Why is Title Tag Optimisation Important?

Optimising title tags for your website pages is a key part of SEO, as this can contribute to boosting your visibility online. Plus, it helps readers to better understand your content. But how do you implement effective title tag optimisation? Here, we share our top tips on how it’s done and how to achieve the most from your site content for your business.

A title tag is a required element in HTML to allow your page to have a title, which appears as “<title>” in code form. The purpose is to allow users and search engines to process and understand what exactly the page's content is about. Effectively optimising your title is important, so having a well-written and representative title can not only attract clicks but can also boost your page for relevance in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

This is an example of how they look:

HTML:

<title>Search Marketing Agency | Zelst: Be Seen, Get Found</title>

Search Engines:

   1. First Impressions: When a user discovers your page through a search, your title tag is often the first impression they receive of your site and your business. To keep your page looking enticing and attractive, a well-written and honest title tag is important to gain those clicks. For example, we would not click on a title tag that looked messy or unprofessional, as it makes the page look untrustworthy. Some traits of a bad title are too little or too many words or overly used key terms. These mistakes can cause a website to lose potential visitors and, in turn, potential customers.

   2. SERP Features: Your title tag is representative of what the content on your page is about. You must keep this in mind as your written title tag could be shown in a Google SERP feature. For example, there may be a featured snippet opportunity for your target search term. A featured snippet is a selected piece of content which appears at the top of Google's search results, that will answer the question which was part of the search. With an optimised title tag, you’d have a better shot of capturing that featured snippet, being more visible and attracting more traffic!

   3. Readability for Search Engines: Another reason that title tags are essential, is the readability for Google. As previously mentioned, we use the power of title tag optimisation to help search engines understand what our page is all about. However, if they struggle to understand, it could be that your title is not relevant to the search query and is not a true reflection of your page content.

   1. Get the Length Right

A good place to start when optimising your title tag is to look at length. We want our titles to be intriguing and representative of our page, but not too long for Google to understand. The recommended length you should aim for is 50-55 characters, which means your title can also be displayed on most desktops and mobile devices. It is important to accommodate both mobile and desktop searches - the majority of searches come from mobile, but 35% of searches are still made with desktops. Avoid going over this length, as it is a risk your title will appear cut-off mid-sentence by Google, which can look unattractive to users. It can also make it more difficult for users to understand what your page is about. With this in mind, your 55 characters should form a true, enticing title that is explaining what your page is about, whilst also being readable by your audience.

An example of a title tag with the correct length would look like this:

An example of a title tag with too many characters would look like this:

   2. Keep it Unique

For best practice, you should write each page on your website with a separate title tag. Keeping title tags relevant to that specific page will help users define exactly what they are clicking on when coming across your page in a search. Plus, it’s vital for helping search engines to define one page on your site from another. However, whilst keeping your titles unique, it is often a good idea to include your brand name as it helps differentiate your company from competitors in the SERPs. Avoid default titles such as “new page” as Google may read this as duplicate content, as we learn in Google's recent page update, which can lead to a lower search ranking.

   3. Include your Key Words at the Start

Including your keywords closer to the start of your title can help to ensure that Google sees your page as relevant to the terms you are targeting. To do this effectively, you should do some keyword research for your page to ensure you can be seen and get found by your target audience. Keyword research has many elements to it, and terms need to have the right search intent.

   4. Avoid looking Spammy

As we previously mentioned, keywords help Google understand what your page is about. However, it is just as important that your page does not come across as though you have crammed as many keywords in as possible - this is called keyword stuffing. Doing this can lead to a lack of readability and be seen as trying to manipulate search rankings, which can cause your site to rank lower.

   5. Prioritise People

Whilst title tag optimisation is so important for SEO, we need to remember that the clicks come from those people who like what they have read and want to see more of your content. This means whilst factoring all these important tips on how to write an optimised title tag, we must remember that readability for your potential users is key. Try putting yourself in the perspective of the audience and make sure what you write is user-friendly and a true representation of the content on the page!

By following these important title tag optimisation steps, you will improve your chances of appearing higher in Google search results and gaining visitors to your website.

For more SEO optimisation advice and support please contact the Zelst team, who are here to help your business thrive online!