The title of a web page is what shows up in the browser when you go to that page. The words in the title, or title tag, are what appear in the link to that site on the search engine results page (SERP), and they are a very important part of Google’s page indexing algorithm. In fact, title tags are one of the most important factors.
You have only three to nine words–60 to 80 characters–in which to make the most use of your title tags. There is some debate as to whether company or brand names belong in the title tags. My feeling is that for an established brand name, yes, you want it in the title. To build your brand, you may want it in the title. For a non-brand, probably not, or at least not at the beginning of the tag. If you can use that valuable title tag real estate more effectively by placing another keyword in there, leave it out.
Look at some examples. Search Google for “soccer ball sales,” and take a note of which sites turn up on the first page. Now try searching for sites that have that term in the title using the shortcut “allintitle:soccer ball sales.” Many of the sites that appear organically for this search phrase also have it in the title.
Are your page titles working for you or against you?
Posted on October 16th, 2007 by Vanessa
Filed under: SEO and Site Optimization, Search
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