Webpage Title Tag 101

[branica]

A title tag is the "headline" that people will see in the search results. It's also one of the major factors for the search engines in determining what your website is really about and therefore also determining your ranking for a given search phrase. Although the importance of this may be declining it is still important to consider when designing your webpage.

When optimizing your website for the search engines it can be a good idea to follow these basic rules when writing your title tags...

1. First of all, only 65 characters or so will be displayed by Google in their search results so try to keep your titles shorter than that when it is possible to do so. The balance between a perfectly optimized title tag and a perfect looking title tag can be a pretty thin line. Optimized wording is not always elegant but it is effective and many people don’t think about this when optimizing their websites. If your website is optimized for the topic “coffee mugs” then a good looking title tag could be “Mike coffee mugs are the nicest coffee mugs in Oklahoma. Come visit out nice shop” while a perfectly optimized description could be “Coffee Mugs. Best Coffee Mugs and coffee mugs from the best Coffee Mugs shop”. See the difference? Preferably your main keyword (coffee mugs) should be bolded out or underlined as well.
2. Even if writing the title in plain English and using proper grammar makes it easier to read your title this may not necessarily be the best way to optimize your website for better ranking. What you need to do is to find the ideal mix of optimization and readable text that actually makes sense and get people to actually click through to your site. Do not just stuff a bunch of keywords in there to increase rankings – it won’t help you. After all this is the headline for your search listing and as a headline it should catch the readers attention and motivate them to click through. If one listing had the title “sport-cars, cars sport, sport cars, Porsche” and one listing had the title “Sport Cars Directory. Find the best Porsches and other sport cars online” – which one would you click on?
3. Capitalize Important Words, or first letter of each word, as it grabs the readers attention. It’s a proven technique which should always be implemented in copy writing. Capitalizing makes your listing stand out from the crowd but will neither help nor hurt your rankings. Separating your self from the crowd as well as standing out from the crowd is always important when it comes to SEO. Don’t use all caps though, as it looks like screaming and it WILL hurt you!
4. Many use their primary key phrases on every page of their website but if you try to use unique key phrases for each page and this way optimize each page of your website for different phrases you could see a boost in rankings of your sub pages. A well designed and content-rich sub page of a properly optimized website can still rank well without being optimized for different keyword phrases but the odds are still in your favour if you do use a different primary phrase in your title tag for each sub page of your site.
5. The number one mistake almost ALL newbies, as well as many webdesigners, do is to use their company name as a title tag and as a heading of their websites. DON’T! It is a completely waste of space and it will ruin your rankings as well as traffic. Unless you're a well known brand no one will be searching for your company name and therefore no one will ever see your site.

Don't forgot that part of what you are doing is marketing. The most optimized title tag may not be the one that people click on the most when they see a search result.