Title Tags | Writing SEO Friendly Title Tags, Title Tags for SEO

Title tags are a very important part of search engine optimisation. They are also important for webmasters and web designers/developers alike. Title tags act as the overhead descriptor for the document. In a short one sentence summary they provide an overview to the pages topic/theme. Title tags are comparable to the spine of a book, in a library the book cover is hidden, only the spine is on view, much like this, the title tag provides a short snippet about the pages content/theme.

The quality of the title tag is determined by how well it describes the page, title tags should be brief, and direct without excessive word stuffing. Cramming loads of content into the title tag is a very bad idea, instead, title tags should conform to SEO standards. There is no preset value, but as a rough guide, title tags should not exceed 100 characters in length, ideally, title tags should be within the 0-68 character threshold.

Title tags should use clear and concise English, avoid using abbreviations to represent standard text, try to be direct and most importantly, do not stuff as many keywords into the title tags. Google will automatically truncate titles that are excessively long, truncation is where only some of the title is shown, the rest of the title will not be visible. Truncation is used on long title tags, or title tags that are poorly compiled.

Here some examples of title tags:

Poor Title Tag:

Good Title Tag:

The title tags should never be written in a simplistic format by using operational language such as, "We offer this", "You", "And", "Or", "What" because Google typically ignore's these words. In a question based query, Google will revert to content based matches to return a page, i.e.

Title Tag: (Not optimal)

<title> What do we offer as a motorcycle dealer </title>

Title Tag: (Optimal)

<title> Motorcycle Dealer | Motorcycle Offers & Our Services</title>

Discounted Keywords
Although both title tags are valid, the top title tag contains numerous stop words which Google will typically discount. When performing a search with a stop word, you will see wether or not Google has discounted it by looking on the right hand side above the sponsered links.

Screenshot:

As you can see above, the search shows "and" in black, with no URL references. This is because Google has ignored the and operator. This can be seen with numerous other operators which make Google's job more difficult. Operators are typically ignored, simply because the keywords themselves are the target for the search query.

Where can I see my title tag?
The title tag will always be in the top left hand corner of your browser window. It will be in a dedicated bar space at the top of your internet browser. You can also see your title tag by viewing the page source and finding the opening title tag code, which is "<title>". Case is not important on the assignment of the code, but is important on the content within the opening and closing of the title tags.

Screenshot: (From FireFox)

Title Tag Checklist
Use the options below to determine if your title tags are in an SEO Compliant format.

The title tag should be less than 100 characters long (Incl. Spaces)
The title tag should not utilise special characters other than " | " or " &" or " , "
The title tag should contain the primary keywords from the content
The title tag should make sense when reading it
Is your title tag easy to read and understand
The title tag should minimise the use of stop words including "And" "Or" "What" "When" etc.