Page Title Tags and Search Engine Optimization

Page Titles and Search Engine Optimization

The single most important variable, in any search engine optimization strategy, in my opinion, is your page title tag.

This is the code, programmed individually into each page at your website, "behind the scenes" if you will, that displays information at the top of a user's browser (top left).

It's also what search engines use, almost exclusively, as the first piece of information displayed about your website in the search engine results pages (SERPS).

These are the page title tags - in almost every case.

Title tags are considered an "on-page" search engine optimization variable. Their counter-part would be an "off-page" search engine optimization variable (i.e. inbound links).

While a title tag won't magically get your web page top ranked, nor will it, by itself, catapult a web page to top rank for a keyword/phrase, without a carefully crafted title tag you're page doesn't stand a chance of showing up when a bride searches for your keywords/phrases.

If I go to your home page and the page title is:

Page 1

Untitle Page

Insert Page Title Here

Blank

... you're not even in the game.

What do you need to know?

There are a lot of things to know about page title tags, here are some of the basics:

1) Your page title tag should not be more than nine words, or about 150 characters.

2) It has to contain the keywords and phrases a bride is using to search. You're trying to "match the search".

3) The word wedding and weddings (with the "s") are two different keywords.

4) It does not have to be perfectly correct grammar.

5) One page CAN NOT be used to target all of your keywords and keyword phrases. Use separate pages to target different keywords/phrases.

To view the source code of a web page and see a title tag, with the other meta-tags being used, follow these steps (Internet Explorer).

* Go to the page with your browser.

* Right click on the page somewhere with your mouse.

* Select "View Source"

Don't panic, this is the .html code that creates your web page. At the top, look for the word TITLE between a greater than and less than sign.