Writing a proper page title is a vital skill for anyone working in the SEO field. The title tag is the first thing a user will see in your search results and is one of Google’s key criteria for identifying the topic of the page. The combination of the two has made the title of a page very important. In this post, we will discuss both the importance of the title and how to create a proper page title.
What is the title tag in HTML?
First, let’s fix any doubts: We’re talking about the title tag in HTML. If you look at the source of a page, you can see this tag in the head section. The format of this tag is as follows:
<title> This is an example page title – Example.com </title>
So you should not confuse the title tag with the main page title. The main headline is the header that a user can see inside the page, which is important, of course! However, that is the topic of another blog post and we don’t want to cover that in this blog.
What is the purpose of the page title?
A proper title should have two characteristics:
- It should help you get the right rank in a keyword.
- It should work to get the attention of the user and send them to your page.
These two goals are not far apart, but sometimes they may be a little incompatible. If your rank is good but no one clicks on your link, this rank will not be good for you. In fact, when you have a high rank, but no one clicks on your link, your rank will decrease over time. When your article has an attractive headline but does not rank well, the chances of the user-facing it will be low.
Clickthrough Rate (CTR)
Google uses the Click Through Rate factor to decide how relevant your story is to a specific keyword. This means that when Google sees fewer clicks on your content, it will gradually lose its’s value. The opposite is true, of course. That is, if your title causes people to click on your link, Google will increase your ranking.
The page title and the keyword you are targeting
After you specify a keyword for your story, you need to make sure that the keyword is included in your page title. Because the page title is one of the most important elements through which Google determines the topic of your page. So not having a keyword in the title can greatly reduce your chances of having a good ranking.
As people around the world look at their search results, it’s important that your title gets immediate attention there. To do this, having a primary keyword at the beginning of a page title can be very helpful, as Google will highlight it when searching for that keyword.
Of course, there are times when there is a lot of content similar to your keyword and the competition is more difficult. But you will notice that everyone has the keyword at the beginning of the page title. If you are faced with such a situation, it is not bad to bring your keyword after one or two words so that it has space with the beginning of the title and to distinguish between the results in the user’s eyes.
Number of characters suitable for a title’s SEO
The proper length of a title is determined by the number of words Google displays in its results. Currently, Google displays titles in three different ways. These three modes include widescreen, smaller, and mobile. On widescreen and mobile pages, the title displayed will be longer.
It is definitely better for you to focus on a smaller page result. But there is another issue to consider. Since May 2016, Google has increased the maximum width of its page and can now display longer titles if space is available. So we suggest that you place the most important keywords in the top half of your title so that nothing goes wrong.
Of course, you might still be confused and ask “How many characters does Google finally display?” The answer is that it depends. Google doesn’t exactly represent a certain number of characters, but rather takes a width and displays the title.
The page title and branding opportunity
There was a time when people removed the website name from the title. They thought congestion was an important topic and that site name could play a negative role in this. But you should not. Your brand name should be listed in the title of the page and preferably it should be clearly identified. When people look for a topic and see your name many times, even if they don’t click on your link, your name will remain in their minds. As a result, they are more likely to click on your link the next time.
In addition, if you do not include your site name in the title tag, there is a risk that Google will automatically change the title for you. Why? Because Google, like us, thinks your name should be in the title, and if you don’t, it will work itself out.
Optimize the page title after publishing
Sometimes we even come up with a title that can rank us well in search engines, but not so appealing to users and not clickable. This way we can see a significant increase in the number of readers by changing the title. We also recommend that you review the stats of a reader after a while and edit if necessary.
Final conclusion: Choose the right page titles!
The end result of this article is clear: Take some time to pick a good title for your page and not underestimate its importance. Also, if you find that an article does not attract users as it should, go and change its title. This is especially true when you have a good search rank, but the number of clicks is not high.
Source: Yoast SEO
