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Writing HTML Title Tags for SEO Success

When reading up on search engine optimization (SEO), you keep hearing about HTML title tags and how important they are when optimizing your website.

But what is a title tag and what does it have to do with SEO? More importantly, what can you do to make your titles the best they can possibly be? Let's examine this issue in depth...

First, a bit of terminology. The proper, technical name for this item is the title element, and I know a lot of HTML purists are cursing me for calling it a title tag. Whatever. I'll go with the common usage, thank you very much. The reason people call it a "tag," by the way, is because it's usually found near the META tags within the HTML code of a web page.

As I've said, the title tag is part of the HTML code that makes up each of your web pages. Or at least it should be! 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>Descriptive 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 Writing HTML Title Tags for SEO Success.

Don't confuse the HTML title tag with the title or header that actually appears on the web page itself. These two items 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 we have defined above.

Why These "Tags" Are Important

Search engines will give a lot of consideration to the title tags you put on your web pages. So with that in mind, your HTML title tags should be (A) based on your key phrases, (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.

In Plain English: The title tag tells readers and search engines what a particular web page is about. Titles rank high on the search engine evaluation "formula." So make sure yours are built around the key phrases / topics of a given web page.

Writing Title for People and Search Engines

Here's the secret to writing HTML title tags properly. 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. Keep this in mind when writing them. They need to be compelling enough to pull readers in. In other words, you want your title to be intriguing so people click through to your website.

I hope you've enjoyed this brief lesson on SEO writing success. If you want to learn more about this and similar topics, be sure to visit our search engine optimization learning center.