Improve the searchability of your web pages15 November 2005
Every web page has a title - the text that appears in the bar at the top of the page. The title of the Yahoo front page, for example, is 'Yahoo! UK & Ireland'.
Title tags are the HTML code needed to display this sort of text, and in the case of Yahoo are: <TITLE>Yahoo! UK & Ireland</TITLE>
Whereas keyword tags in HTML code are thought to be of limited importance to the search engines, the title tags are considered crucial in calculating relevance to searches. What's more, when search engines display their results, they use the title tags first, so they are the first thing a user will notice about your site. So if you're looking to improve your page rankings, you should give some thought to making your title tags as effective as possible.
Getting started
Two basic principles should guide you when deciding what to include in your tags.
- The first is that you are trying to appear in the top-10 search results for certain keywords (most users don't go beyond the first page of results listed for their search).
- The second is that you should put yourself in your visitors' shoes. Ask yourself who your ideal visitor is and how they are most likely to be searching. Which search terms will they use, and what are they looking for that your website can offer?
Here are some dos and don'ts for making the most of your title tags:
- Do make your tags meaningful and relevant to your business activity - they are usually the first thing people notice when they see your site in their search engine results.
- Do make sure you have the spelling and grammar right - first impressions count.
- Do use capital letters and punctuation where necessary, but avoid using unusual characters unless they are absolutely necessary - a clean and tidy appearance is important.
- Do make sure every page is tagged with the most appropriate text - different words can be used according to the content of the page, and you can use different title tags for each page.
- Do test the effectiveness of your title tags. Find out your page rank on the keywords you use before and after adding title tags. Find out if they are working and, if so, by how much?
- Don't waste space by trying to fit in too many words. Google displays a maximum of around 60 characters including spaces; MSN shows about 70.
- Don't include vague terms. A car dealership has little chance of getting into Google's top ten for the search term 'car' since there is so much competition, but something specific like 'Ferrari 308' is likely to give much better results.
- Don't be tempted to stuff your title tags with keywords. Search engine experts suggest that repeated use of the same term (for example 'car Ferrari car') may penalise your site in the search results.
- Write a comment or ask a question about this article. Your response may be posted as a follow on to this article for others to read and reply to. Note: All responses will be reviewed prior to uploading.
