Are you making these mistakes with your website’s title tags?

December 8, 2024

The title of your web page is one of the most important factors in search engine optimization.

These are the first words that Google (or other search engine) sees when it visits your web page. It tells the search engine what your page is about.

Furthermore, the page title performs another important function. When people are searching the web, your title tag is the first thing they see in the search results. If the title stands out and looks enticing, the searcher is more likely to click on it.

So you should regard your title tag as essentially like your ad in the natural search results. The title is the headline of your ad!

So, how do you write an effective and powerful title tag?

It’s natural to want to put your company name in the title tag. And when you look at the titles of most small business websites, the name comes first. But is that really the most effective from both an SEO and marketing perspective? Usually, it’s not. Unless your comapny is a well known brand that people are actually searching for by name, I believe it’s better to put your main keywords first in the title tag. Then put your company name at the end if you must.

Don’t over stuff your title tag with keywords

One point to be aware of when writing title tags is not to over stuff them with keywords. It’s a fine line between putting in your main keywords so Google picks them up, and going overboard so Google flags it as “spam”. Just make sure that what you write sounds natural and not contrived. Going back to the earlier point, that your title tag is like the headline of your ‘ad’ on Google, should help you to get the balance right.

Don’t try to target too many keywords on one page

Another big mistake is to try to target too many keywords on one page. If you do that, you will dilute your efforts. You should target no more than 2 or 3 keywords (or keyword phrases) on each page.

Include these keywords in the title tag and then repeat them a couple of times, in a natural sounding way, in the first 100 words of page coentnet.

Your title tag should be no more than 70 characters long. If it’s longer, Google will just cut off the extra words and replace them with “…” You can split up your keyword phrases with a hyphen or | symbol.

Another tip is to repeat the title tag of the page as the main headline in the H1 tag. This can be valuable from both an SEO viewpoint and also to help visitors understand quickly what the page is about. People who click on a Google search result will be quickly reassured if they find the headline on the page matches the title they clicked on. In this case they are more likely to stay on the page.

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