The page title tag is arguably the most important factor when you consider WordPress SEO. Just like the chapter title of a book, title tells people and search engines what your page is about. So, visitors can decide whether to go to read your page when it displays in the search results page. To help readers write good and appalling title, today we come out this tutorial, carefully explaining its definition and introducing detailed tips to create it.
WHAT IS TITLE TAG?
Title tag, also called as title element, is a part of Meta tag that is used to offer information about web page for search engines and visitors. Generally, it defines the title of a document, including some keywords to indicate about the topic and main content of your webpage. It is widely used on search engine results pages(SERPs) to show up preview snippets for a particular page, which makes it is important for both SEO and user experience.
Title tag appears at the top of your HTML inside the <head> section, just as the next:
<head> <title> Example Title </title> </head>
Actually, you are certainly not strange to title tags, which are displayed in three main places: browsers, search engine result pages, and external websites. Look at the detailed situation in the below.
- Browser
Many browsers show up title in the reverse bar at the top of the browser window, like the following: - Search Engine Result Pages
If you search for the keywords in the title tag, search engines highlight them in SERPs, which gives your page high visibility and attracts customers to click through it. - External Websites
The title tag is usually used as a link anchor text by some external websites, especially social media websites. The below screenshot shows how you webpage performs in Google+.
HOW TO WRITE GOOD TITLE TAG?
As title tags are so important for search engine optimization, it’s urgent and critical for webmasters to optimize title tags, for a terrific low-efforts and high-impact SEO performance. Based on our rich practices, we summary some essential tips in the following.
Length
In theory, you can create a title freely as you want, regardless of the length and content. However, search engines like Google typically shows up the first 50-60 characters of a title. Thus, we suggest you to keep your title tag fewer than 55 characters so that nearly 95% of your title will be displayed correctly.
Keywords
It’s necessary to place keywords within title tags. In addition, you should also pay close attention to the keyword placement. Usually, the most important words should be first in the title while the least important one should be added at last. In this way, your title tags are helpful for search ranking, and more likely attract searchers to click through the link. However, it should be reversed it you use a language that reads right-to-left.
Content
With multiple keywords included in the title, you can use pipes | to separate each one, instead of commas, underscores, dashes, or any other punctuations.
When starting to write title, it should at least precisely describe the page content. You can write a title that effectively expresses the essence of your page rather than using some un-related words or topics.
In addition, you need to add independent title tags for every page. Instead of using a single title for all pages of your site, each page should have a unique and quality title, which is helpful for search engines to know how this page is different from the others.
As for the title content, you should use some brief but descriptive words and keep the title short and meaningful. Don’t try to use some lengthy words or include unnecessary keywords.
Brand Name
It’s recommended to include your brand name in title tags. However, you should be care for the placement. If your brand is famous enough and has great influence on CTR in search results, you can put it in the first of title. However, if it is less known or irrelevant than keywords, keywords should be first.
