META still counts: title tag
There are two important descriptive META tags: title and description. Title tag will affect page’s rankings and you should add important keywords and keyword phrases (ones for which you are trying to get high rankings) to the title of your page. But don’t overdo with it: keep title short and containing one-two keyword phrases, not dozen of them. Moreover, title will show in search results snippets. So it must be readable and informative.
Title “don’t do” list
- Don’t give all pages the same title.
- Don’t give pages non-informative titles, like “Homepage | The Best Website” or “Page 1 | The Best Website”.
- Don’t make title too short or too long.
- Don’t overload title with keywords and keywords phrases.
Title “do” list
- Title tag is an obligatory element of the page. It must present on page.
- Title should be of moderate length: main part of the title should fit in 69 characters. (Google shows 69 characters, including spaces, for page’s title.) The whole length is limited to 120 characters.
- Title should be informative and readable.
- You can use CAPITALIZATION in title.
- Keywords from the title should present on the page.
Examples of good title
“META still counts: title tag | SEO tips for beginners | SEO Dragon”
“2010 Chrysler 300 Touring Sedan For Sale – New & Used Cars for Sale, Los-Angeles”
“Image of Red Sky | BestImages.com”
Examples of bad title
| Title: “Buy New Crysler 300, Used 1993 Ford Aerostar, GMC Sierra 1500, BMW 325 Cic” Reason: too much keyword phrases
|
| Title: “SEO tips for beginners – META still counts: title tag | SEO Dragon” Reason: main keywords and keyword phrases should go first.
|
| Title: “Volvo C60 1.8L – 1.8L Volume – Volvo Cars – Used Cars – Used Cars Store, LA” Reason: too much information in the title. Solution: shorten the title: “Volvo C60 1.8L – Buy Used Cars in LA”. |
Sharing SEO experience
As you have already understood, title is a very important element of the page. It can help a page get ranked higher, attract visitors from search results page to your website and be an informative heading for the page in bookmarks.
Experiment with titles, try to use CAPITALIZATION, change delimiter and second part and analyze how it affects traffic. For some sites screaming titles work great and for others quieter headings do better.
All mentioned things leads to the following conclusion: spend time creating great titles and it will return a hundredfold.
What was this page about?
Title tag is located in the <head> section of your page:
<head>
<title>META still counts: title tag | SEO tips for beginners | SEO Dragon</title>
…
</head>
