Search Engine Optimization Tips

Title tag optimization

What is the webpage title and why is it important?

The title of the webpage is displayed at the top of the browser screen. The title of this page is "Title tag optimization | SEO Made Simple". When your site comes up in search results in Google, the page title is what is listed and tells the person searching what the page is about. If your title is good then the searcher is more likely to choose to click on the result and visit your site.

<HTML>
  <head>
    <title>This is your page title</title>
  </head>
  <body>

Your page content goes here

  </body>
</HTML>

Search engines use the page title to find out what the page is about. If you are optimizing your site, it is good practice to choose the title carefully to make best use of this attribute of your webpage.

Core rules of page titles

Web browsers can only show 60-80 characters so there is no value in having a title longer than this. For your users, a shorter, snappier title is better than a long title that gets truncated in the browser window or in Google search results. For search engine optimization purposes, the most important thing is that the title tag contains the key words and phrases that describe the contents of the page.

The strength of a keyword in a page title is inversely proportional to the length of the title. So if you want to optimize for one particular keyword, have as few other words in the title as possible. The strength of the keyword is also higher the earlier in the title it appears. Word order is important, so think carefully what words to use to best reflect the search terms that people who would want to visit your site would use.

Use a unique page title for each page, not a generic title throughout the site. This helps to tell the search engine what each page is about. Use descriptive phrases, not terms like "Homepage" or "Section 1" - you want to describe your site and use phrases that people searching for your content might use.