The title (an HTML tag <title> that controls the name of a page) is the most important, yet often misused element of the page. It affects multiple aspects of the page performance: search engine ranking, click-through (i.e. how many people actually entered the page) and user response (i.e. how many people performed an action, for example subscribed to a newsletter or contacted the site owner).
Why is title so important?
The page title is the most prominent part of each separate listing in search results interface. It is what Google (or any other search engine) considers when trying to understand what your page is about. It is what you click to leave Google search results page and proceed to the site you chose. It is what you scan trying to choose which page fits your search query best. Consequently:
- Title increases your chances to rank higher in Google;
- Title encourages (or discourages) a surfer to click the search listing;
- Title creates users' expectations: it is what a surfer sees prior to visiting the page.
How do I use page title?
Now keeping the power of a good title in mind, let's take a look at just a few tactics you may use to achieve your web marketing goals:
1. Title Can Increase your Search Engine Rankings:
Conduct a quick keyword research (note: it might be not that quick after all) to identify which terms people use to search for the information related to your page. Choose the keyword phrase that best describes your page content and put it in the page title. Keep in mind:
- This doesn't mean your page title should consist only of keywords: keep it natural, descriptive and concise (ranking is only first step - people should also want to click it);
- Don't stuff your title with keywords (e.g. don't list several key phrases separating them with comma): Google might suspect you in spamming and ban your site from its index;
- All in all: keep it focused, grammatically and semantically correct and appealing.
2. Title Should Conform to Your Page Mission:
Ask yourself what is the primary purpose of the page. Do you want to tell people more about your business? - Include your business name there. Does it target some particular area? - Add your location (e.g. State, City). Do you want people to contact you? - Add a clearly cut call to action: [Contact Us: Your Business Name Here] - is the perfect title pattern for your contact page, for instance.
Note 1 : if you are interested in direct phone calls, you might want to consider adding your phone number to the page title. The beauty of this approach is that both Internet Explorer and FireFox turn phone numbers into the clickable area for Skype users to call with one click. So your listing will stand out and encourage to act: click here to see screenshot
Note 2 : it can be a good tactic to add pricing to your title in case you offer lower rates than your competitors and do not plan to change them too often. Keep in mind that Google might be slow to re-index your pages, so you might end up having outdated pricing for your Google search listings: click here to see screenshot of product prices in page titles
Putting this all together:
Creating a good title that fits all your needs is definitely both tricky and hard. The most important thing is to understand your visitors' behavior and fit their needs and your priorities.
- Don't make it too long (about 65 characters / 10 words should be enough) - otherwise Google will break it at the end: click here for screenshot of long page titles being cut off by Google
- Keep it unique for each page (if you include your brand name throughout all website pages, move it to the end of the title);
- Test it! You can't afford changing your page titles too often for multiple reasons (that might cause Google's suspicion; besides, it takes time to see the affect, so changing them too often just doesn't make sense). The best way to test how your title is going to perform is to start a new PPC (Google AdWords) campaign, rotate several title variants there and choose the one that attracted more clicks.
Ann Smarty is an Internet marketer running an SEO Consulting blog and also blogging at a number of other powerful search marketing resources. Find her delivering a daily SEO tip and follow her on Twitter.