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How to Optimize Your Title Tag?

Lately I had several people reading this blog ask me to address the title tag portion of the internal SEO in more detail. So here we go, let’s not waste any time and get to the bottom of this issue.

<Title> tag is the most important SEO part of any page on any site and therefore we should be careful with it. Creating title tags is an art and not everyone can do it correctly right from the get-go. In order to do it right, we need to know some fine details of SEO. Using the 11 title tag optimization advices below will help you avoid problems in the future.

1. Title has to reflect the meaning of the page

This stage has to do with usability. You have to remember that title is shown as a result of the searches in all search engine systems, and this is what is seen first by your potential visitors. The amount of traffic will depend on what you place in your <title> tag.

Also, title is used to describe the page (or a site) in a site catalog, link directory, social networks, and other social services. If your title doesn’t reflect the meaning of your content, then the page will not receive quality target traffic. To better understand this situation let’s compare the following examples:

<title>Main site page</title>

and

<title>Google – smart search engine</title>

or the internal pages

<title>Review</title>

and

<title>Review: Who is better Batman or Spiderman?</title>

2. Use different titles for different pages

Title tag has to be unique for every page, and also it has to be unique in the entire search result. In order to create the title uniqueness inside your site, use the post names, categories, and so on. If a post is broken into pages, then in the end of the title add “Page 3 of 7″ or just “Page 3″.

3. Title has to include keywords

Keywords have to be included in your title tag in such a way that these words will be given the most weight by the search engines. This is why when optimizing the page for a chosen keyword or a keyword phrase, you have to include this keyword or a keyword phrase into the title tag. Internal links to a given page most often have the title of the page in the anchor. Similarly when linking to any external site, people usually use the title tag as an anchor of the link. This being said, it becomes clear if our title doesn’t include keywords, we are going to loose relevancy for a certain keyword optimization which will result in poor search engine rendering and therefore low traffic.

4. Do not include too many keywords in your title tag

Adding keywords into this tag is necessary, but you need to remember to not get carried away. You have understand that there is a line between optimization and usability. When adding keywords into your title, pay attention to the readability. It’s not a good idea to add more than 2-3 keywords into the title, leave title readable and understandable to your visitors. With too many keywords, create several pages on your site, and optimize 1-2 keywords per page. This way you will increase your site conversion.

Examples of long and short titles:

Watch movies in HD: horror, comedy, drama, classics, download new movies – online movie theater Movies.com

and

Movies.com – Horror, comedy, drama.

5. Don’t use stop-words in the title

Search engines don’t count stop-words, those that are found in text in large quantities which means they cannot mean anything for the search itself. Usually it’s these – “the”, “a”, “and”, “by”, “at”, and so on – you get the idea. Usually search engines ignore them even if they are entered as part of the search request.

6. Every word must not be repeated more than twice

It’s better to combine words, inserting random words, and so on – mostly concerning about and keeping your focus on your visitors. When you place the same word more than twice in the title it becomes longer, less readable and spam-like in the eyes of the search engine. For example this title:

Samsung 4452 – best tv, hd Samsung 4452, best warranty Samsung 4452, parts for Samsung 4452

As we can see it’s not usable at all, and repeating keywords remind us of spam, which will have the same effect on the search engines. This same title will look like this after we work on it a bit:

Samsung 4452 – tv, hd, warranty, parts

7. Don’t use long titles

Google limits quantity of symbols in your title to 70, in order to fit the name into one line in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). If your title is above the set limit, Google will cut it and add “…” in the end.

8. Make your title no longer than 8 words

It’s pretty hard to fit more than 8 words in 70 allowed symbols, however some people still make their title too long. For Google the most quantity of words is 8. Remember that your visitors linking to your site will also appreciate intelligent and readable title.

9. Place your most important keywords in the beginning of your title

This way even when you didn’t follow the known limits and made your title too long, you can still be sure that your keywords are going to be in the anchor of your internal links and will effect your link rendering. Let’s say if you like long titles, then place your brand name in the end, and not in the beginning of your title tag. Pay attention to how this is done by different companies and services. For instance Wikipedia:

Wikipedia – free encyclopedia

however, for the internal page:

Constitutional Law – Wikipedia

10. Use patterns

Pattern is your template. If you need to place several keywords in the title tag, or use several modifiers, then use templates, like this one:

[modifier1 keyword] + [keyword modifier2] = [modifier1 keyword modifier2]

for example, “Find work from home + Work at home via Internet = Find work from home via Internet”

Templates or patters can be different, here are some examples:

keyword1, keyword2, keyword3
keyword1, keyword2, and keyword3
keyword1 | keyword2 | keyword3

However, remember that when you have a long keywords you might not fit within needed limits for the title page.

11. Don’t use special symbols

Search engine systems support some special symbols that you can put in our title. These are some of the allowed symbols:

Code                        Symbol
&amp; &#38;              &
&copy; &#169;          ©
&reg; &#174;             ®
&bull; &#8226;          •
&sect; &#167;            §
&pound; &#163;       £
&euro; &#8364;        €
&deg; &#176;              °
&raquo; &#187;        »
&frac14; &#188;       ¼

Below are some of the symbols that are no longer supported:

Code
&#9650; &#9658;
&#9786; &#9787;
&#9788;
&#9792; &#9794;
&spades; &clubs;
&hearts; &diams;
&#9834; &#9835;

I hope this information helps to many of us when working on SEO of our sites and blogs via title tag optimization. Feel free to share your ideas and thoughts in the comments area.

“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.” -  Frank A. Clark

Beck @ ProfitSEO.com

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