A page title appears at the top of a browser window when someone lands on your webpage for the first time. It can also be seen by people who are browsing through search engine results.
Your page titles should include your keyword phrase, and be less than 55 characters long. Your page titles should also differentiate each of your web pages so that people can find what they’re looking for quickly and easily.
Usually, an SEO focussed page title consists of upwords and has around two to three alternations but sometimes it is also called a title tag. The page title is very similar to meta keywords in terms of usage in search engine optimization (SEO).
According to Moz, it is the most important title tag on the page. SEMRush suggests that it should be between 30 to 60 characters (max), while Inmetrix recommends that it should be between 30 and 50 characters (max).
A page title is, according to Google, one of the most important elements for ranking in search engine results. They state on their official page: “Many of your most important ranking factors are determined by the titles you give to your pages, and pages with higher-quality page titles typically rank better than those with lower-quality page titles.
10 tips to writing a good SEO page title:
1. Include your page’s primary keyword phrase in the title. Pages with relevant keywords tend to rank well for those terms, and the title tag is one of the only places where you can include a keyword phrase in a page’s code.
2. Write titles that are relevant to searcher intent. Some titles might read well to humans but have nothing to do with what users are searching for. For example, if you run an ice-cream shop, don’t title your homepage “Home-page.” Use the search term “ice cream” in your page title and use the words “ice cream parlor” or “ice cream shop to differentiate your business from other sites.
3. Keep it short and sweet. Not only does the title tag need to be short. It needs to be succinct and to the point. Your title tag should ideally be no longer than 50 characters, so that your site is easier to locate for users who are searching on a mobile device.
4. Include your domain in the title tag (if you have space). Adding your domain name into the title helps both human and search engines find your page even if it’s not relevant to the user’s search term.
5. Use keywords in least 10% of the title text.
6. Add a headline and a call to action in the title. The headline tells the reader what’s in it for them, and the call to action is something that tells the readers how to take action.
7. Use keywords naturally: Don’t over-keyword your title tag. No one likes awkward page titles, so try to make your site’s title tag as natural as possible by using simple and straightforward words instead of keyword stuffing.
8. Don’t use ALL CAPS. It’s not only hard to read, but it generally makes your page title look spammy.
9. Add relevant numbers. Numbers don’t rank for keywords, but they can highlight the most important aspects of your page. For example, if your company has been in business for 30 years, list it—it’s a good selling point.
10. Minimise the use of stopwords such as “the”, “and”, “a”, etc. They may look natural in your title but they are not an important part of your web page content.
