Description?
The meta description is a snippet of up to about 155 characters – a tag in HTML – which summarizes a page’s content.
Search engines show the meta description in search results mostly when the searched-for phrase is within the description, so optimizing the meta description is crucial for on-page SEO.
