How to Write Powerful SEO Page Titles for Greater Results

The page title is the most important element of a web page. The page title gives the search engines and readers a description of what your page is about. Don’t under estimate the importance of your web page title. Get your page title right and you can significantly increase the amount of free traffic coming to your site from search engines.

What is the Page Title?

The page title is located at the very top left corner of your web browser window (in the blue bar area).

The page title is inserted within the title tags. The title tag is located within the <Head> section. To best illustrate where page titles are located I have included source HTML code from a website. The title tags are highlighted in bold.

Here is what the HTML source code looks like:

<head>
<meta name=”robots” content=”index, follow” />
<meta name=”description” content=”By Glen Stansberry and Smashing Magazine Editorial Team Google AdSense is a simple and low-risk way for publishers to quickly monetize their content. The pay-per-click ad system has created an opportunity for anyone to instantly” />
<meta name=”keywords” content=”AdSense, Google, Tips, This, Tools, WordPress, Here, Money” />
<title>100% Google AdSense: Tools, Tips and Resources | Developers Toolbox | Smashing Magazine</title>
<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=UTF-8″ />
……….
</head>

Here is how the page title is displayed in Google’s search results page:

Example of Page Title

Why are page titles important?

  • Search engines use your page title in the search engine results page.
  • Search engine users may not click on a listing if the title is not related to their search
  • Link building. Other websites use titles as the text link to your web page.
  • RSS aggregators use the page titles as headlines.

Tips for writing powerful SEO Page Titles

  • Always include your keywords or key phrase at the very start of the page title. Put your primary keywords first followed by your website name or brand.
  • Don’t stuff keywords into your page title. It will make you look spammy. Only use your keywords once. For example if your website was about ‘Money saving tips’, a title like “Money,money,money….” Won’t do you any good.
  • Keep your title less than 65 characters. Search engines have a limit of how many characters can be shown in results page.
  • Make the title eye catching. Entice the reader to click.
    For Example:
    OK: weight training programs
    Great: weight training programs that build muscles
  • Include a call to action in your title or list some benefit for the reader
    For Example:
    “Order Ink Cartridges Online | Free Shipping | Cartridge Planet”
  • Capitalise the first letter of each word. This will help your title stand out from the rest.
  • Create quality content pages containing your keywords.
  • Avoid using words like ‘and’, ‘at’, ‘a’, ‘the’. These are ignored by search engines and consume valuable page title space. Instead of using ‘and’ replace it with ‘&’
  • Choose a title that sums up the main point of your web post.
  • Humor in titles can work well
  • Write titles that tease the reader, make them want to click. For example: ‘Use trigger words like …” (I bet you tried clicking)
  • Give searches a reason to click. For example: Use phrases like “How to … ’ or ‘7 ways to… ‘