4 Ways to Optimize Title Tags for SEO

The title tag is considered as one of the most basic and most important factors that can contribute to how well a site places in the search engine results page (SERP). Search engine searchers are also more likely to visit a site with good title tags than sites without title tags at all. The ability to optimize a title tag will therefore make a site loved by search engines and visited by more people. Fortunately, optimizing title tags is now much easier with new tools such as the wordpress SEO title tag plugin. Here are some ways on how to optimize a title tag for SEO:

1. Make your title tag keyword rich. The title tag should contain important and related keywords that best describe the site article. Note: do not use keywords that are NOT related or visible in the content or text of your post. Keyword phrases are better used in title tags than single keywords because competition is not as stiffer. Keywords can also have better variance when geographical terms are included in your title tag.

2. Make title tag as descriptive and catchy as possible. The title tag should not only be a bunch of keywords but a free standing phrase descriptive enough to give an idea what the post is all about. Many do not advise repeating keywords in a title tag because search engines may consider this as a form of spamming. Nevertheless, you can use secondary versions of your keyword in your title tag. A good title tag makes a searcher know what to expect from the post. Remember to use proper capitalization because title tags in all caps are difficult to read. Bloggers and webmasters can also take advantage of catchy title tags to entice search engine searchers to visit their site. Here is a good post on how to make catchy and descriptive title tags: HTML Title Tag Defines Your SEO Strategy.

3. Make the title tag unique. It is not advised to use the same title tag for every page of your site and while it is recommended to write your title tag based on the contents of your article, it is not a good idea to use an exact phrase or sentence from your article as the title tag. Similarly, it is also advised to do away from generic title tags such as "page" and "home". A unique sentence or phrase should be separately made for use in the title tag.

4. Know the character limit of your title tag. Google limits the title tag to 66 characters only and yahoo can cater up to 120 characters. Using “&” instead of “and” can help in decreasing the number of characters in the title tag. (Using a title tag that is different from your blog post title is therefore ideal if you have a lengthy post title). Because search engines display limited numbers of characters from the title, it is ideal to place the more important keywords near or in the beginning of the title. You can make a title tag work for both yahoo and google by creating a primary title tag for google and a secondary title tag for yahoo. This post will explain this in detail. Shorter title tags (not more than 10 words) are also reportedly more effective than title tags with more than 10 words.

This article is part 2 of the CTT Blogging and SEO Series. The articles under this series are compilation of things that I am learning about blogging and search engine optimization.