When it comes to search engine optimization, the single most important
sentence that you will write for your website is the title tag of your main
page. If you write it properly then you will have taken a big step towards
getting your site well placed in search engine queries for your important
keywords.
Before I give you a step-by-step guide to writing title tags, let's define
what they actually are and see why they are important. When you look at a
web page in your browser, the writing in the blue strip above browser's
commands (file, edit, view, etc.) is the title tag. On your actual html
document the title tag is in the head portion between the notation <title>
and </title>.
The title tag is important because it "tells" the search engine what the
page is about, and in the case of your main page, what your website is all
about. I remember back in my school days that we used to take standardized
examinations in which we had to read a story and then answer the question:
"What would be the best title for this essay?" Choosing a title tag is
something like answering this kind of question. You've got to pick out the
gist of your enterprise and highlight it in a sentence. So, take a look at
your web page and get ready to begin, following these steps:
1. Make sure your three or four most important keywords or keyword phrases
appear in the title tag. The most important words should appear near the
beginning of the sentence, and they can be repeated within the sentence for
added emphasis. For example, if I am offering low-cost web design, then my
title tag might look like this: <title>Web Design: Affordable, Low Cost Web
Design from the Acme Web Design Company</title>
2. Leave your branding and sales pitch for another part of the web page.
Although it is a natural tendency to want to put your company name at the
beginning of the title tag, you should remember that unless you are very
famous like Coca Cola, people are not searching for you. So, put your most
important keywords at the front of the title tag, and establish your brand
name with your logo and other elements of the web page. If your company name
includes your keywords, like our hypothetical Acme Web Design Company, then
put it in the title tag, but not necessarily at the beginning.
Similarly, the title tag is no place for your sales pitch, so keep out
flowery or extraneous adjectives, unless they are actual terms used in
searches for your product or service.
3. Place your geographical or niche-defining term in your title tag. If you
are trying for a top ten or top twenty position for a term such as "web
design," then you are really in for a difficult struggle. However, suppose
the Acme Web Design Company is located in Columbus, Ohio. Then instead of
attempting the almost impossible task of getting the top rankings for the
term "web design," it would be far better to get a high ranking in the
geographical niche using a title tag such "Web Design, Columbus, Ohio: Low
Cost Web Design in Columbus, Ohio by The Acme Web Design Company"
4. The title tag can be longer than you think. Some guidelines say that the
title tag should be no longer than 70 characters. It is true that only the
first 70 characters will show in the top bar of the browser, but search
engine robots will read the rest of the tag and the search engines will not
penalize you for going over the 70 character mark. Take a look at highly
ranked sites in heavily competitive categories and you will see examples of
long title tags. Write the tag according to your need to get your important
words and phrases included in a sentence that best describes what your
product or service is about.
5. Vary the title tags on the inner pages of your website. Even with a long
title tag, it is not possible to highlight all the possible terms which
someone might use to find your website. This is not a problem if you make
use of the other pages of your website. Instead of simply having a title tag
that says "services" our web design firm could highlight "low cost, web
design services" on that page. The "contact" page could be used to emphasize
the geographical location once again, and so on. Many websites make the
mistake of repeating the same title tag on each of the inner pages of the
site. Avoid this and use each of your page's titles to target important
keywords and keyword phrases.
So, take a look at your website's title tags, and see if you can improve
them. The effort that you make will be well rewarded.
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E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws
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