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How to Create an Effective Title Tag: Tips, Examples, and Common Mistakes
October 4, 2024
5 mins
A properly search engine optimized title tag helps the search engine understand the content of the page, improves its relevance, and increases click-through rates in search results.
In this article, we'll look at what a title tag is, what are the common mistakes when creating it, what allows you to specify a title tag, how to write and optimize a title tag. And Promodo SEO Specialist Yulia Stolyar will tell you what the title tag means for SEO and share tips and examples from her work. They will also analyze an unsuccessful example and show how to do it better.
The title tag is an HTML element that creates a title on a web page.
The title tag is used to define the webpage title. The title is displayed on the browser tab, in the search engine, and on social networks. It also helps search engines to identify the page.
The title tag is often also called “page title”, “meta title”, “title tag”, “meta title” or “SEO title”, “seo titles”, because of its relevance for SEO settings.
The title tag is important for SEO for two reasons:
• It is one of the many ranking factors that form Google's algorithms.
• It affects the number of clicks. The clearer and catchier the tag is, the more clicks you will get.
For example:
Promodo | Digital Marketing Agency
How the title is displayed in search results:
These parameters are valid in most cases for most devices for Google, Bing, and Yahoo search engines. However, at the end of the day, this length is not a guarantee that your title tag will be displayed in this way, it all depends on the search engine algorithms.
Working on your website SEO? Use our free SEO health evaluation tool for insights!
Use keywords. Don't try to include all possible phrases in the title, choose the most relevant ones. The main keywords in title tag should be in the visible part, and the brand name too.
I do not recommend using more than two keywords in the title.
Promodo SEO Specialist Yulia Stolyar
Make the title tag catchy. Write title tags primarily for users, not search engines. For example, think about the most important search queries related to the page and put the name of the resource at the end. The title should be informative so that users immediately understand whether a particular resource is relevant to their query.
The title tag should be easy to read. Avoid title tags written in CAPITAL or lowercase letters only. Use capital letters to emphasize a specific part of the title tag.
Avoid excessive use of special characters such as dashes (-) or commas (,) in title tags. You can use the vertical slash (|) to separate terms in titles to make them appear clean in search results.
It's easier for users to quickly scan your title tag to find relevant information when the words in it are separated into two or three different parts with a vertical slash. This improves usability.
Stick to the optimal length. SEO page title best practices also include keeping it relatively short, while still capturing the essence. How long should a title tag be? Try not exceeding 60 characters to avoid having your title cut off.
Usability. Each page of the site should have a unique title tag that informs about its purpose.
Title tags help search engines and users understand the content of a page. A unique and relevant title tag improves the visibility of a website or its individual pages in search results and increases the chances of attracting traffic.
Numbers. They attract attention and make titles more attractive to users. For example, “Top 10 SEO tips” looks interesting and more readable than “Best SEO tips”. Numbers also help to structure and shorten the characters in the title.
Stop words. These are words and phrases that search engines ignore when indexing pages and composing search queries. There is no prohibition on the use of such words in title titles.
The most common stop words:
The use of prepositions, particles, and pronouns should be minimized to avoid making the title hard to read. It is advisable to use them only when it is impossible to formulate a sentence without them.
Promodo SEO Specialist Yulia Stolyar
Important note: Search engines don't always show the title text you specify in the search results. They may change it to an alternative text, shorten it, or add some content from the page and the brand name at the end. This can happen because the title has too many words or if the search engine thinks that another text is better suited to a particular query.
Step 1: Keyword research. Use keyword research tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz Pro to determine what words and phrases users are searching for.
For example, you've compiled a list of the best wireless headphones and have chosen to target the keyword “best wireless headphones”. But when you check the most popular words for that topic, you'll see that users are most often searching for “best Bluetooth headphones.”
Step 2: Enhance secondary words. Choosing the right keywords is important, but choosing the right words for the rest of the title is just as important. Think about the words that activate your target audience and include them in the title. Such words, for example, are “buy”, “order”, “subscribe”, “learn”, etc. It is important that their presence does not interfere with the natural sound of the title.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but the ABC formula is a good starting point:
Step 3: Testing. A/B test different headline variations to determine which one attracts more traffic.
A/B testing is a method of comparing two or more versions of a website page or individual elements to determine which version performs better. In the case of headlines, it is a comparison of two different headlines for the same page.
Before you start testing:
An example of how A/B testing helps determine which title is better:
Target keyword: “best bluetooth headphones”.
Title options:
Option A: “The Best Bluetooth Headphones 2024: A review of the top models”.
Option B: “Top 10 Bluetooth Headphones 2024: Your guide to the world of sound”.
We analyze the traffic distribution:
51% of visitors see option A;
49% of visitors see option B.
We analyze CTR:
CTR for option A: 7%. Average time on the page: 3 minutes.
CTR for option B: 5%. Average time on page for option B: 2 minutes.
Determining the winner: Option A showed the best results in all metrics, so it should be chosen as the main title tag for the desired page.
Step 4: Competitor analysis. Collect title tag data from competitors and create a table for comparison. Include the following parameters:
1. Keywords used in the headings.
2. The length of the headlines.
3. Structure of the headlines (inclusion of brand name, adjectives, benefits, confidence boosting, etc.).
This will help you understand which approaches work best in your niche. Optimize your own headlines based on the keywords that have performed best for your competitors.
Step 5: Regular updates. Review and update your titles according to changes in page content or changes in user search queries.
Optimizing your title tag is an important part of your SEO strategy. A well-written and optimized title tag can have a significant impact on your site's visibility in search engines and attract more visitors.
Yulia Stolyar, SEO Specialist at Promodo, highlighted the most common mistakes in creating the title tag:
Other common mistakes include:
Example title tag:
Buy a cheap smartphone online with fast delivery and warranty | Online store of smartphones “SuperTech” | Large selection of models | Discounts up to 50% on popular models | Favorable credit conditions | SuperTech.ua
Let's analyze what mistakes were made here:
The title tag is too long:
This title is too long, which can lead to it being cut off in search engine results. The optimal title length should be up to 60 characters.
Correct: Buy cheap smartphone online | SuperTech
Keyword stuffing is the oversaturation of keywords:
The title uses a lot of keywords, which can look like spam and reduce the trust of users and search engines.
Correct: Buy cheap smartphone online | SuperTech
Use of repeated words: the brand name and keywords are repeated several times, which makes the title unnecessarily confusing.
Correct: Buy cheap smartphone online | SuperTech
Lack of uniqueness:
Such a title can be typical for many pages, which negatively affects the uniqueness of each page.
Correct: Buy cheap Samsung Galaxy smartphone | SuperTech
Each page on your website should have a unique and informative title tag that reflects its content and engages users. To get the best rankings, avoid common mistakes such as overly long titles, missing keywords, duplicate page titles, and incorrect focus. It is equally important to optimize titles by analyzing competitors, A/B testing, and using SEO tools.
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