Importance of html Title tags in SEO

Well, as you all know there are a lot of factors on which the SERP or Search engine rank positions depend. They are broadly classified into on-page (on the webpages itself) and off-page (inkinks, brand) factors. Arguably the most powerful weapon in the hands of a SEO for on-page optimization is the TITLE TAG. This is the information that appears on the topmost part of a browser window when you open a page. For this page it is “Importance of html Title tags in SEO” s you can see above. It resides inside the <title> Title </title> in the html source of a document. Its actual term is title element though, as the part which appears as the title is the part between the tags and is called title element.

This tag is very important in terms of SEO and also attracting the visitors in Search engines. Its very simple and always available unlike inlinks. For keywords having very low competition (some long tail keywords or unique names) it is possible to get top rank just by using the keyword in TITLE TAG. Nothing else. Even for fairly competitive keywords, just changing the TITLE element to match your targeted keyword gives a huge boost in SERPs. I have experienced it and you should try this too.

Here are some key points to remember when using title tags. There is no hard and fast rule but I feel these are optimum setting from my previous experience.

• Always try to use your targeted keyword at the begining of the title tag. Eg:- If you are targeting “hiking boots”, then write “Hiking boots for cheap” rather than “We sell very cheap Hiking boots”.
• Never use the same keyword phrase more than once in the Title. It looks spammy and can be considered as keyword stuffing. Rather use synonyms or relevant words. You can find relevant terms by keywordtool. Relevancy is rated highly in Search engines.
• Don’t pull the title tag more than 60-65 characters. Otherwise it will not be used in your SERPs and you will fail to attract visitors with the title tag as it will be chosen by Search engine and can be irrelevant to the query. Sometimes Titles are truncated but sumtimes they also get changed. So, keep it short to be on the safe side.
• Don’t shy away to boast something if you really have it. See Yahoo mail talking about their high points of service.
• Be truthful about what you can give to a visitor. If you make fake promises and the visitor finds that out after visiting your site, they will most likely never visit your site. Better, make a precise title with your offerings like Forums Digitalpoint does here.
• For pages selling of offering specific products, try to guess the mindset of a visitor and what he can type to try to find that product. Then use that specific long-tail term as your title. Eg:- When I search “street fighter free download” I get these.Surely gives a good idea how important the title tag is.
• For very deep pages not having any specific target, you can use a breadcrumb as Title tag. It will enable visitors in your site to find their way easily and have a good impression of you. Eg:- Home > Category > Page.
• Generally when dividing 2 keyword phrases it is better to either use a – (hyphen) or a | (pipe-bar). Both of them are prevalent widely and also look good without giving any negative influence.
• Branding is an important aspect. You can achieve that by adding the site name at the end of keyword phrases in each title tag. But it is not always a very profitable idea if you have a long named site as it eats up quite some space of the TITLE TAG.
• Don’t do an ALL CAPS title tag. This does not appeal a web surfer and is not taken well by Search engines who can count these as an attempt to stuff keywords(which it is BTW).

Although these are the general rules you need to follow to make the Title appealing to visitors as well as effective in SEO, there is always room for tweaks and adjustments. All sites are different from each other as they cater to different viewers, so they might need some fine adjustments. DO some experiments and stick to what works best for you. I hope this GUIDE helps you in having a little edge in doing SEO and you benefit from it.

Please don’t feel shy to drop any suggestions or make any valuable additions to this list. If you feel anything is stated wrongly in this mini-guide let me know by commenting here. After all this is the place – where advice is REALLY free. Hope we make a bond that helps us to complement each other in this web world.

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