Neil Patel to the rescue once again! Here he is setting out great advice in this
video on what to consider to optimize your web pages. Donald Nelson’s article gives you lots to
think about too. Is your blog getting
the full exposure it deserves? Are you
maximising your search engine optimization or do you think the advice here
could make for an improvement? Let me
know.
How to Write Title Tags for Your Web Pages
By: Donald Nelson
When it comes to search engine optimization, the single most important
sentence that you will write for your website is the title tag of your main
page. If you write it properly then you will have taken a big step towards
getting your site well placed in search engine queries for your important
keywords.
Before I give you a step-by-step guide to writing title tags, let's
define what they actually are and see why they are important. When you look at
a web page in your browser, the writing in the blue strip above browser's
commands (file, edit, view, etc.) is the title tag. On your actual html
document the title tag is in the head portion between the notation
<title> and </title> .
The title tag is important because it "tells" the search
engine what the page is about, and in the case of your main page, what your
website is all about. I remember back in my school days that we used to take
standardized examinations in which we had to read a story and then answer the
question: "What would be the best title for this essay?" Choosing a
title tag is something like answering this kind of question. You've got to pick
out the gist of your enterprise and highlight it in a sentence. So, take a look
at your web page and get ready to begin, following these steps:
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1.
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Make sure
your three or four most important keywords or keyword phrases appear in the
title tag. The most important words should appear near the beginning of the
sentence, and they can be repeated within the sentence for added emphasis.
For example, if I am offering low-cost web design, then my title tag might
look like this: <title>Web Design: Affordable, Low Cost Web Design from
the Acme Web Design Company</title>
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2.
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Leave
your branding and sales pitch for another part of the web page. Although it
is a natural tendency to want to put your company name at the beginning of
the title tag, you should remember that unless you are very famous like Coca
Cola, people are not searching for you. So, put your most important keywords
at the front of the title tag, and establish your brand name with your logo
and other elements of the web page. If your company name includes your
keywords, like our hypothetical Acme Web Design Company, then put it in the
title tag, but not necessarily at the beginning.
Similarly, the title tag is no place for your
sales pitch, so keep out flowery or extraneous adjectives, unless they are
actual terms used in searches for your product or service.
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3.
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Place
your geographical or niche-defining term in your title tag. If you are trying
for a top ten or top twenty position for a term such as "web
design," then you are really in for a difficult struggle. However,
suppose the Acme Web Design Company is located in Columbus, Ohio. Then
instead of attempting the almost impossible task of getting the top rankings
for the term "web design," it would be far better to get a high
ranking in the geographical niche using a title tag such "Web Design, Columbus,
Ohio: Low Cost Web Design in Columbus, Ohio by The Acme Web Design
Company"
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4.
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The
title tag can be longer than you think. Some guidelines say that the title
tag should be no longer than 70 characters. It is true that only the first 70
characters will show in the top bar of the browser, but search engine robots
will read the rest of the tag and the search engines will not penalize you
for going over the 70 character mark. Take a look at highly ranked sites in
heavily competitive categories and you will see examples of long title tags.
Write the tag according to your need to get your important words and phrases
included in a sentence that best describes what your product or service is
about.
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5.
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Vary
the title tags on the inner pages of your website. Even with a long title
tag, it is not possible to highlight all the possible terms which someone
might use to find your website. This is not a problem if you make use of the
other pages of your website. Instead of simply having a title tag that says
"services" our web design firm could highlight "low cost, web
design services" on that page. The "contact" page could be
used to emphasize the geographical location once again, and so on. Many
websites make the mistake of repeating the same title tag on each of the
inner pages of the site. Avoid this and use each of your page's titles to
target important keywords and keyword phrases.
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So, take a look at your website's title tags, and see if you can improve them.
The effort that you make will be well rewarded.
Author Bio
Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor and social worker. He has been working
on the Internet since 1995, and is currently the director of A1-Optimization (http://www.a1-optimization.com), a firm providing
low cost search engine optimization, submission and web promotion services.
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