Title Tags: Do They Matter in SEO?
Posted by Hendry Lee on 04/16/07 in SEO Tips, SEO Tutorials
What is a title tag?
It is part of a HTML page that tells a browser what to display in the browser’s title bar.
Title tags are also very important to search engines. If web publishers consistently give the right title tag to a page, then the tag should indicate the subject of the page. But, there is no guarantee on this. Many web writers prefer to put a clever title. Others simply intend to cheat the search engines, realizing how important the title tag is.
Despite this fact, still this tag can tell us much about a page. This factor is less significant than inbound links. The benefit of it though is that you have full control of what you want the title tag to appear.
To view title tag of a web page, simply use the “View Source” feature of your browser. It looks like this:
<html>
<head>
<title>The title of the page</title>
There are three major mistakes that webmaster could make with title tags:
- Failing to include a title tag. Browsers are very forgiving. You can create just body content of the page and still it will display correctly in most browsers. I have seen to this date many web publishers still forget this piece of information. This should not be a problem if you use content management system or a blog though.
- Poor title that gives no value. Remember, while human visitors rarely see the title in the browser title bar, the exact same line appears in search engine result pages. It should not only be compelling to search spiders but also to human visitors, so they click to visit the page. I also often see web publishers use the default “Untitled page” — as commonly appear as default on some HTML editors and website templates — as the title. Change it to reflect the content of your page and use copywriting technique to make it clear and appealing.
- Use excessive words or characters. Title tags should be short, between 30-60 characters. That is just a guide, it can be as long as it needs to be to deliver the message, but no longer. Search engines trim long titles though. Avoid only displaying company names. Put it at the end of the title if it must be there or the brand is popular.
A short summary about title tag
Although many people have differing opinions about title tags, most of them agree that the tag is important for SEO. Long gone are days when stuffing keywords into title tags would result in better search engine positioning. Search engines are wiser nowadays.
However, anyone who is doing SEO should start with on-page factors. Title tag is one of them. Keep title tag succinct and clear, but at the same time compelling.
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