How to Write Title Tags for Your Web Pages 
By Donald Nelson (c) 2005

When it comes to search engine optimization, the single most
important sentence that you will write for your website is the
title tag of your main page. If you write it properly then you
will have taken a big step towards getting your site well placed
in search engine queries for your important keywords.

Before I give you a step-by-step guide to writing title tags,
let's define what they actually are and see why they are
important. When you look at a web page in your browser, the
writing in the blue strip above browser's commands (file, edit,
view, etc.) is the title tag. On your actual html document the
title tag is in the head portion between the notation <title>
and </title> .

The title tag is important because it "tells" the search engine
what the page is about, and in the case of your main page, what
your website is all about. I remember back in my school days
that we used to take standardized examinations in which we had
to read a story and then answer the question: "What would be the
best title for this essay?" Choosing a title tag is something
like answering this kind of question. You've got to pick out the
gist of your enterprise and highlight it in a sentence. So, take
a look at your web page and get ready to begin, following these
steps:

1. Make sure your three or four most important keywords or
keyword phrases appear in the title tag. The most important
words should appear near the beginning of the sentence, and they
can be repeated within the sentence for added emphasis. For
example if I am offering low-cost web design, then my title tag
might look like this: <title>Web Design: Affordable, Low Cost
Web Design from the Acme Web Design Company</title>.

2. Leave your branding and sales pitch for another part of the
web page. Although it is a natural tendency to want to put
your company name at the beginning of the title tag, you should
remember that unless you are very famous like Coca Cola, people
are not searching for you. So, put your most important keywords
at the front of the title tag, and establish your brand name
with your logo and other elements of the web page. If your
company name includes your keywords, like our hypothetical Acme
Web Design Company, then put it in the title tag, but not
necessarily at the beginning.

Similarly, the title tag is no place for your sales pitch, so
keep out flowery or extraneous adjectives, unless they are
actual terms used in searches for your product or service.

3. Place your geographical or niche-defining term in your title
tag.

If you are trying for a top ten or top twenty position for a
term such as "web design," then you are really in for a
difficult struggle. However, suppose the Acme Web Design Company
is located in Columbus, Ohio. Then instead of attempting the
almost impossible task of getting the top rankings for the term
"web design," it would be far better to get a high ranking in
the geographical niche using a title tag such "Web Design,
Columbus, Ohio: Low Cost Web Design in Columbus, Ohio by The
Acme Web Design Company".


4. The title tag can be longer than you think.

Some guidelines say that the title tag should be no longer than
70 characters. It is true that only the first 70 characters will
show in the top bar of the browser, but search engine robots
will read the rest of the tag and the search engines will not
penalize you for going over the 70 character mark. Take a look
at highly ranked sites in heavily competitive categories and you
will see examples of long title tags. Write the tag according to
your need to get your important words and phrases included in a
sentence that best describes what your product or service is
about.

5.  Vary the title tags on the inner pages of your website.

Even with a long title tag, it is not possible to highlight all
the possible terms which someone might use to find your website.
This is not a problem if you make use of the other pages of your
website. Instead of simply having a title tag that says
"services" our web design firm could highlight "low cost, web
design services..." on that page. The "contact" page could be used
to emphasize the geographical location once again, and so on.
Many websites make the mistake of repeating the same title tag
on each of the inner pages of the site. Avoid this and use each
of your page's titles to target important keywords and keyword
phrases.

So, take a look at your website's title tags, and see if you can
improve them. The effort that you make will be well rewarded.


Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor and social worker. He
is the director of A1-Optimization, http://www.a1-optimization.com,
a firm providing affordable search engine optimization, website
copywriting, reciprocal linking and other web promotion services.

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