Organize your web page titles in 6 easy steps

With all the hype about Google's latest algorithm updates, it is easy to forget about the basics that are needed to get high rankings. Before you work on the links to your site, your web page basics must be right.

For example, the title tag has a very big influence on the search engine positions of a web page. In addition, the title tag is very important because it is the first thing that people see in the search results. There are several things that you can do to optimize your web page titles.

Step 1: check the HTML code of your web pages

It's astonishing how many pages have more than one title tag in the code. If your pages have more than one title tag, they will confuse search engine robots. The tags might not be read at all or, even worse, search engines might interpret this as a spamming attempt.

Step 2: use your keywords in your web page titles

Use the most relevant keywords at the beginning of your web page titles. Many people only scan the beginning of the titles so make sure that the beginning of the title tag contains the right words.

Step 3: make the titles clear, predictable and irresistible

The readers of your web page titles should know what your web page is about and the title should lead to a page that meets the expectations of the searcher.

The web page title is the first thing that people see in the search results. Make sure that the wording of your web page titles is appealing, emotional and irresistible.

Step 4: keep the titles short

Although there is no official limit, you should keep the length of your web page titles below 70 characters. The reason for that is that most search engines truncate the titles after 65-70 characters on the search result pages.

Step 5: remove unnecessary words

Words such as "homepage", "Index" and your company name usually don't help your search engine rankings. Remove these words from the title tags of your web pages. Your title tags will become more relevant to the actual keywords then.

Step 6: use unique title tags

Don't use the same title tags on more than one page. Each page should have a unique title tag that reflects the content of the web page. In general, optimize different pages of your website for different keywords. The more pages of your website you optimize the better.

The title tags of your web pages are only one factor that influences the position of your web pages in Google's search results.

7 Tips on how to write optimized webpage titles

The HTML Title is the text within <title> tag that can be found on the head of the HTML code. As it is the key element that appears in search results, your web pages’ titles are very important for your SEO strategy for two main reasons:

1. Title relevancy is taken into account by the algorithms of Search Engines.
2. Good descriptive titles increase the click through rate.

Here are some tips in order to enhance your website’s visibility through title optimization:

1. Write short Titles

Google has a maximum title length of 64-70 characters. Do not make the title longer, because Google cuts down its display in the search results. 

2. Identify your Keywords

Indentify the keyphrases of your web page’s content. List down all possible words describing the content of your page. Step in the shoes of the user and list all the relevant search terms that he/she may formulate. The words used in your title will be displayed in search engine results as a clickable link. Therefore it should contain your page’s main keywords.

3. The important goes first

Start your title by adding the important keywords that you found during research. The words appearing first are considered to be more important.

4. Use targeted keywords

Choose specific keywords for your title in order to have more targeted traffic.

5. Be descriptive

Make sure that your title summarizes the content of your web page. In this way users will know what the topic of your page is, when it appears in the search results. This will help you decrease the bounce rate and increase the click through rate.

6. Create unique titles

Make sure you use unique titles for each web page. Duplicate titles might lead to duplicate content issues.

7. Avoid Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing or any other spam technique should be avoided. Even if you manage to rank first, an “over optimized” title will reduce your click through rate.

Don’t forget that you should always write webpage titles and content that is attractive to users! By trying to achieve high rankings, SEOs often forget that the most important factor of our success is the users’ “click” on our website link.