The title tags of your site are an important and often undervalued element of SEO. Not only do they count greatly toward how the search engines weigh a particular page, they count toward what users do as well. A well-written title tag is essential to any page’s success.

Title tags tell users performing a search exactly what your page is. If your tag is boring, lacking in keywords, over-worded or untrustworthy, the opportunity your ranking has given you has been wasted. Users won’t click on an uninteresting link. You may have implemented an excellent search engine optimisation plan throughout your site, but your page’s titles can mean the difference between failure and search engine success.

What are title tags?

Title tags are HTML meta tags, containing text which describes the page in a few words. Title tags are generally featured as the anchor text within SERPs, and also provide the title for the browser window. Title tags are important in attracting search engine attention, so they need to contain that page’s keywords. They are just as important in attracting user attention, so they must be written with skill and finesse.

Major mistake – the spammy title

Some businesses make the mistake of writing title tags solely for search engine spiders. This results in a clumsy list of keywords which is unattractive to users and may trigger the search engines’ spam filters. If you know that your keywords are ‘dog dog food puppy food puppy treats dog treats’, it doesn’t take much effort to write a short sentence containing at least a couple of these terms. ‘Homer’s dog food: ultimate puppy treats’ doesn’t list all of the keywords, but it reads a lot better and informs the user more fully about the page.

SEO title tags can be difficult to compose, as there’s little room to move. It can help to get professional advice, and you can talk to us at SEO Consult about title tag writing.

Be pushy, but not too pushy

Another common mistake is over enthusiasm. This usually takes the form of ADVERTISING IN CAPITALS, although sites also insert unnecessary symbols. Capitals certainly catch the user’s attention, much in the way that shouting at them does. Raising your voice in a crowded market is acceptable, and similarly capitals are fine if all of your competitors use them. However, yelling is distinctly out of place on a quiet street. Study the other sites near you in the SERPs to discover what is permissible, and bear in mind that lower case can catch the eye on a page full of capitals.

Unoptimised is unforgivable

You will often notice unoptimised title tags when you perform a search yourself. Many websites fill their title tags with unhelpful information, or plain tags such as ‘Home’ or ‘Main’. Not only do these titles miss out on a great SEO opportunity for the site, they provide zero information to the user. Even a spammy title would be of more use than an unoptimised title, although it takes little time to compose an understandable title.

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