An SEO title, otherwise known as a meta title or title tag, is one of the most critical elements of search engine optimization (SEO). SEO titles are HTML elements that specify the title of a web page. These are crucial because they are displayed on search engine results pages (SERPs) as the clickable headline for the results and are essential for usability, SEO, and social sharing.
Each SEO title is marked up by a title tag –
When it comes to optimizing SEO titles, it is generally recommended that the length should be kept within 50-60 characters as this is typically what is displayed in Google SERPs. If the title is lengthier, Google will abbreviate it with an ellipsis (“…”).
Moreover, SEO titles should also ideally contain the primary keyword closer to the beginning and the brand name at the end. For example, for a page about “Dog Food” on “PetShop”, the SEO title could be “Healthy Dog Food – PetShop”. Keyword use in the SEO title is significant as it can have a massive impact on search engine rankings.
Furthermore, making SEO titles unique for each page, relevant to the page content, and enticing for the user can effectively improve click-through rates from SERPs. Empty or duplicated title tags can potentially harm the site’s performance in search results.
Here are the sources used to provide all this information:
- “HTML Living Standard”. (2021). Whatwg.org. https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/semantics.html#the-title-element.
- “HTML Title tag”. (2021). W3schools.com. https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag\_title.asp.
- Enge, E., Spencer, S., Stricchiola, J., & Fishkin, R. (2012). The Art of SEO. O’Reilly Media.
- “Create Good Titles and Snippets in Search Results”. (2020). Google Search Central. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/appearance/good-titles-snippets.
- “Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List (2021)”. (2021). Backlinko.com. https://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors.
References like these provide a robust exploration of what an SEO title is and how you can optimize it.