Summersault Blog

In our last article we dove into the world of the image ALT attribute to help you find out how to get search engines to recognize your images. This time we’re going to focus on another often ignored tag, the page <title> tag.

The <TITLE> Tag

Without question the title tag of your page is the single most important factor to consider when optimizing your web page for search engines. This is because most engines place a high level of importance on keywords that are found in your title tag. The title tag is also what the search engines usually use for the title of your listing in their search results.

A common mistake made by web developers is only placing the name of the business or whatever is being advertised on the website’s <title> tag. For example, if the title of this page was "Summersault" the search engines wouldn’t pay as much attention to this page when someone searches for "HTML Title Tag" as it would if the title was "Summersault Weblog | Search Engine Optimization Vol. 2: The <title> Tag". This is because there are keywords used in the title that are directly related to the contents of the page. This is a golden combination when it comes to search engine ranking.

Here are some tips for keeping your <title> tag search engine friendly:

• Include 1 or 2 of your most important keyword phrases in the title tag. However, be careful not to just list keywords. If you just list keywords you risk being viewed as a spammer to the engines, which can ultimately lead to you being blacklisted by the search engines. Your title tag should include your keyword phrases while remaining as close to a readable sentence as possible.
• Make your title enticing! Don’t forget that even if you get that #1 listing in the search engines your listing still needs to say something that makes the surfer want to click through and visit your site.
• Try to limit the length of your page <title> to 70 characters.
• Since the length of your title tag could be a little long for some engines, we suggest placing the keywords at the beginning of the tag. That way in the case the title is truncated, your keywords are still visible.
• Try to make the Title Tags located throughout your site unique and relevant. Every word in the Title should be contained somewhere in the page they are used for.

The <title> tag isn’t quite as hard to master as some of the other items we’ve covered, but don’t underestimate its power. If you can get into the habit of giving each of the pages on your website a unique and suitable title, it will give you a great head start on getting your website listed at the top of the search engines.

This concludes volume 3 of the Search Engine Optimization series. Check back soon for the next volume which will discuss how to hyperlink in a way that will increase your search engine position. If you’re in the habit of linking the words "click here", you won’t want to miss it. Until then, feel free to post your questions and I’ll try to help out.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 12th, 2005 at 10:12 am and is filed under Website Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.