How to make your page popular, increase traffic, and get more profit? SEO optimization matters! A great meta title is one of the most important factors of successful SEO optimization. The problem is that not everyone knows how to create a good one. In this guide, we reveal all the truth. So, if your goal is to learn more about the importance of this element and get to know how to choose perfect meta titles, you are just in the right place.
Meta Title: the essence
The Title tag is, as its name indicates, the main title of your page. It should not be confused with the H1 tag that appears in the body of your web page. People can see the title tag in the browser tab showing the page.
Google (or any other engine) displays a title tag as a clickable element that must usually not exceed 65 characters, including spaces, at risk of being truncated by the engines. The content of this element is a very important relevance criterion in SEO. It must therefore be chosen carefully and contain top keywords, which matters both for search engines and Internet users. It is often said that it must be “sexy,” i.e., an incentive to click.
Title tag and natural referencing
The function of the title tag is to inform search engines about the page’s theme. Thanks to this first information, engines can better understand what it is about and, therefore, better evaluate and position the page in SERP (search engine result page).
This is not the only criterion that is important for your positioning, but it can still influence it depending on the expressions and keywords of the title tag. Optimizing a title tag is, therefore, the first “on-page” optimization that you must work on.
As the title meta tag is aimed at both Internet users and search engines, the perfect optimization of the title tag is a compromise between SEO issues and indispensable attractiveness from a marketing point of view.
How many characters?
In SERPs, the length of any page’s title is limited to a certain number of pixels. However, it is generally agreed that meta title length corresponds to no more than sixty characters.
Beyond this limit, the search engine will truncate the title. So, check twice and make sure your title does not exceed the limits set.
1 page = 1 title tag
The purpose of the title tag is to inform about the subject of the page on which it is located. A blog, e-commerce, or showcase site is composed of pages with necessarily different content, and each must have a logically different title. Never copy titles even if several pages are similar: it will worsen your results.
Inserting keywords
Any title tag must contain the keyword of the request you are aiming for. Thus, if we take the example of a shop with a ” farmer’s cottage cheese” category, we will logically have to put between <title> and </title> the key expression “farmer’s cottage cheese.”
What are the mistakes to avoid?
In addition to neglecting the importance of the separate title tag for each page, the most common mistake is too much optimization, for example, inserting a large number of keywords or repeating certain terms.
Whether intentional or not, this over-optimization is likely to be interpreted by search engines as spam or a desire to manipulate the results. However, such practices that go against Google guidelines are punishable by a penalty from the search giant. Overoptimizing META tags can therefore have the opposite effect and lead to a loss of visibility.
Where and how the user can see a title
In total, there are four such places.
Search results
When a user enters any query into the search box of any browser and receives the results, the first thing he sees is the page titles.
The name of the browser tab
Going to the page, the user sees the Title meta tag in the address bar of his gadget – but usually partially. The more tabs the user has, the smaller the title is displayed.
When reposting the site page on social networks
The title meta tag is fully displayed during reposting – both in posts and in comments to them if the comments contain a link and the preview function is not disabled.
Code
You can go to the code by right-clicking anywhere on the page and selecting “View Page Code” from the context menu.
Why is this element so important?
To begin with, this is one of the major factors that define your ranking on the main search engines. It alone can define your ranking on certain keywords. This tag is shown in four places we have already described.
Choosing your title tag is crucial to your SEO strategy; let’s see why together.
Inviting Internet users to click on your link
By typing a query on a search engine, the Internet user will face several results and several title tags in front of him. How will this Internet user make his choice? It has been shown that most Internet users will start by clicking on the first search result. But if one title tag attracts his attention more than another, he will click on it.
As a result, you have not only won a visitor but also sent a strong signal to the search engine. This signal will indicate that your answer is the most relevant to this Internet user. The search engine could thus re-qualify your ranking.
