Why Are Page Titles Important?

Search engines give a lot of consideration to HTML title tags. The title tag is within the HTML code that makes up each of your web pages. To see the title tag, just right-click on any web page and select "View Source." This will show you the HTML code that makes up the web page. The title tag will be near the top, between tags that look like this:

<title>Title text will be here</title>

The HTML title also shows up in the blue bar at the top of your web browser, up above the navigation buttons and the address bar. For example, the title for this page is "Importance of Titles for SEO - Austin SEO Guy."

Your HTML title tags should be (A) based on your key phrases from earlier, (B) designed to pull in readers like a headline, and (C) relevant to the actual content of the page. Use a different title tag for each page of your website; this gives you more search coverage and less redundancy.

Don't confuse the HTML title tag with the title or header that actually appears on the web page itself. These two titles come from different bits of code, but they should both reflect whatever the page is about, so chances are they will be similar.

From a search engine's perspective, though, there is only one true page title, and that's the one that starts with <title> and ends with </title>.

Tips for Titles

Here's the secret to writing effective title tags. Be sure to include your key phrase at the beginning of your title. If you put it at the end of the title, it will greatly reduce your search engine visibility for that phrase.

For example, let's say you've done your research and found that "Austin real estate agent" meets all the criteria of a key search phrase. So you add the phrase to your list of key phrases, and you decide to build a page around it (or maybe several pages). The first page you create is an article about what makes a good real estate agent in Austin.

The first title that comes to mind might be: "Top Qualities of an Austin Real Estate Agent." That's a fine title, but if you're going to make it the HTML title of your page (between the <title> and </title> tags) you should move the key phrase toward the front. Here's an easy way to do that: "Austin Real Estate Agents - 7 Qualities to Consider."

Simply by moving the key phrase to the beginning, we have dramatically improved our chances for ranking well for the phrase "Austin real estate agent."

Unless your company name is well-known with strong branding, it's best to put it at the end of the title tag (or leave it out altogether). Also keep in mind that most web browsers will cut the title off after about 10 words, so keep your titles brief.

Remember, people will see the HTML title tag in search engine results pages when they conduct a search. So the title has to be compelling to pull them in. In other words, you want your title to be intriguing so people click through to your website.

Related question: What kind of links do I want?