The title tag is a huge performer in the whole scheme of search engine optimization. It is what you see in the search engines. A strong, enticing and most of all, relevant, title tag will ensure traffic and click-throughs..
So what makes a strong title, you ask? Well, first you must know that Google has a 70 character limit on title tags. Otherwise, you tag will just end up getting cut off, which in turn equals less clicks. Keeping that in mind, you are going to avoid the newspaper-like headlines for your titles. The witty and humored titles of newspapers do not work for SEO. Instead, you are going to want titles that mean something. Make it like an ad. Think: you are advertising a product (your post or article) and you want to sell it (generate traffic).
Start with your keyword, first. Look at the title of this article…SEO for Title Tags. That gives you the key words right off the bat. And keep the primary keyword as number one in the title. In our case, “SEO” because that is what we are talking about here. Next, we do have a few more keywords, “title tags” which adds to the message of this article. A pitfall for titles are to put the business name first. Put that in the meta description. Because, lets face it, normally, what are you searching for? Something a bit more specific than, say, Apple. Your search might look something more like: Apple iPhone apps. Make the title more specific to what the article is about. Keywords first.
To follow up the keywords, have a call for action. This would be a verb, because we are talking about doing something. And hopefully the reader will too….click your article. We are talking words such as: read, discover, find, buy, get, and so on.
And to reiterate the point, make sure that what you are adding in this title is actually what your article is about! Obvious, but overlooked.
Next, you are going to want to mix in a few more keywords. Maybe not your primary or most sought after keywords. But something that can expand your range of searches. We have “maximize your title tag.” So a few secondary keywords from that are “maximize title tag” or just “title tag”. We already have “title tags” in the front position. So back it up with more options to be found.
Finally, you may consider putting your business or site name here…at the end. This way we are not fully excluding it from the title. But note that it is not the primary focus of the title. It becomes more in the background. However, keep in mind that 70 character limit that Google enforces. So if it makes it too long, don’t worry about adding it in. You can do without. I am sure there are plenty of other references to the site in other places.
None of this is concrete however. You are going to have to do some testing for yourself to find out what works for you. These are just a few things we have learned and seen along the way that have had results. Now you have a starting place and can expand your titles to generate traffic. Develop some strategies and formulas of your own and test the against each other to find out the best results for you website.
Happy titling!
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