What Is a Title Tag?
A title tag is a web page element that belongs in the head section of each web page, not because it’s a nice or useful thing to put there, but because the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) mandates it. Not only is it a required element of a web page, but the titles you supply are specifically supposed to be “context rich.”
That means that the title gives a good idea of what’s on the page and has “contextual background,” not just the bare minimum of information.
A title tag has the form:
<title>content</title>
which, set in its required place, will look like this:
<html>
<head>
<title>content</title>
</head>
All of this is set in stone except “content,” which you replace in each case.
What Does a Title Tag Do?
To understand what a title tag does is to understand where a title tag is seen. First, a title tag is seen both by people and by spiders, so—as with many elements of your web page—you have a double audience.
What the Spiders See
Search engines use the titles, visible text, and links that point to your pages as the three major elements that determine your page rank. They are attuned to keywords.
What Humans See
Humans see your titles in five places:
- In the business of the Internet, when you apply to directories or other webmasters are setting up links to your page, your titles are seen and—at least in the first case—are one of the main criteria on which judgment is based.
- When users search for your site, in most cases this same title is what they see—among the others—on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Therefore you want your title tag to be able to compete for attention with the other title tags that users are likely to find in a search in which your site is one of the results.
- When arrive at your website or page, in most browsers, the title will be displayed across the top of the window. This helps the user locate him- or herself both in your website.
- If the user has a number of windows tabbed—for example, to compare products on several sites—you want to be sure that if your title is reduced to the initial snippet, it will nevertheless let the user know that it’s you and not your competitor.
- If users bookmark your site, your title will be the default bookmark title. Again, good identification is important.
Parameters to Follow in Creating Title Tags
SEO techniques with title tags, as with many other practices, can go in two ways: the so-called (good guy in the) “white hat” practices that follow the search engine guidelines and focus first on creating usable sites for people or the (villainous, evil) “black hat” approaches that use devious methods and trickery to try to increase page rank whether or not visitors to the site are benefited. The thing is, unless some of these are pointed out, it may not be clear that there is any perceived problem.
Black Hat Title Tag Strategies to Avoid
There are two black hat title tag strategies to be aware of and avoid: stuffing and stacking. Title tag stuffing is the practice of loading down a single title tag with every possible keyword, ignoring readability altogether. This is a variation of keyword stuffing which takes place in the content rather than in the title tag. Title tag stacking is the practice of using multiple title tags, stacked one on top of the other.
Tips for Creating Quality Title Tags
- In general, use title case for title tags—don’t try to write in sentences.
- Titles should match page content.
- Make sure the organization or individual is identified and also include key words. Advice differs on which should go first for spiders: for humans, consider the different places in which the title will be seen as you make your decisions.
- Keywords should not be repeated.
- Create a different title tag for each page.
Consider the W3C recommendation that titles be less than 64 characters, and also take into account browser character limits, for example:
Google—66 characters
Yahoo!—120 characters
Also note that they use different cut-off rules: Google cuts off the last word, even if it begins before the 66th character; Yahoo! cuts off after the 120th character, period.
• Research keyword phrases before deciding which ones to include. Check a keyword selector for help.
