Are Title Tags Important To SEO?

Title Tags are Critical to Search Engine Optimization

Title tags are most important SEO element that can be easily fixed. Title tags rank in importance right behind content, and … Content is King.

Title TagsWhat Are Title Tags?

A title tag is the main text that describes the web page, image, or document. Title elements have long been considered one of the most important on-page SEO elements and appear in three key places: browsers, search engine results pages, and external websites.

Web Browser

Title tags show up in both the top of a browser’s tabs. This is often the case with Chrome, Explorer, and Firefox.

Search Engine Results Pages

Keywords that are included in the title tag are highlighted in search results if the search query includes those words. This can increase visibility and result in a higher click-through rate.

External Websites

Many external websites, especially social media sites use the title tag of a web page as its link anchor text. For example a link to a web page on Facebook will propagate an image from the page and some text. That text comes from the title tag.

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Google Can Rewrite Page Descriptions

Google may only display up to 512 pixels; however, the algorithm reads and considers the entire title tag, including the parts it doesn’t display. If you cannot write a title within the 512 pixel limit, write the best title tag you can and limit title tags to 55 characters to fit within the 512 pixel limit.

Google does not always display title tags from their beginning. If a query best matches words from the middle or end of a long title tag, it may display that portion of the text. Then again they may completely rewrite the description.

Here’s Google’s explanation:

If we’ve detected that a particular result has […] issues with its title, we may try to generate an improved title from anchors, on-page text, or other sources. However, sometimes even pages with well-formulated, concise, descriptive titles will end up with different titles in our search results to better indicate their relevance to the query.

There’s a simple reason for this: the title tag as specified by a webmaster is limited to being static, fixed regardless of the query. Once we know the user’s query, we can often find alternative text from a page that better explains why that result is relevant. Using this alternative text as a title helps the user, and it also can help your site. Users are scanning for their query terms or other signs of relevance in the results, and a title that is tailored for the query can increase the chances that they will click through.

 

Title Tag Best Practice

Optimal Format

Primary Keyword – Secondary Keyword | Brand Name

Optimal Length

Less than 512 pixels or 55 characters

 

Also Consider Readability and Emotional Impact

First impressions are important. Creating a compelling title tag will pull in more visits from the search results. It’s vital to consider the entire user experience as well as SEO.

 

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