Title Tag is a form of meta tag which tells the search engines what your web page is about. To say more clearly, if you have a page with the title “How to prevent hair loss,” the search engines will index the web page for the related terms of Hair loss prevention. So, it will not show in SERPs for a search query, “How ice creams taste like.”
Now you know what a Title Tag means. It not only helps the search engines but also is a key in attracting visitors to the web page. Even if your page ranked well in SERPs, it is completely upon visitors whether to click on it or not. So, you should be writing Title tags both for search engines and visitors.
This is the basic format of a title tag
<head>
<title>Example Title</title>
</head>
Anything put between the <title> and </title> will be considered as the title of the web page. For a live example, If you hover the mouse on a tab in your browser, you will be given the title of that page or article which is visible to the search engines too.
In addition, if you try to share the article on any social media networks like Facebook and Google+, the title of this article will be fetched by the browser and will be displayed as the anchor linking to this article.
and most importantly, the search engines will list your web page in the search results using the title tag which is visible to the users.
Ok. Now, how to add title tags to the articles? Is the process automatic?
The answer is a Yes. But, there is something you should be aware of. In most cases, the search engines will automatically grab the title of the article from the popular CMS like WordPress. Unless you specified a definite title, it may fluctuate based on many factors. So, it is always better to specify it yourself using some good SEO plugins like Yoast SEO (If you are using WordPress.)
Yoast can easily fetch the title given to your article and make it the title which is visible to the search engines. The process is automatic, but if you have time, you should review and edit it yourself.
This is where you have to add your title in WordPress (It will be used as the H1 of your articles and will be automatically fetched by search engines as the title.)
and once the Yoast SEO plugin is installed, a section like this will be added at the end of each page.
The title will be automatically added by the plugin. But if you want to edit it, just click the “Edit Snippet” button, and it will bring the box to enter the title.
There you can type the suitable title for your article. In our case, for the article “What is SEO” we targetted the keyword “SEO” (It is a huge competition keyword and very tough to rank. So, it is good to use “What is SEO” as the focus keyword by repeating the keywords a number of times in the article.) The title was also small, which is not recommended in case you have multiple focus keywords. But from our experience, the length of the title is not a thing to spend time on.
How to write an SEO friendly Title Tag
Now you know what a title tag is and how to edit them. But you still don’t know how to produce a great title tag for your article. There are numerous factors you should consider while writing a title tag. Moz says, a perfect SEO friendly title should be in the format,
Primary Keyword – Secondary Keyword | Brand Name
Yes. They are correct. You should include few keywords in your title as well as the brand name to brand yourself in the search snippet. Especially if you are an authority, you should be using the brand name in the title. It will greatly improve the organic CTR.
Another very important thing to take care is, you should write the titles for the users also. It should be catchy at the first look itself to attract more clicks.
Title tag Quick Look
If you don’t have time to read this entire article and found this while scrolling through, stop here. This is what you need.
- Start with Keyword: As per many SEO experts, starting the title with the main keyword greatly improve the search engine ranking of the article.
- Use Multiple Keywords: If you have multiple focus keywords in your article, it is better to include them in the title itself. For example, if you are writing an article on hair loss and you have multiple focus keywords like “Prevent Hair Loss” and “Stop Hair Fall,” you could use a title something like “Prevent Hair Loss: 3 Effective ways to Stop Hair Fall.” So, you will get the title advantage for both those search queries.
- Length: The title tags should not exceed 60 characters (including spaces) which is the visible length in search snippet. There is no minimum count for the title length, but it is better to make it long with keywords.
- Brand: This is optional if you are just stepping into the SEO world. If you are a trusted brand already, you should include your brand name at the end of the title. It helps to improve organic CTR.
- Avoid duplicate title tags: Title tags should be different for all pages in your website. Otherwise, it may result in a search engine penalty.
- Avoid Keyword Stuffing: You might be heard about Keyword stuffing. Like the content, you shouldn’t stuff keywords in the title too for better rankings. If you do, it can harm your rankings very badly.
- It should be Related to the content: You should never write misleading titles for your articles. Remember that users are the primary factor which decides the growth of your website. So, you should treat them carefully. If a visitor reached an irrelevant page and left within seconds, it will not be good for your rankings.
- Write catchy titles: It is not good to be obsessed with the SEO by ignoring the users. So, try to write good looking titles with catchy additions by maintaining the SEO on the side.
- Try to make headline ( <h1> ) different: It is optional to write different title and h1 tags. It will help to include more keywords to them. But both should be a little identical and based on the same matter.
- Include Numbers and Modifiers: As per numerous reports from trusted SEO websites like Moz, Backlinko, SearchEngineLand, etc. the use of numbers and modifiers in the title has a great impact in attracting visitors. You already know, “games for android” is not that catchy as “15 Best games for android.”
Now it is the time to be practical. We are listing few good and bad examples of the title tags for some search queries, it will help you to quickly understand what we said in this article till now.
Good Title tag examples
- “seo tips” – Used the title modifiers, Started with the keyword, not exceeded the number of characters, included the brand, and moreover very catchy.
- “tastiest fruits in the world” – Used the title modifiers, Used multiple keywords (rarest fruits and tastiest fruits), not exceeded the character count, used the brand.
- “best soccer players” – It always doesn’t mean the modifiers are a must.
- “how to vote” – Small titles can still rank.
Bad Title tag examples
- “prevent hair fall” – Keywords stuffed in a non-catchy way, no modifiers, no brand name. Even the keywords are different, Google is enough clever to find the keyword stuffing.
- “best cases for iphone 7” – Not a good use of keywords and their placement, the length also makes problems.
- “best movies to watch” – But it still ranks because of the authority.
Now, you got a good understanding of the Title tag in Search engine optimization alongside the do’s and don’t do’s. The truth is that, if your website is a very established one with a lot of backlinks, social signals, visitors, etc. the title tag has only one rule, which is just including the keyword in it. The article will get automatically ranked better in search results. The above rules are mostly applicable to the beginners who are expecting better search engine ranking only through the perfect SEO.
If you have any more suggestions to add to this article or if you have any doubts related to the title tag in SEO, feel free to leave comments. We will be always happy to help you. 🙂