The single most important action you can take to make a web page rank with the search engines is to create the right title tag. The title tag is in the <head> section of the HTML. It is contained between the <title> and </title> HTML markers. Making sure that the page title is correct for the page will have a profound impact with the search engines.
Many webmasters will just allow this tag to contain the name of the business. If your entire site has been designed and built correctly, the search engines will already rank your web site #1 for your business name. If you do not rank #1 for your business name, you have bigger problems and need to do the work to make sure that the website for your business ranks #1 for the name of your business.
The second mistake that is made with the title tag is to have too many word and/or multiple keywords and phrases included. Although the search engines accept as many as sixty (60) characters in the title tag, less is more. Hone your title down to the bare minimum that includes your key phrase and is reflective of the content of the page.
The third mistake that is frequently made is to only stuff keywords and phrases in the title tag. The title tag should genuinely reflect the content of the page. While it is important that the title contain your key phrase, it should act as a title to the page, uniquely identifying the actual content of the page.
Finally, the page title is different than the main headline for the content on the page. The main headline, often between the <h1> and </h1> tags, should be the headline for the content. Now it may seem that the two are one and the same; they are not. If you spend some time, you will think of two distinct things, the title and the main headline. Both should contain you key phrase, and both should be different.
Let’s look at this from the other side.
Your page title should- be short- definitely not longer than 60 characters
- include your key phrase
- be unique too your web site
- be distinct from the main heading of the page
- be true to and reflective of the content of the page
