Title tag optimization is undoubtedly one of the most crucial parts of on-page SEO. It directly involves ranking factors and audience engagement as well. And since the title tag of a web page appears in the search engine result pages, it has to be good enough to convince your target audience.
Depending on the web page, there are different opinions about how to make the title tag. Indeed, a landing page title is different from an educational blog post. In addition, based on the niche, you must write a title that suits your audience best.
Now let’s see what the SEO title is and how to make it.
What is an SEO title tag?
The title tag is an integral part of HTML code that appears in the search engine result pages (SERPs). Like the meta description, it also helps viewers understand the page’s main topic.
One can optimize the title tag using HTML code or simply by CMS like WordPress, Wix, etc. However, Google will rank the page based on its relevance and keyword optimization.
The title tag of a webpage appears in different places, such as,
- Search Engine Result Pages
- In Browser tabs, and
- On Social Media Posts, Comments, etc.
SEO Title Tag Length
Please note that the ideal length of an SEO title tag is 50-60 characters. If the title is longer than 60 characters, it may get cut off to fit in the SERPs.
This is why title tags are concise enough to let the audience understand what the page will reveal. In this context, however, Google doesn’t specify any limits except for making the title concise and descriptive.
Why Title Tag Optimization Is So Important
The title tag is one of the essential parts of on-page SEO that helps to rank a webpage. Like the meta description, Google also uses the title to get an idea about the page.
Therefore, if the title tag optimization is done aptly with a primary keyword for the topic relevance, it’ll rank.
In addition, SEO titles attract the audience to click on a webpage. Therefore, the more relevant and attractive the title is, the more traffic you’ll receive.
6 Tips to Optimize SEO Title Tags
1. Make The Title Short
The title of a web page or blog indicates its primary purpose. Therefore, the more concise it is, the better you get visitors. A title tag, in general, should be around 50-60 characters. It has some specific reasons to have a short title.
First, a long title doesn’t fit well in the SERPs, especially on smartphones. As a result, the ending words become invisible to the audience. Hence, a short title is necessary for the sake of compatibility and massive traffic from smartphone users.
Secondly, short tiles are much better for understanding the point. Can you expect all your visitors to understand complicated sentences with additional phrases? Obviously not.
And lastly, SEO expert organizations like Moz, SEMRush, and Ahrefs also prefer having a short title of 50-60 characters.
2. Write Unique Titles
If you want to stand alone, you have to be unique. When searching for the best results on SERPs, a user will choose what attracts him more. Sometimes an audience can skip the top result for not having a unique title.
Hence, try to make your title as unique as possible for engagement. But make sure that the title doesn’t become irrelevant to the primary keyword and the searcher’s intent.
For instance, imagine you’re writing a blog post about “Regrowing Green Onion.”And your target audience will search “How to regrow green onion,” which is the keyword. So the title would be;
“How to Regrow Green Onion at Home – Complete Guide.”
3. Don’t Stuff Keywords
It’s a myth that excessive use of keywords in the title tag can rank better. Well, in reality, it’s the opposite because stuffing multiple keywords causes badly in ranking. So instead, while optimizing the title, focus on a primary keyword and place it once in the title.
For example, suppose you’re optimizing a blog page about “Living Room Rugs.” Now look at the title; Buy Best Rugs – Rugs for House – Rugs for Living room. Does it look good being over-optimized with multiple keywords?
Now see this one; 10 Best Rugs to Make Your Living Room Beautiful. No doubt this one feels more natural and appealing to the audience having one keyword.
4. Relevant to The Topic
Some web pages or blogs’ titles don’t match the main topic or content. Would you like to continue reading these pages? I wouldn’t spend my time on it. Therefore, you must consider making the title and page content relevant to each other.
Otherwise, you may get bad reviews from the audience. In addition, Google’s helpful content update also states to make the content as useful as possible for the visitors.
Let’s see how you make the title relevant to the topic. First, make sure you’ve understood the keyword very well. Secondly, make the title relevant to the headings and subheadings.
This way, you can make the title according to the main topic of your page.
5. Use Searcher Intent Keyword
Before writing the title, you must understand what your target audience searches on Google. In other words, you need to understand the searchers’ intended keywords. It would help you a lot to make the title more engaging.
You can use different keyword research tools to find the keywords of your audience. There are both paid and free tools available.
While optimizing the title tag, make sure you are not stuffing keywords. Instead, use one keyword, just how it looks normal to the human eyes. Remember, your title tag is what people look at first in the SERPs.
6. A Call To Action
Yes, you saw it right. You can make the title a CTA speech. Understand the context of your content and page. You must also know how to write a call-to-action speech. This kind of title directly approaches the audience to click through it.
Alright, let’s see what a CTA title looks like. For example, imagine you have a listicle blog about social media marketing techniques. So the title would be;
Learn 8 Best Ways of Social Media Marketing for Your Business. Or it can be a landing page related to a pet shop about ‘Black Cat.’ like this; Shop The Most Beautiful Cats for Your Home at Budget Price.
So this is also how you can do title tag optimization by adding a CTA to it.
Conclusion
Search engine optimization involves a lot of different practices to rank a web page. And the title tag optimization is one of them. However, your web page will surely rank if you follow the best SEO title-writing methods by learning from your experiences.
But always remember the audience over SEO. You may rank at the first SERP, but if the title doesn’t seem relevant to the searcher’s intent, it will not gain traffic.
Hence, always follow what the audience demands because no web page remains the same place in the result pages. It goes up or down or gets vanishes due to its SEO optimization.
