One of the most important factors in website optimization is your title tag. This is written
in the HTML code for your page in the "head" section. Many companies make the mistake of simply
using their company name on every page of their site. This is a costly error, since today, search
engines use the title plus key words in your content, more than ever to determine your standings.
Here are some tips for getting better standings through the proper use of title tags.
In addition to ranking, your title tag will appear in the title bar of web browsers for visitors
who open your page. Having a descriptive title tag is important for visitors as well as for search
engines.
A Word About Keywords
Before building any web site or even any web page, it is important that you choose 3 or 4 prime
key words and a number of lesser words as well. The web is full of keyword selection tools, but
we suggest you begin with an excellent keyword tool that is free from Google. We cannot cover
this process in this article, but we have other articles that go into this critical area. For
each page of your site, select two or three major keywords you believe people will use to find
your page in the search engines.
What To Put In Your Tag
Many web sites just have the company name in the title tag. This is great if you are so well known
that people will use your name to search when they want to find your site. For example, www.cocacola.com.
However, if your company name is less well known than Coca Cola, GE, IBM and others you will do far better
to put your name, your city and two or three of your primary keywords. An example for my company
web-star.biz might be , "web-star marketing affordable consulting". This title has about 60 characters.
It describes the prime keyword for the page and identifies the company name.
If you are going for a local market, we suggest you include your area such as Denver or Denver CO
or CO because more and more searches on the internet (about 30% in Nov 2008) are searches for local
products and services. It is far easier to get to the top of the search engine pile for a city or
state than for the world as there is less competition.
Proper Length
We suggest that you limit your title tag to 65 characters or less as that is the limit most search
engines display. Don't waste any characters using "and" or other words that take up space in the
prime area.
Critical Title Errors To Avoid
There are three common title errors that really cost. The first is no title. It is amazing to me
how many sites have no title. This is very costly as the title is an important factor in telling
the search engines what keywords to list you under. The second error is using just your company
name. Unless you are world famous, people will not be keying in your name to find you. Use your
name but also use two or three prime keywords. The third most common error is using the same title
(usually the company name) on every page in your site. Many search engines penalize sites that do
this by moving them down in the ranks. More importantly, using a unique title tag for each page
allows you to get listed in the search engines for several keywords and make your page content
very relevant to those keywords. This makes for better engine placement.
Other Considerations To Move Up
There are a few other things you can do to increase your ranking. When you put a hyperlink to
another page, instead of using a phrase like "Click here", use a keyword. For example if you want
a visitor to click on your upcoming seminar page, use a hyperlink like "upcoming seminars". Using
the keyword in a hyperlink helps the search engines rank that page and your link higher and more
specifically.
Also, when you select file names for the pages on your site, use the appropriate keyword. For
example, if you save your page on seminars as "p10345987.htm" you will not be as successful as
if you assign a page name like "seminars.htm" which contains a prime keyword.
These are a few simple ways to improve your title tag that will result in more visibility,
more traffic and more sales.
About The Author
Web Star Internet Marketing. Carl Davidson discusses how
to improve site ranking through the proper use of title tags. The article also discusses common
errors to avoid. Finally, the article discloses little known secrets that will draw more traffic
and sell more on line through internet marketing and search engine optimization.
