Top Ranking Title Tags

A title tag is like an introduction to your webpage. It’s kind of like the answer to the question “Tell me about yourself in 80 characters or less”. The title tag is the VERY FIRST thing the search engine robots read when they visit your site, and for this reason alone what you put in them is hugely important. You know what they say about first impressions!

The best way to determine what should go in your title tag is to look at the specific page and ask the question, “What is this page ABOUT?” If the page is about hotel rooms in Charleston, you should probably include some of that in your title tag. This is not just for the bots – the title tag turns up as the ‘headline’ on the results pages; the underlined description that consumers click on to go to your site.

If you can come up with a title tag that provides all the relevant information to the bots while still proving highly appealing and interest catching for the consumer, you are in like Flynn. This is where knowing the target key phrases comes in handy.

Rules for Title Tags:

Title tags should be between 65 and 80 characters in length, and that includes spaces. Some webmasters insist anything over 65 is pushing the envelope. Punctuation should not be used unless absolutely necessary; neither should ’stop words’ like ‘and’, ‘if’, ‘or’ and ‘are’. Proper Title case should be used to make your result stand out.

The Title tag should start with the primary keyword phrase for that page. This is the most strategic phrase; the search terms you are hoping to rank for. By using the best strategic keyword phrases selected from your keyword research, you can ensure tat your title tag is optimized for maximum effect.

Unless you are not yet included on the first result page on Google, you should avoid overuse of the company or business name. Save the name of the hotel or company and use it in a just a few of the title tag pages for your whole website.

Try to use unique words in the title tag; don’t just stuff it with repetitive keywords. You can use the location name twice if necessary, or vary words by using singular or plural, but otherwise your title tags should read cleanly and logically. Use alternative synonyms if you need to repeat an idea.

Use ‘&’ instead of ‘and’ – it will give you back two character spaces! Also, if you include two keyword phrases in one title tag, you can use a dash to separate them – but not more than one dash per tag.

Don’t use any punctuation at the end of your title tag – not a period, not a question mark, not an exclamation mark.

If you follow the simple format and focus on drawing the consumer in and convincing them you have what your are looking for, your title tag will do its job – which is pulling traffic.