Title tags are one of the most important elements of your web page’s SEO. Title tags are the words you see at the top of the browser window and they are the words that are clickable on a search engine result page (SERP). This means that the title you chose can directly influence your click-throughs as well.
When choosing your title tag you should focus on keyword phrases and localize your site by including your location or the market you are trying to reach. For example if your business is Bubbles Dog Grooming and you are located in Lindsay, Ontario, you may want to use a title like:
Bubbles Dog Grooming | Pet Groomers | Lindsay ON
It is also important that you make the titles relevant to the content on your page. So you don’t want to use the same title on all your pages. You may have:
Contact Page – Contact Bubbles Dog Grooming | 555-555-5555 | Lindsay, ON
Blog – Dog Groomer’s Blog | Dog Grooming Advice |
It is important to note that you should limit the characters of your title tag to 65 characters. Google does allow more characters but the results will be truncated.
How to choose keywords
When choosing keywords, I like to look at what direct competitors are using. What keyword phrases are they using and where do they appear in the SERP? I also like to use the Google keyword tool to see how many searches there are for any given keyword phrase. Once I take a look at all that I use common sense – if I were searching for this product or service what would I type into the search engine?
Title tags and WordPress
If you are using WordPress I suggest you install the All In One SEO plug-in or WordPress SEO by Yoast plug-in. Both of these are excellent SEO tools and allow you to specify individual title tags for every page and post on your site. I particularly like the Yoast plugin as it actually gives you a preview of what your page will look like on the SERP.
How do you choose your keywords? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
If you need help fine-tuning your keywords, or installing an SEO plug-in, contact me.
