How to Optimize Every Page Title on Your Web Site For Search Engines and Visitors

The page title is one of the most important aspects of search engine optimization. Why? Because each page title appears as the “headline” in a search engine result listing. You want every page title to be compelling, perhaps even a bit provocative. Be creative. If you’re a retailer or have a brick and mortar business, include your phone number, address, a special offer or a call to action. Think of the Page Title as the headline to an advertisement, but you don’t have to pay hundreds, even thousands of dollars a month in search engine advertising campaign programs, like Google AdWords.

You’ll also want to make sure to consider your keywords when writing page titles. If possible, use your most important keyword as the first word in your title and establish the topic for the page. I prefer to start with interior web site pages (not the home page) when writing titles. Why? Because it’s more difficult to write a title or headline for the home page, which theoretically is supposed to detail your entire company’s product, services, resources and more. So, start with a page that is specific to one topic. For example, a page that deals with a single product within your product line. This way, you can include specific key words and phrases that relate specifically to that one product. Once you get a few page titles under your belt, writing a great headline for your home page will be that much easier.

Keep your title to less than 65 characters, as most search engines don’t display any more than that. You want your title to be complete… and not have it automatically shortened for you. When you see search engine listings that end with an ellipse (… ) you’ll know that the search engine has automatically truncated the title. Worse, if you don’t have a title for your page, or it’s left as the default “untitled”, search engines will create a title for you… but it might not be the best possible title for that page!

As a rule of thumb, you should never include the word Home or Home Page as part of your title. It really has no value, and you should strive to use more important, descriptive words in your page titles.

Every page on your site deserves to have a great title! Every page on your site provides a unique opportunity to advertise or market your company, its products, services, resources, support and much more.

Note: There is another type of title that you can also use to help optimize your pages. You can include a title for almost any element on your web pages. The one that makes the most sense – and the ones you should consider – are titles for your hyperlinks. Titles serve several functions. First, they provide a tool tip when you hover over them, makes your content more accessible to more viewers, and it provides another opportunity to make your pages keyword-rich.