How To Write Effective Web Page Titles

February 27, 2008

Here I am, trying to write the definitive guide to web page titles. It’s a lofty goal and one that I probably won’t actually accomplish but I’m hoping to come out on the other side with a very useful guide for everyone. This is a very important guide because of this fact: Your page title is one of the most important parts of effective SEO; it can make or break your top rankings so pay attention my young padewon.

A well crafted page title will not only increase your position in the search results, but it will give the searcher a better
understanding of what your page is about at a glance. There are many important parts to effective SEO but learning how to write better web page titles ranks up at the top (no pun intended). It’s a place that you should spend a lot of time and energy. I hope this guide serves you well.

What is a web page title tag?

A title tag is a small bit of HTML that appears in the “head” element at the top of your HTML code and it’s an absolute necessity, requirement, imperative–whatever you want to call it–when building your pages. The title tag is the code that creates the text that appears at the top of your web browser when you’re viewing a page. See below for a visual example:

Below is the specific code that you should use and where it’s placed in your code hierarchy. NOTE: The meta description tag is used for the text that shows up under your link in the search results. So spend some time on this too. NOTE: For Wordpress users, you should use the “Optional Excerpt” area for this purpose. The limit for this text should be 160 characters or less.

Use your best, most targeted keywords in your page title

It may be obvious but your title needs to contain your target keywords that summarize the content of the page. Nothing will improve your rankings more than to take the time to research what people are searching for and then place those keywords into your title tag.

Your page title is what shows in the search results

Your page title is what shows when your page appears in the search results so it should be meaningful, yet meet your SEO goals at the same time. Limit your title to somewhere below 65 characters whenever possible; it’s always better to keep it short and to the point as you’ll see as your read on. See below for an example:

Page titles are the default label for browser bookmarks and history lists

Keep in mind that your title tag also acts as the text that appears by default when someone bookmarks your site. It should be descriptive so they know what they bookmarked at a later date. You can reword your bookmarks yourself but don’t expect most users to do this. The title text also shows up in the browser’s history list so design your titles to be short, relevant and descriptive whenever possible.

Repeat your title as the headline

A good way to strengthen the meaning of your page and drive home the subject to the search engines is to repeat your title tag words as your page headline. This is not necessary, but it will help if it makes sense to do so. Actually, if you use Wordpress like I do, the headline of your post is automatically made into your title tag.

Use your title tag as a call to action

Since your title tag is a highly visible part of your page or post you shouldn’t miss an opportunity to be persuasive. Use it as a call to action to click, buy or commit in some way. Use it to clearly describe what they’ll get on the other side so there is no guessing. Try to be unique but if your goal is to get positioned for your targeted keywords, adding extra words into the mix dilutes your message. Just stick with your best words and call it a day.

Keep your titles short

The title of your web page should be short and easy to scan at a glance. Long titles get truncated in the search results and people may skip over them as their eye scans their search results. A good tactic to get your text to stand out is to use mixed case letters. “Buy Your Hot Dog Buns Here For Less” is better than “buy your hot dog buns here for less”.

Write descriptive titles

Write descriptive titles but remember that the title tag is not a wordy description. Use your description meta tag or “Optional Excerpt” in Wordpress for this. The last thing you want to do is list off a long winded description as your page title. The fewer words you use in your title, the higher their relative value so keep it simple and targeted. Choose the most relevant words that summarize your entire page or article. If you feel like you’ve just written a sentence, step back and cut, cut, cut down to the bare minimum whenever possible.

Choosing the right key phrases; sometimes longer is better

As a general practice, longer key phrases convert better. This is not a contradiction to the previous statement about keeping things brief. You just need to know that a page title like “how to optimize web pages” will convert better than the words “optimize web site”. This is a case where you want to write a slightly longer title instead of just focusing on the keywords by themselves. The results will be more targeted and when a searcher sees the words in their search results it will be a good bet that it will catch their eye and they’ll click. In general, longer, more descriptive key phrase combinations have shown to convert better. Just restrain yourself and say what you need to say with the least amount of words possible.

Write in plain language

You might think it’s cool if you dig through the thesaurus and dictionary to find words that make you sound hip and studious, but in reality using these words will only limit your potential. I could have titled this post “Through what tactics do you formulate HTML titles competently”. Not only will this title make me sound like a pompous ass, but nobody will ever use these words to search for what I’m talking about here. Even if you’re lucky to show up in a relevant search, people probably won’t know what you’re talking about.

In general, your titles should be meaningful and easy to understand. Avoid clutter and frilly words and never use clever language that might confuse the searcher. You should always assume that your readers won’t “get” it.

Be consistent and brand your traffic

Branding is important so decide on the best way to present your information in your title tags and stick with it. People will come to expect your site to be presented in a certain, reliable format as you grow in popularity in the search engines. You should also brand your traffic by including the tile of your website or your URL in the second part of your title so people know where they are and where to come back. If you use Wordpress like I do, you should check out the following seo plugin that will help you brand your title properly.

Place your keywords at the beginning of your title tag

If you brand your website with your site name, make sure to list your important keywords and phrases first. Never construct your title tag like this: “QuickstartSEO.com - SE0 Training | Post Title Appears Here”. The search engines will rank your page based on the first terms they see; these terms are the most relevant in their eyes and you’ll end up ranking better for your site title and URL before you rank for your targeted terms. Unless you’re extremely popular already, nobody will be searching for your URL or site title anyway. So make sure to make your important words more relevant by placing them first.

Use separators instead of words like “and” or “also”.

As I’ve shown in the previous paragraph, you can separate elements of your title without getting wordy or even using one word. Search engines generally ignore words that they consider to be “stop words”. “Stop Words” are meaningless to searchers or extremely overused in searches. Words like “and”, “also”, “the”, “a” and “or” should be left out whenever possible.

Instead of using these “stop words” you can use simple separators that include “|”, “>”, “:”, “-” and others. Generally “the pipe bar” is the most popular and one of my favorites. (|) To me it represents a wall and is a clear visual separator. It’s also possible to use multiple separators in your title if there’s a need. For example, if you’re trying to relate one term to another as in the following treatment: “How to paint > choosing the right brush | ArtSupplies.com”.

Break up long posts so you can have multiple title combinations

If you have a long post that’s about the same topic, consider breaking it up into multiple pages. This will allow you to utilize multiple keyword combinations and thus rank for multiple phrases. For example, I could break this post up into three pages. The first one could say “Page Titles (Pt. 1) > What is a title tag”, the second could say “Page Titles (Pt. 2) > Best Practices” and the third section could be Page Titles (Pt. 3) > What not to do”. Obviously I didn’t research these terms but you get the idea. Breaking up long posts will also help your readers digest and deal with a lot of content all at once without wading through 500 lines of text.

On that note, we’ll refer you to part two of this post! (Coming Soon)