What is a Title Tag

A great title tag can generate more website traffic, so it holds a lot of power.  What is a title tag?  Where can you find it?  What are some important title tag guidelines?  Find out the answers to these questions in today’s #whatiswednesday.

What Is a Title Tag?

A title tag is a little snippet of code in the header of all of your web pages that tells the search engines and your website visitors what your page is about.  If you look at the HTML source of a webpage, the title tag is contained between two code elements that look like this <title> </title>.

How Will A Title Tag Get Me More Website Traffic?

Your title tag tells people on the web (and Google) what your page is about.  So it should come as no surprise that if you have a strong, keyword-rich title tag, Google’s algorithm will rank you higher in search results.  This title tag will also be what Google displays to people, so a compelling, descriptive title tag will get more website visitors to click through to your website.

Where is the Title Tag Displayed?

Title tags will be displayed in the following places:

 

Your Internet Browser

What Is A Title Tag
Internet Browser

Search Engine Results

What Is A Title Tag
Search Engine Results Page

General Title Tag Guidelines

1.        Title tags should be between 40 and 70 characters, so don’t make them too short or too long.  If you make it over 70 characters, Google will start showing ellipsis (…), which will effect click-through-rates.

2.        Title tags should be descriptive and not a long list of keywords

Good Title Tag:  Portland Salad Bar – Soup, drinks & salad | Lettuce Eat
Not So Good Title Tag:  Lettuce Eat – Portland Restaurant, Portland Salad Bar, Fresh Salad

3.        Have a different title tag for every page of your website.

4.       Try to place your keywords toward the front of the tag, not your website name.

Good Title Tag:  Portland Window Cleaning & Pressure Washing – Squeaky Clean Windows
Not So Good Title Tag:  Squeaky Clean Windows – Portland Window Cleaning & Pressure Washing

Final Words

Now you know the answer to “what is a title tag” and why they are important for generating more website traffic.  A good title tag will improve your search engine optimization results and will improve click through rates.