How Important are Title Tags?

The Title Tag

The title tag is an element placed in the head of your document that defines the title of the document. It is one of, if not the, most important part of any web document. Search engines put a lot of emphisis on the title tag when indexing and ranking your page. A poorly implemented title tag can, and usually will, result in poor rankings in the search engines.

How to Write Relavent Title Tags

Start with length, Google shows approximately 65 characters of the title tag. Some search engines will show more, but it is always good practice to keep your most relavent keywords near the beginning of your title tag. Using your site name or domain name as the title tag is generally bad practice. Unless you are fortunate enough to have a site name or domain name that is searched millions of times a day, I would highly advise against using your site name or domain name as your title tag. While some authors like to have their site name in their title tag, either limit it to the site's home page, or place it at the end of the title tag. The characters in your title tag should be viewed as the most valuable real estate on your page. Space is limited and diluting your title tags with too many keywords or unrelated terms almost always hurts your search engine rankings.

The title tag also serves as a guide to your user as to what your page is about. A surfer sifting through hunderds of search results will be much more apt to click on a link with a meaningful and relavent key phrase.

Keep It Simple

Keeping your title tag concise will force the search engines to put more value into each word in your title tag. It also allows potential clients to make a quick decision on the importance of your page to them. Surfers are generally a lazy animal, the less work they have to do the more likely they are to do it. If they have to make tough decisions or interpret what your page is about, there is a good chance they will move on to the next link.

Example of a Title Tag

Tags

HTML, SEO