SEO 101: Crafting an Effective HTML Title Tag for Your Webpage

Great SEO digs deeper than good content, well-placed ads, and keyword optimization. It’s key to look into each aspect of your content from the back-end as well as the user experience end.

One example of a deeper tactic in SEO is the optimization of your HTML title tag. We’re going to talk about how to craft your title tag to perfection in this article. Don’t let the “HTML” scare you, it’s not as tricky as you might think.

The Importance of Your HTML Title Tag

The title tag is just the title of your post, which happens to be the way the post is displayed in search engine results pages and social media displays. It’s really important for a couple of reasons.

First, your website title gives the search engine algorithm a good deal of information about your content. It helps to categorize that content and ensure that it’s ranked in the correct searches. If you’re neck and neck with another post for rankings, your title tag could be the thing that gives you a leg up.

The second piece that makes tags important is the fact that it’s what users read when they’re browsing through the results. Experience will tell you that some tags are more enticing than others, and those differences can affect your success online.

Tag Writing, Keyword Usage, Concision

The first thing to think about is writing the tag itself. If you don’t take the extra care to craft the tag, it will end up being the first main header in your content. Typically, that header gets the point across, but it’s best to optimize the title tag by itself.

The goal here should be to write a short, concise tag that includes your target keyword. You should also ensure that any user can take a quick glance and understand the point of the article.

That’s what we look for when we’re perusing search results: clear signs that the content will answer our questions. You can beef up the description in the meta title, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Character Count and Brand

Google displays around 60 characters in the title, so be sure to keep your tag under that character count.

Further, try to insert your brand name if there’s space. Making the entire tag about your brand will do you no good, but adding a little plug at the end might help.

For example, “Taking Out the Trash Like an adult | GarbageWorld” includes the brand name “Garbage World” without detracting from the main title.

Once you’ve created a good title tag, try to make sure your first H1 header is slightly different. You can use the H1, also a key zone for optimization, to optimize for other secondary keywords.

Finally, make sure that you don’t repeat any of your title tags across your site. Two pages with the same title will have repercussions in the search results.

Having Trouble with Optimization?

The process of SEO goes far beyond the HTML title tag. There are so many things to manage on each page of your site that it seems like a full-time job. In a lot of cases, SEO is enough work to warrant a new employee or a firm to help out. That’s where we come in. Schedule a free consultation for more insight into ways that you can improve your digital marketing efforts and see increased sales.