SEO Tips: The Title Tag

Today’s blog post is the beginning of a mini-series by WebMovement, LLC that focuses on the core aspects of SEO.  While we have written a few articles on our blog pertaining to SEO, some of the topics covered may not be suitable for novice audiences.  This mini-series caters to those who are just starting out with SEO and would like a better understanding of foundational best practices.

Title Tag Overview

Today, we’ll be covering the title tag, one of the most important parts of SEO.  The title tag is significant because it used to notify both search engines and users of what the expected content of the page is supposed to entail.  More importantly, the title of the page will appear in the first line of the results in Google and other search engines.  Here’s an example:

WebMovement, LLC Home Page on Google

The text that’s highlighted in the image demonstrates WebMovement, LLC’s title tag.  The bolded words are what I used in the search query.  Note that the title for the homepage can include bits of information that’s vital to the site, and it’s encouraged to do so.  This is why we include the words/phrases web design, programming, and SEO for our homepage title tag.  Here’s what the WebMovement, LLC title tag looks like in code:

Title Tag Best Practices

When creating page titles, be as accurate as possible.

As mentioned, the title tag is significant to your site and its content.  Make sure to accurately describe what’s on the page.  Avoid the following:

• Using default auto generated titles such as “Untitled” or “New Page”
• Using titles that have nothing to do with the content on the page at all

Do not use duplicate titles for multiple pages on a site

Simply put, duplicate titles can confuse users visiting the site and could lead to usability issues in the future.  To avoid duplicate titles…

• Make sure that all of your pages have different titles
• If you have a large piece of content that spans multiple pages, then include the page number in the title or split the content into multiple blog posts

For titles, keep it short and sweet

Titles don’t need to be verbose in order to give an informative description.  Some search engines won’t even display the whole title if it’s too lengthy.  Be sure to avoid these practices

• Creating lengthy titles that could be unhelpful to users
• Using keywords in titles that aren’t relative to your content

That wraps up this portion of SEO tips. Tune in next time, and please leave some comments.  We love to hear from you!