What is the Title tag optimization?
When we search for a topic on search engines like Google, we consider the blue clickable headline links on each search results to get a brief idea of the content written inside a particular search result or link. These blue clickable links to a website are known as the title tags.
Technically, a title tag is the part of an HTML code which is used to define the title of a webpage. Search engine result pages (SERPs) displayed them as big blue clickable links. The tags are important for SEO value, usability and social sharing which I’ll describe in the latter part of this article.
A title tag can be added to the section of the HTML code of your website. In its raw form, this part of the code looks like:
Optimal length of a title tag:
Keep the length of the title tag somewhere between 65-70 character as Google has recently updated the length of the titles from 50 to 60-70 characters including spaces and should not exceed 600 pixels. This is a fact that if you keep your title length under 70 characters, you can expect Google to display 90 percent of your title properly.
Optimal format for title tag:
Primary keyword – secondary keyword | brand name
Example:
title tag optimization–title tag | Onlineseoblog.com
Importance of title tag:
Title tags play a very crucial role in defining the content of the page. It helps the search engines to find what the page is about and display the content when a user searches for the same.
Some valid reasons for the title tag being the most important thing for SEO after the content are:
A. First impression count:
Title tag is the boldest element in the search results, it is the title tag responsible for a potential customer to decide whether he/she would click on the link or not.
B. Content of title tag is used by:
Web browsers:
Web browsers use content in the title tag to label the web browser’s tab. Your title tag shown acts as a placeholder for the user who has over one tab opened.
It displays the front keywords of the title tag at the top of the tab to make the particular tab recognizable when more tabs are opened.
Search engines:
As mentioned earlier, search engines use title tags as the clickable links for the website on SERPs.
Social networking:
Social networking sites retrieve the content of the title tag to decide what to display when you share the URL.
Users mostly enjoyed these tags. They can easily trace the website that may contain the information they are looking for. Also, title tags help to bookmark the website for future reference.
How you should write a great title tag:
Writing an effective title tag is very easy but you need to do some smart SEO task. Here are some tips and tricks for writing a good title tag for both Search engine optimization and better user experience.
Keep your title under optimal title length
As mentioned earlier, we recommend keeping your title length 60-70 characters long because if it is lengthy, search engines may cut it off by adding an ellipsis (“…“) and it may end up omitting important keywords. Some characters take more space than others, naturally, the uppercase characters take more space than lowercase. Hence, it is recommended that when you are uploading the title, try to keep it within the desired limit in the optimal format.
Do not exaggerate SEO Keywords:
Although there’s no harm in using lengthy titles (within 70 characters), make sure that title makes sense. Using all the keywords only to form a title may land you in trouble. Because Google understands the variation of keywords and if you put Every keyword in your title or use the same keyword again and again, then it may lead to bad user experience.
Don’t make duplicate title tags
Always prefer to write unique title tags for all the pages, as Google finds them more valuable and ranks them higher on search results pages. It may seem like impossible for creating unique titles for all pages but modern CMS and templates allow you to create unique titles for almost every page.
Write the title as a customer for your product and don’t forget to flaunt your brand name.
The primary aim for you is to generate more and more click-through rate by attracting well-targeted potential customers. For doing this job, write a title delivering the most accurate message about your product. The title should properly describe the content of the page. Brand’s name also creates a high rank for your website. So if your brand has a wide reputation, it’s recommended to add that name in your title and let Google do the rest of the works.
Examples of good and bad title tags:
We have enlisted some examples of good and bad titles of same product keeping in mind the above guidelines.
- ‘ burgers in London ‘
A good and appealing title for this topic should be like:
Best burgers in London: list of delicious burgers no one wants to miss
Here, the suitable Keyword ‘Best burgers’ is at the beginning of the title and also avoiding caps letters have enabled us to limit the title within 70 characters.
But, a bad example would be like:
“Brand name” – “burger name” | London’s best burgers
Here, the brand name is at the beginning of the title where it shouldn’t have been. This is not even a seductively appealing title to attract visitors.
- ‘Adidas training shoes for men and women’
A good example of a title featuring this topic should be:
Adidas training shoes| Men’s and women’s| “site name”
But a bad example would be like:
Trainer Sale – great savings on Sneakers, including discounts on….
Here, we can’t find any single suitable Keyword in the title. Also, the length of the title exceeds by 70 characters so Google has cut off the back portion of the title with the ellipsis (“….”).
Title tag optimization: Do’s and Don’ts
We have already discussed the importance and guidelines for the title tag optimization to boost rankings on search engine result pages. But on a brief note, we want to highlight some tips and tricks for an effective title tag optimization.
The Dos:
- Every page for your site should have unique titles. Otherwise, it becomes confusing to the user for clicking on the correct link. Here, often the user skips your page and goes on to some other page link.
- Put your keywords and modifiers at the beginning of the title to avoid adding ellipsis at the end by Google. Modifiers are the words like “best” , “discounts” , “top”, “review” etc. which attract readers who need quick information.
- Use numbers in the title when there is a list in the content. This technique will attract more readers and will help you with more clicks on the link. This is actually a common observation that people prefer to consult “list” of things rather than reading long descriptions.
- Use hyphen ( – ) or pipes ( | ) to separate keywords. In SEO, the hyphen has an added advantage of getting ranks for different keywords while listing them only once. For example, if you use “graphic-design” keyphrase, the queries related to “graphic design” and “graphic design” will show your page link on result pages.
- Use acronyms in your title tag. We should write acronyms in capital letters and it will be beneficial if you use full form keywords along with acronyms.
- Do not forget to add your brand or company name at the end of the title.
The Don’ts:
- Try not to exceed 65-70 characters in the title tag. You may think more keywords may generate more clicks but it is not so.
- Avoid using special characters and commas. Punctuation symbols and other special characters are often ignored by search engines. Thus we recommend using a hyphen, pipes or underscore between the keywords.
- Keyword stuffing is the worst offense one can do. Don’t make your title with all the keywords available as this will look unprofessional and users will find it confusing even if your page is showing up on result pages.
Bottom line:
I guess you have got enough idea about title tag optimization and how they work. Remember that title tag building is an easy job but needs the most effort to produce a perfect tag. Even after that, you won’t find your title 100% perfect for optimization. So, the main trick is to conduct a continuous trial-and-error method to check which title fits the best and gets the most traffic. And a true fact is that even if your content is not up to the mark, an effective title tag would still get rank higher. So, what are you waiting for? Start writing quality content and based on your writing assign an effective title for the article following the above guidelines.