Posted on Tuesday 3 April 2007

Html title tag: definition

The title tag is an html tag that defines the title of a webpage in html code.

Html title tag: syntax

<title> title text goes here </title>

Importance of the title tag for Search Engine Optimization

From a search engine optimization point of view, the title tag is one of the 3 most important factors on a website. Keywords and keyphrases used in your title tag will be analyzed by the search engines and matched to specific search queries to determine your rank in the SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages).

Title tag: search engine optimization: best practice

Title Tag: keyword/keyphrase optimization

It is useful to choose title tags according to the keyphrases or keywords you are planning to rank for. However, make sure that you’re using a title that is related to the site content. There are slightly different opinions on this topic, but from my experience - in many cases - title tag seo best practice is to form one regular sentence that describes the site best by including the most important keyword two times within the two most important keyphrases. Optionally, you can place a third keyphrase inside the title tag, but avoid the following:

  • do not repeat the same keyphrase
  • do not use more than 4 keyphrases
  • do not repeat the same keyword more than two times

Title Tag: length optimization

Keep in mind that if your title tag exceeds a search engine specific amount of characters, you might be penalized for spamming, resulting in a loss of SERPS rank, or, if taken to the extreme, a ban from that search engine - in the worst case applied to the whole domain. There are different opinions on the title length best practice, but it is recommended to limit your title text to a reasonable amount, if your browser doesn’t display the complete title any more, it is definately too long - better keep it a lot shorter than that.

Title Tag: SEO best practice: syntax example

[Keyword phrase1], [Keyword phrase2] and [Keyword2 phrase3] by
[Your website name or Company name or url]

Title Tag: SEO best practice: example

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Optimizing the title tag for SERPS conversion (SERPS click to SERPS view ratio)

Your site is listed in the SERPS and an average surfer browses the result pages containing your webpage. Which website does he choose? Is it yours? Usually the first aspect of your entry he notices is your website title. Then, the surfer judges by the title text if it’s either worth visiting or not. If he’s not immediately sure, he’ll probably check the site description underneath the title phrase and perhaps check the source url as well.

As you can see, not only is it important to optimize your webpage for the Search Engines to appear in the search results, it is also important to optimize the title for the surfer to make him click on it. SERPS conversion ratio is the term that defines how efficiently your website converts SERPS views to SERPS clicks. You need to convince the SERPS surfer of the fact that your website is useful for him in regard to his search query. Now how can that be achieved?

  • Adapt the language style of your url title to your target audience

Example: If you want to target an educated audience which is seriously interested in learning search engine optimization, you wouldn’t use: “Y0 br0, b3st S30!” as html title. That’s common sense - you got the message.

  • Avoid similarities to spam websites

Do not just use a list of keywords in your title, this is a typical characteristic of spam websites and surfers conciously or inconciously recognize it and avoid websites whose title looks like that.

  • Choose a descriptive title

As said before, use a sentence - a sentence that makes sense and describes your site precisely.

Merging title tag SEO and title tag SERPS conversion optimization

As described before, an html title text must pass two goals, let’s remember:

  1. First goal: it must be optimized for the search engines - to appear in their search queries
  2. Second goal: it must be optimized for SERPS conversion - to get visitors from the search engine result pages

Merge these two goals together into your title tag and you have reached the main goal: An optimized html title tag

html title tag optimization


1 Comment for 'Html Title Tag Optimization'

  1.  
    April 4, 2007 | 5:25 am
     

    […] in reading more details on this topic? Check out this very comprehensive article on the topic: HTML title tag Seo at Optimized Promotion SEO […]

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