It’s the title tag that leads you to click on this content.
Title tags are like the title of the book you are looking for in the library. They give you an idea of what the book is all about, but unlike the physical books, your title tags must not only help the readers but also search engines’ crawlers.
Let’s take a look at title tags and the best practices to optimise them for crawlers and readers alike.
What is an SEO Title Tag?
An SEO title tag is an HTML element found in the head section of an HTML code of your page. It provides online users with the context of the page’s subject matter.
The HTML code appears as:
<head>
<title> What is an SEO Title Tag? </title>
</head>
Titles are clickable links visible in search engine results, browser tabs, or even on social media posts. However, title tags aren’t as visible compared to other on-page content – body copy or image content.
Due to the limited ‘use’ of title tags and the little impact it causes on organic rankings, you overlook it sometimes and don’t give much importance to it.
Why are Title Tags Important?
Just like your meta descriptions, title tags are essential to your on-page SEO performance. Though you may say that it doesn’t push forward your ranking, we have to remind you that for search engine optimisation, every small detail counts.
They may seem insignificant to your overall SEO campaign, but they have the power to have your content noticed, leading to traffic and possible conversions.
Your title carries the target keywords you desired to rank for, and if your title tags don’t match people’s search queries, then it’s considered a lost opportunity for Google to include you in their search results.
For you to attain the position you want in any search engine, you must deliver clear HTML title tags for search engines crawlers and users to understand your content. They won’t click something unless it answers their question.
Another thing you must keep in mind is that when you put out relevant, valuable title tags, you are setting up your brand’s reputation – an ideal source of efficient, reliable information in your industry.
Title Tag VS H1 Heading
“Is my title tag the same as the H1 heading?”
Our clients would often ask us this question.
Headers are essential in your content. They are the first headings on a well-structured page that users see when they click your website. Headers help readers to consume your content smoothly as they serve as a guide to what they are reading or watching.
The difference is title tags are visible on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), but headers don’t show up on it only when you navigate the page.
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Common Mistakes on Title Tag from SEO Perspective
Since people tend to disregard title tags to how they craft their website’s content, some problems may arise with it.
Be mindful that whatever you put into your webpage may affect how your visitors perceive your brand.
Whether you agree with us or not, it matters that you know these common title tags mistakes, so you’ll be conscious to check your existing title tags.
Keyword with Wrong Intention
It’s tempting to use irrelevant keywords to feed your SEO campaign purpose. Even if your title tags don’t give justice to the overall page content of your site, you are still doing it because you want to get clicks and have visitors.
If you are one of those who practice this strategy, you must think twice. You are hurting your site’s credibility by using keywords on your title tags that misaligned your content.
This will confuse search engines bots and will overlook your page moving forward.
Readers who will check your content will get turned off if they realise your title doesn’t speak to the overall context of your page, leading them to get disappointed with your company.
Using keywords on your title tags that don’t represent the main content of your page is a form of deception. People will think that you are only using them to add to your analytics and not actually in the service of producing solutions to what they are seeking.
Buying and Informational Keyword Intent
Another thing you must consider is two types of keyword intents can be present here – buying and informational intent.
Keywords with buying intentions are keyword used when someone has intention to buy. These people are in search of online sellers or nearby store and have the intention to purchase a certain product from whatever store they land in.
Informational keywords on the other hand are queries that searchers use to look for in-depth information about something – a product or a service. The searcher’s intent is to learn and find details about a specific item.
As a webmaster, you must ensure you understand the context of the keywords that your audiences are using to ensure you don’t confuse them with the content you will provide.
These types of mistakes can damage your reputation. It can cause poor conversions, fewer readers, and a lack of engagement in the future.
Tip: To know if your keyword intent is buying or informational, use Google search and check the SERP. If the seller dominates the keywords, then the keyword intent is buying.
Obsolete Elements
There are practices in SEO that you must ditch now.
Google can track and spot strategies that go against their standard rules and regulations. You must be mindful of these policies, or else you’ll face hefty fines and have your websites banned on search engines.
What do we mean by obsolete elements?
Obsolete elements are outdated SEO tactics or techniques that are slowly being part of the dark side of SEO. They can either bury your website in the deep web or take it down for good.
Here are some old ways of doing SEO that you must forget.
- Keyword stuffing
- Keyword cannibalisation
- Cloaking
- Unnatural links
- Writing for Robots
Inaccurate Elements
Aside from trusting an outdated type of SEO implementations, some webmasters gauge their SEO performance and progress on inaccurate elements that have a long term effect on their campaign.
The following elements may be familiar enough to you, probably because you, at some point in your SEO journey, have done them.
- Repeating keywords help in ranking
- SEO title tag optimisation is a one-time event
- Direct ranking factors matter most
- PPC improves SEO
- Social media are ranking factors
Google Can Rewrite Your Title Tag
Yes, you read it right – Google rewrites the title tag of a page and shows its title on the SERP.
Why Google Rewrite Your Title Tag?
Don’t feel bad if google does its magic to your title tag. Just like you, they are simply doing their job. After all, those rewritten titles were not that awful.
Here are some of the issues that push Google to improve your title tags:
- It doesn’t accurately speak the content of your page
- It’s too generic. No value.
- You bank on target keywords too much, making it look suspicious to them.
- Your title tags use irrelevant keywords.
- It doesn’t match users’ search queries.
If you think that you are doing one or two things listed in this section, you might want to change your ways now, or this will keep on happening.
