Page titles or SEO titles are the text that appears at the very top of a search engine results page (SERP), as well as within browser tabs in users’ web browsers. An effective page title or SEO title can make a dramatic impactful statement about your page, increasing visitors who click-through and landing on it and thus improving search engine optimization (SEO) performance overall.
An effective SEO title should include both primary and secondary keywords to help search engines assess your content more accurately. However, keyword stuffing must be avoided at all costs as search engines can detect excessive keyword usage in title tags; doing this could result in algorithmic penalties and consequently push your site further down in the results list.
An SEO title should provide readers with both information and pleasure; that means including both key words/phrases/benefits as well as descriptive language to give an overview of what the article covers. A strong SEO title may even evoke emotions and use power words to capture readers’ attention more easily and encourage them to click your link!
Your SEO title tag should always include your primary keyword, but to increase its chances of being seen by searchers it would be prudent to place it near the beginning. This will give your title tag an advantage over competitors that also may feature similar words as your title tag does.
SEO titles should ideally be around 60 characters long to ensure optimal display on search engines such as Google. Titles that exceed this limit will be cut off and replaced with an ellipsis instead, reducing context for searchers.
Additionally, it may be beneficial to include your brand name at the end of your SEO title to create consistency across SERPs and searchers and increase brand recognition. However, be mindful to strike a balance between prioritizing keywords and increasing brand visibility.
Some SEOs prefer omitting their site name from an SEO title for an aesthetically pleasing effect, but this should be avoided as this defeats its purpose – drawing in searchers with visible titles maximizes click-through rate (CTR). An SEO title that speaks directly to searchers’ intent will always outperform those that don’t, such as during the coronavirus pandemic where Hubspot article on “working from home” had an astounding CTR rate of 88% while BBC piece only managed 28% CTR. Hubspot titles reflect current situation and deeper searcher intent, thus increasing their likelihood of garnering clicks. Therefore, it’s crucial that you devote sufficient time and thought into crafting compelling titles for your website pages; the results may surprise you!