The title tag is probably the most discussed on-page optimization factor in the SEO world. There’s tons of contradicting information on the web because no one can tell with 100% accuracy what’s the RIGHT thing to do with that thing!

Search engine ranking algorithms are a secret and change all the time. So the only way to figure out what works and what does not work is by trial and error. I did alot of tweaking in the title for all pages of my websites and I will show you what worked and what did not work for me.

You probably already know how a title tag looks… But for those of you who don’t, it looks like this:

This code goes in the head section of your html code.

When someone opens your page, no matter what browser they use, they see your title in the topbar of the browser. It’s also the default text used when someone bookmarks the page.

Some people think the title tag is of not much importance anymore and they are partially right. 10 Years ago, the title tag and meta tags were the only tags search engines looked at. A good title and description, combined with some keywords in the keywords tag, resulted in top listings and tons of traffic! These days, with the billions of pages on the web, search engine algorithms evaluate pages in a more advanced way.

Many of the websites ranking high for popular keywords don’t even have the keyword in their title. But that does not mean that the title tag is ignored. These sites get high rankings for these keywords because their ‘age’ and their popularity on the web. In other words, they have thousands (or even millions) of incoming links to their website with that particular keyword in the anchor text. To give you an extreme example of this:

Open up google, and search for the term “click here”. (with or without the quotes) The first result is a download page from Adobe reader! That page does not have the keyword “click here” in the title. The keyword is not even on the page! Now think about it, why would an adobe page with a free product rank nr1 for a ridiculous keyword like “click here”. The answer is simple. Thousands and thousands of sites have pdf documents and recommend adobe reader as the best free product to open these PDF’s. So what they do is, they link to that page with the following anchor text: “To view PDF files, you need adobe reader. CLICK HERE to download this product for free”.

So, when google’s algorithm evaluates that download page, it sees all these incoming links with “click here” in the anchor text. For google this page is totally related to the term “click here” and the adobe download page gets top rankings for it.
This is a bit extreme, because no one searches for terms like “click here”…But it shows that the title of a page is not everything. Apply the same reasoning for pages with a product for sale and you’ll see the importance of highly targetted anchor links to your pages.

So, what does all this mean? Should I ignore the title tag to save time for more important stuff? The answer is: NO!

If there’s one on-page SEO factor that should not be ignored, it’s the title tag. A simple tweak of the title on your pages can make the difference between a page 3 and a page 1 ranking for a particular keyword. Especially older sites with lots of pages and incoming links can create a huge difference in rankings with some small tweaks of the title tags. And also, writing titles is not a hard job, it’s a few seconds of work. But, you should invest some time in researching the construction of an accurate title. Each page needs a title, so why not make the best of it?

Let me first show some concrete tips on what NOT to do with your title tag:

• Don’t put crap like “welcome to my site!” or “My Homepage” in your title tag. No one searches for terms like that in the search engines. It’s obvious, but still many people do it because they have no clue.
• Don’t stuff your title with a gazillion keywords. Search engines don’t like that. Instead of getting good rankings for all these keywords, you will get no good rankings at all. In my experience, optimizing a page title for ONLY ONE keyword works. Don’t optimize it for more than 2 keywords, it’s pointless.
• Don’t start your title with www.yoursiteurl.com. A search engine bot knows the url it’s on. This space should be used for keywords. If you want to have your site name in your title (which is understandable, because name branding of your website is just as important.), put it at the end of your title. You won’t get penalized for it. Some say it’s not important if the url comes first or last in a title. I believe it does matter and achieved the best results with the url at the end of the title.
• Don’t overdo it. Titles that are too long are just as bad as titles spammed with keywords: they both harm your rankings. 50-70 characters in your title is generally the norm.

Here’s what you should do to give the search engine bots what they want:

• Spend enough time on keyword research for all your pages. The title tag is where you want your best keyword(s).
• Use natural looking titles. The title is not only important for the search engine rankings, it’s also important for your visitors. Your title should represent the content of your page and at the same time contain useful keywords. ‘Useful’ here means: keywords that people search for and at the same time have little competition from other sites. Feed both your visitors and search engines with clean titles! If your title has keywords in it that have nothing to do with the content on the page, you’re on the wrong track and the people who found your site will be pissed off because they can’t find what they are looking for.
• If you want to include your website url in the title (at the end of your title), seperate it from the actual title with a ‘-’ or | symbol.
• Put a different title on EACH PAGE of your site. Optimize each page title for a different keyword. Use the most important keyword for your main page.
• Try to optimize for both single and plural keywords, if possible. Not all search engines handle single and plural keywords seperately. But, Google does. And if google does it, then it’s worth optimizing your site for both single and plural keywords.
• Use medium length titles. Not just 1 word, but also not your Aruba holiday report. Stick around 50-70 characters. Simple, natural and to the point.
• Optimize for longer keywords. (2-3 words) and integrate them in a descriptive, relevant title. Long keywords contain the smaller keywords. Especially for new websites, it’s important to start with more specific keywords with less competition. When your site becomes more popular, you can focus on smaller keywords(1 or 2 word keywords) with more competition.
• Test different variations of your title. Construct 3-4 different variations on your title and try them all. Check if your rankings improve or not. If you already have some search engine traffic, this is ideal for playing around with the title text. Wait a few weeks and see if your traffic increased or descreased. Don’t be afraid to lose the traffic you already have. A simple tweak in a pagetitle can double your search engine traffic for that page.
• move all javascript to an external file and reference it from your page. The head section of your pages can contain lots of other meta data, CSS stuff and javascript. Many people put javascript in the pagecode itself, in the head section. As you already know, the title is also in your head section. If you do want to use javascript on your pages instead of external javascript file, make sure you place it AFTER the title tag. I organize the section of my sites like this:
  
<head>
<title>giraffes - photoshop pictures contest - PhotoShopTalent.com</title>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<meta name="language" content="en" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/navigation.css"/>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/global.css"/>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/tables.css"/>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/forms.css"/>
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="functions/jsfunctions.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="scripts/slider/slider.js"></script>
</head>


  As you can see, the title tag is the first tag in the head section. Followed by other meta data, style sheets and javascript references. You may wonder why there is no description and keywords tag in my header… I don’t use them anymore. Practically all search engines ignore it these days. The first search engines focused only on these meta tags and were just as important as the title tag, but those days are over. Also note that there are no css classes and no javascript functions in the head section of my page. All CSS classes and javascripts are stored in external files. Search engines hate javascript and so do I! Saving this in external files is not only good for the search engine bot, but also for the readability of your html code.

• Keep in mind that there is no exact formula to create a page title. Each search engine bot handles page titles differently. Most search engines also change and tweak their algorithms all the time, so what works now is not a guarantee for success in the future. Always stay up to date. Keep tweaking your titles and get the most out of it. And let me say it again: The title of your page is the single most important factor when it comes to on-page optimization. Apart from that, it comes down to great content and off-page optimization.

Ok, that’s about it. If you know any other tips I forgot about, let me know, so I can add them to the list.
Now, start optimizing your page titles and get the traffic you deserve!

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