... by Kempton Smith

How To Write Effective Title Tags

By Kempton Smith

The title of a web page can impact the page's visibility to others and its search engine ranking. This article explains why and gives some practical tips for writing an effective web page title.

The title of a web page is a part of the required HTML structure tags for a web page. It should contain short, descriptive text and is displayed as the title of the page by a web browser.

The title tag, written as <TITLE>Page Title</TITLE>, should be placed between the <HEAD> and </HEAD> tags, just after the <HEAD> tag and before the <DESCRIPTION> META tag.

The HTML code for the HEAD section of your web pages should appear as follows: 

<HEAD>
<TITLE>Page Title</TITLE>
<META NAME="Description" CONTENT="The description of your page goes here">
other META tags
</HEAD>
rest of HTML code

The page title is important for a number of reasons:

  1. Most browsers display the page title at the top of the browser window.
  2. Most browsers display bookmarks using the web page title.
  3. Google and other search engines present the results of a search by displaying the page title as a clickable link in the first line of each query result.
  4. Your page ranking in the results of a search engine query depends on the relevancy of the keywords in your title.

Because the title of a web page is important, it is worthwhile spending some time carefully writing each page title. Don't let your web page editor automatically genenerate a default title like "Home Page." It so, it may be difficult to locate by others, either among other bookmarks or through a list of search engine results.

Here are some practical tips you can use for writing an effective web page title.

We’ll use as an example a web page for Amazing Banners, Inc., a graphics design company that sells custom animated banners to webmasters. The company also gives away small banners on its home page for prospective customers to use.

  • Make a distinctive, unique title for each page on your web site. The title should summarize the unique content of each page. Don’t just make the title of each page the same as your home page. In our example, the home page title could be “Animated Banners For Webmasters.”
  • Don’t just use Home Page, Page1, Page 2, and so on for your web page titles. The about page title could be “About Amazing Banners: Your Animated Banner Source.
  • Consider the content of a particular web page and select keyword phrases that pertain to the content of that page. Find keywords or phrases that would be used by someone searching for your web page. Choose one to three of the most relevant keyword phrases and use these in the title, beginning with the most relevant keyword phrase.
  • Don’t include your company name in the title unless it is a commonly recognized name or the page is about your company. Use the limited real estate in a title for relevant keywords. You could include your company name in the description of your web page.
  • Make sure the title does not exceed 66 characters. Google will not display more than 66 characters of a title in the search results page.
  • Don’t use more than 7-10 words in your title.
  • If an important keyword has both singular or plural versions, use both in your title if possible. See the about page example above.

If you follow these practical tips for writing your web page titles, your internet visibility and search engine ranking will be improved.

Kempton Smith is a freelance writer and software reviewer. Visit http://www.kemptonsmith.com for more of his articles and reviews.

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