Positioning yourself based on certain keywords
When implementing your SEO strategy, you will have to choose your keywords. In addition to optimizing your pages, the title tag will send a clear message to Google by defining the theme of your page.
It is thus possible to position yourself on specific requests by optimizing your title tags.
Highlighting your brand
What if we tell you that an optimized title tag would allow you to highlight your brand? This is the case.
Imagine that an Internet user is looking for travel. This person will type different destinations in Google, and Google will show several results to him. If you integrate your brand into your title tag, the Internet user will read it each time he searches. Even if he does not click on your links, he will be in constant contact with your brand as long as he researches this topic. In addition, Internet users are more likely to trust brands. Appearing in search engines often will therefore allow your company to gain authority and increase brand recognizability.
How to write a good Meta Title
We have finally approached the most interesting part: writing titles! Here are our recommendations.
- The title must be unique within site – even if it is an online store with 10,000 pages. To achieve this, templates like “Product Name + Article + Price + Size + Color + Brand” are used in online stores.
- It is important to prescribe the tag competently from the point of view of your language. It should be without unnatural designs; there must be no errors (even if users make them when entering a request).
- The meta tag should ideally answer general questions of users: show the topic of content, and indicate what a user will get by clicking on a link.
- If the brand is famous and its products are unique, it makes sense to specify the name at the beginning of the title so that the user can see it.
- There is no need to use general concepts: it makes no sense to use the word “clothes” for a page with women’s dresses.
- Key queries in the title should be only those that the SEO specialist has defined to promote this particular page. It makes no sense to duplicate requests from other pages.
- It is advisable to place key queries closer to the beginning, as, after 12 words, the weight of the entered keys significantly decreases.
- SEO specialists advise not to use too many punctuation marks. Especially those problematically perceived by search engines: apostrophes, quotes, and mathematical signs.
- For a regional business or resource, we recommend specifying the city or name of the region. Thus, search engines are more likely to show the page to the target audience.
- Enter numbers – this is not too important for search engines, but it will help to catch the user’s eye and increase the clickability of the site.
- Do not use automatically created titles – for example, “New Page” or “Product Page.” They will be non-unique even within one resource and do not motivate users to visit the page.
- Do not make the title spam in the form of repetition of the same keywords or clickbait – containing promises that the page’s content does not confirm. For example, when the title shows a 20% discount, and there is no such information on the page itself.
- Check your title tags for the relevance of key queries and update/refine them if necessary – this will help the site maintain good positions in search results.
Google doesn’t show my title! What is the problem?
Is it a bug, or the search engine simply doesn’t like your tag? If you are facing such a problem, here are the possible reasons.
It contains too many keywords
Here is the first reason why your title tag is not displayed. Over-optimization of the title tag can lead to its deindexing. As Google has specified, you must create your content focusing on users, and to do this, spamming keywords in its tag does not help.
Are you using a plugin?
Often among WordPress users, using an SEO plugin allows for editing title tags and meta-description simply. But some plugins also have problems; those may be bugs or updates. Some of them create title tags automatically, which can sometimes cause problems. To solve such an issue, go to the plugin settings and check that everything is going well in editing. You can also go to the developer’s website and try to find the information about why your title tag does not appear in search results there.
Does it match the request?
It is possible that, awkwardly, you have chosen a title tag or a meta title description that does not match the theme of your article. If this is the case, the search engine may have decided not to display it for user comfort.
When inspecting, do not hesitate to ask yourself several simple questions.
- Can I preview my content just by reading the title tag?
- Does this title summarize the overall theme of my article?
- Will I use similar words when searching for a product of this type?
These are a few simple questions that will allow you to understand if your title tag matches the theme of your article.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you won’t ask yourself the question “what is a meta title” anymore. As you can see, choosing this element well is crucial for your SEO strategy. It will allow you to attract more Internet users to your website and let search engines understand your content’s theme.
Do not hesitate to use the tips we provided to optimize it to the fullest, thus satisfying both search engines and users.