An article by Tanya Beaudoin

One of the most overlooked, but important components, on your web page is the Meta title. The Meta title is the text or page title found at the top left of your browser window and it is also the title saved when a web site visitor bookmarks your website. Some people will argue that search engines put little or no value on the title tag, but regardless of how the Meta title figures into the ranking algorithm, the title tag is still critical to driving new and repeat traffic to your website.

Countless sites under-utilize this title space by entirely forgetting to name their pages (untitled document) or name their page something completely useless or generic (welcome to our site, or home). An “untitled document” or “home” bookmark will do little to help encourage repeat visitors to your website. Either the visitor will have to take time to rename your bookmark or they will completely forget what the bookmark is for.

Not only does the title tag provide the bookmark name, but it also determines the clickable link that is displayed on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

For example:

If your title tag looks like this: Customized Email Stationary/Branded Email

Your page will show up like this on a Google search (or another SERP)

Customized Email Stationary / Branded Email

Obviously “untitled document” or “welcome to our site” is not very effective in drawing visitors to your site.

Follow these tips on writing an effective and useful title tag.

1. The Meta Title tag should summarize the contents of each individual page. This means you should always wait until your content has been written before choosing your title tags. Your Title tag should be useful and informative. Remember that your title tag is what shows up as the clickable link that brings visitors to your site through the search engines and what shows up when the visitor bookmarks your site.
2. Base your title tag on keyword “phrases.” There are many resources and applications online that will help you determine the popular search terms that relate to your website content. (These are the same “keyword phrases” that should be scattered in your page content and Meta keyword tag and Meta Description Tag) Make sure you use these terms in your title where appropriate. Obviously, it is important that you do not over do the keywords to the point that the title becomes useless.
3. Limit your title to 50-60 characters including spaces. Some browsers actually show many more characters but for those that don’t, if you use more characters your title will be cut off. More importantly the number of characters displayed on the SERP is definitely fixed. So any wording longer then 50-60 characters will not help drive any customers to your site simply because your potential visitors will not see it!

Search engines ignore (or don’t index) “stop words,” so avoid using them in your title. Stop words are common words that really don’t help determine the true content of your site. Examples of stop words are: the, with, to, also, an, and, as, at, be, because. Space is already limited in your title tag, so there is no sense wasting space on words that will be ignored by the Search Engines and really won’t help bring any new traffic to your site.

4. Always use a different Meta title on each of the pages in your website. Your content is different on each page of your site, so your title should be different on each page too.

Basically, you can bring more visitors to your website site by keeping your Title Tags simple and meaningful.

© 2005 Tanya Beaudoin o/a Office on Demand, All rights reserved. You are free to use this article in its entirety, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify Mrs. Beaudoin as to where the material will appear. The attribution should read: “Tanya Beaudoin, B.A. owns and operates a Web Design Company – OOD Web & Graphic Design Studio - that specializes in e-solutions and graphic design (including web design, search engine optimization and internet marketing products like e-stationary and newsletters). Please visit Tanya's web site at http://www.officeondemand.ca for additional business related articles"

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