Friday, August 6, 2010

SEO Tips: The Title Tag

There is strong consensus that title tags play a huge role in having a properly optimized site. A title tag defines the title of a document and tells the user and search engines the topic of a particular page. Title tags also appear on the top of the browser and in opened tabs. Title tag should appear just after the tag of the html document.


Tips for Title Tags
  • Reduce Character Length - It’s recommended you keep title tags to under 60 characters because many search engines will not display them properly. You can see below the Title Tag for Dell is fully displayed with nothing cut off. If you look at TigerDirect.com there is more description left that cannot be fully displayed as noted by the ellipsis.

  • Use Title Tags within the Title Tag Appropriately - Placing keywords in the Title Tag that you use throughout your website is very important as well. But be careful not to over-stuff keywords in the title tag. Keyword stuffing is overloading keywords in a webpage or in this instance a single title tag with disregard for user readability and page relevance.
  • Make Title Tags Unique and Related to Page Content - Make sure each title tag is different for each page and that it is correctly describing the content that is on that page. Title tags that are not in context with the particular page will not be search engine friendly.
  • Use Proper Formatting - Use title casing and make sure important words are capitalized. Also make use of characters and dividers like hyphens “-“, arrows “>” and pipe bars “|”.
Stay tuned for more tips regarding SEO.