» How to Write a Better Web Page Title
By: Paul Bliss
Titles are everywhere. Some people are
defined by titles, some people loathe titles, and others like
giving titles. Why do we do this? With so much information
getting processed by our minds everyday, we need a way to
categorize these groups of associated content in a quick
referencing way.
This is the same methodology a search engine applies when it
crawls a page. When you title a page, you are telling a search
engine or user what the page is supposed to be about. We've all
seen the one sentence summaries of television shows on the T.V.
Guide. It allows for quick referencing and decision making by
telling us what the show is going to be about.
This is part of the reason why naming your page titles is so
critical to getting your site ranked. I can't tell you how many
times I have seen a site that had one of the following two
titles throughout the entire site: "untitled" or "company name".
While having the company name on all the pages could be a
potential branding strategy, chances are, most visitors to your
site don't know your brand name yet and are looking for the
product or service that you're selling. You could incorporate
the company name into the title, but it should be placed after
the main message you want to convey about that particular page.
Every page should have a unique title. While you may have a
subject that needs to be explained over a few pages, you should
use the page title as an index of information for the reader.
Sites that sell multiple products should have a unique title for
every product. If you can't make the time to make each page
stand out, why would you expect that page to ever appear in a
search engine?
If possible, you should try to place your keywords in the title,
since this will help the search engine determine where your page
should be ranked. Remember, the search engines rank each page
individually, that's why it's so important to use proper naming
methods.
When you determine which keywords to use, go for a 4 to 6 word
title when possible. After 58 characters, the title in the
search engine results page will be truncated and will not be
visible to the reader. Also, the longer the title, the less
weight is given to each word.
The entire time you are conjuring up titles, always keep the
reader in mind first. While some phrases may rank well in the
search engines, a reader may never enter that phrase and you'll
lose that targeted traffic you were trying to reach. Sometimes
the phrases work out well for both the user and search engine,
and in those cases success is usually quick to follow.
-To your online success!
Author:
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