What is a page title tag and why are they important?
The Meta page title is an essential part of your on-page SEO strategy. Last I checked it’s still holding strong at #2 right behind good quality content. This is one thing that can be accomplished with minimal effort and have big results.
The title tag serves a few purposes including what search engines use for the focus of the page’s content. It should be an accurate and concise description of what the page is about. The search engine robot indexes the website code and sees your page title in the head section of your page.
Code Example
<head>
<title>Example Page Title</title>
</head>
The title is also the text a web browser displays in the page tab and in your bookmarks.
When someone shares your page on a social network site this should be the default title for the page being shared. Some social media sites have their own Meta tags that can override this though.
Last but certainly not least it is what is shown to the user in search results. This is where you will need to find balance between good keyword usage and readability for conversions. A keyword rich title might work for a search engine but a person might think it’s odd looking and keep scrolling down to find something more enticing. Google might not use yours if they don’t like it.
How to write a good title tag?
Google typically displays the first 50-60 characters depending on the characters you use. Some are wider than others. If you keep your titles below 60 you can expect around 90% of them to display properly.
Formatting
A good strategy is to use your primary keyword first and then additional ones ending with brand name.
Primary Keyword – Secondary Keyword | Brand Name
Once the page is indexed by the search engines you can check it to see how it looks and if you need to change anything. Just type in your exact page title in a Google search and it should bring up your page at #1 unless yours is not unique.