Google will use your page’s original title or rewrite one to mirror the search query to match the user intent perfectly. This scenario happens if your site ranks for multiple terms.
How to Stop Google from Rewriting Title Tag?
If only we can command Google to stop them from rewriting our title tags, we would be glad to let you know. Unfortunately, there are no tricks to prevent them from doing so.
We understand that this can affect your campaign as you have goals you want to attain. But because Google continues to get their hands on your content, you feel like you are missing your chance to achieve your SEO on-page objectives.
Remember that Google operates with a handful of algorithms and sets multiple ranking factors to evaluate your site; treat this as a challenge to improve.
Study how Google tweak your title tags and learn from them.
You may want to adapt the tips and tricks we have below to optimise your title tags.
SEO Title Tag Optimisation Tips
Here’s the exciting part of the content you are looking for – no brainer ways to optimise your SEO title tags.
Include the Primary Keyword
Keep your focus keywords on the frontline.
It’s a crucial place to put your central keywords. It can attract more readers and can appeal to the search engines regulations. Position your foundational keywords that can boost your chance of being clicked and gain attention from people.
Perform keyword research and check long-tail keywords that perfectly matches your content and that of user intent. Long-tail keywords are powerful if you know how to maximise them.
Be Compelling
Be naturally attractive.
You are writing for people first, bots second. Engage with them and turn them into loyal patrons or avid readers of your content. If you lack the right words to move them, there’s no point in producing content.
Appeal to your reader’s emotion. You have to think of a way to captivate them and catch their attention in 3-seconds. Assure your readers that when they click your content, it is worth it.
Don’t Stuff Keywords.
A golden rule to content creation.
When you overstuff your content with keywords, you are showing your audience that you want to rank other than provide them with valuable resources.
It’s a major turn-off to both people and search engines. Overdoing your keywords can get you to penalise. Right, Google? Avoid titles that are variations of your keywords or keyword phrases.
Increase your user’s satisfaction by introducing them to content that sparks curiosity and keep them interested. There is nothing wrong with long titles, as long as you strategically position them to your advantage.
Write for User
Have the user or your readers in mind when crafting your content.
You want people to enjoy what you offer them. When you write content that gives solutions to their problems provide steps to improve something, you are on the right track.
User experience is precious to SEO. Everything starts with good impressions, and your title tags can be a great palace to market your brand or your store.
Pay Attention to the Length
Though having a long title is acceptable, it matters that you know not to make it too overwhelming that users are having a hard time reading it.
Search engines may change your title if it is too long, add an ellipsis (…), remove some words, or rewrite it entirely.
If you want Google to display your title, we recommend you keep it under 60 characters long. Avoid using capital letters as it can be hard for users to read them.
Tools for Checking SEO Title
There are SEO tools online that you can use for free or get into a monthly subscription.
These SEO tools can help you determine, check, or even write your SEO titles for you.
Here’s some recommendation from expert at our SEO agency:
Semrush Site Audit
This semrush tool determines your website’s issues – missing title tags, duplicates, and other on-page problems that demand immediate fixing. This type of tool can assist you in analysing your content’s health to check areas that require improvement.
Moz
Moz believes in doing smart marketing.
Having SEO software to help you track your SEO performance is beneficial to your campaign. Moz is a proven all-in-one SEO toolkit that lays SEO solutions to your website’s problems by uncovering on-page issues.
Yoast Plugin for WordPress
Another remarkable WordPress plugin you can rely on is Yoast.
If you are looking for a plugin that helps check your on-page SEO, offers suggestions for page titles and features a snippet editor for your WooCommerce SEO campaign, this is the right tool for you.
Rank Math SEO Plugin for WordPress
This is one of the most consistent tools that offer assistance to every website owner to improve their SEO and attract more visitors.
Rank Math makes optimisation fun and achievable by presenting built-in suggestions to improve your title tags, meta description, and other on-page SEO elements. These SEO plugins for WordPress comes with easy customisation features that users will love and appreciate.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), everything must be accounted for.
Most SEO expert believe that sometimes great things can come from small, oftentimes, unrecognisable factors. This may surprise you but it matters that you know all the important pillars that make SEO the most effective digital marketing tactic.
Title tags can be a small factor compared to link building and other technical aspects of SEO, but it is extremely significant to your overall campaign because it is one of the first things that people notice online.
Dont underestimate the importance of a well-written title tag. It can attract an untapped segment of your target market and can boost your brand’s reputation.
So, if you are still having doubts about title tags, you may want to try removing all of your title tags now or don’t write anything and see where it will lead you.
Let us know if that works best for you. Can’t wait to hear what you will share!
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do You Optimise a Title Tag?
There are many ways to optimise your website’s title tags, but you may start by:
1. Writing compelling titles
2. Including primary keywords on your title tags
3. Producing user-centred titles
4. Paying attention to the length of your titles
5. Ensuring you don’t overstuff it with keywords
How Do Title Tag Affects SEO?
Title tags have a minimal effect on your SEO campaign, without them, it can be challenging for Google and the readers to notice your content.
They serve as labels of the topic of your webpage that provides people and search engines an idea of what your page is all about. You have to ensure that you create accurate and relevant title tags for all of your page’s content.
On-page SEO elements like title tags contribute to improving your click-through rates and may lead to conversions.
What is the Best Title Tag Length for SEO?
The ideal title tag length we can recommend for you is between 55-60 characters long. Keep it simple, engaging, and compelling for your readers.
Remember that Google is on the job to rewrite titles that don’t match your content, so be very attentive to it.
