How to Write a Web Page Title

Statistics consistently show that searching the internet is the 2nd most common activity online (1st is email) with more than 50% of online users conducting at least one search per day. Search engines scour the web for websites and other content to index and provide strong search results to their users. When your website appears in the search results, you are receiving free exposure to your target audience. In addition, if the user clicks on your listing, you do not need to pay for that click.

The key challenge is that unless you pay for an advertisement or sponsored link, you can not control where or when your listings appear. The search engine maintains sole authority and editorial judgement of what sites to list. In an earlier post, we discussed six ways to achieve free traffic from Google and other search engines, but one of the most important additional aspects to achieving website rankings in Google and other search engines is your meta-title.

What is the meta-title? The ‘meta-title’ or more simply, ‘title’ is a reference to the HTML code of your website. This code on your website provides any browser or search engine the title of your web page. You can often see the page title displayed on the top left of your browser or as the title displayed on the search engine results page.

Why is the title important? The title is important because it lets the search engine know what the content of the page is about. The search engine uses this context to help determine the overall relevancy of the content of the page in relation to a user’s search query. The title should be closely tied to the specific topic and content on the page. Also, because the title is displayed in the search results, think of it as a headline to call a user’s attention to your listing.

What are the best practices for writing a meta-title?

• Keep the title succinct (three to five words)
• Ensure the title is descriptive (eg. consider ‘Contact Search Marketing Sales’ vs. ‘Contact Page’)
• Incorporate focused keywords in your title
• Do not duplicate titles; each page should have a unique title and focus
• Use common language and do not just use a list of keywords (ie. write it as a phrase)
• Make the phrase catchy without losing the intent of describing the page content to the search engine
• Add your company name before or after the intial phrase (eg. ‘SEO Best Practices :: Thrivepoint’ or ‘Thrivepoint :: SEO Best Practices’)
• If possible, try to use your title as the page url also (eg. www.thrivepoint.com/seo-best-practices)

How can I update my titles? If you use a content management system, there typically will be a feature enabling you to change your page title and other meta-data. If your pages are static, then you can view and change the title by searching for ‘meta-title’ in the html of the page.

If you would like additional information on this topic or a free consultation on your marketing efforts, please contact a Thrivepoint advisor.

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