It’s easy to ignore title tags when building a website, updating content or posting a blog. However, taking time to optimize your title tags could make a big impact on your web page ranking and click through rates.

What is a title tag?
A title tag is essentially a brief page description that appears on the results page when you enter a query into any search engine. They also appear at the top of every web page above the URL.

1. What you see is what you get –A good title tag is what gets users to click on your site in the search results.  Even if your content is top notch and your SEO rank is number 1, a non-descript, poorly phrased title tag will cause users to breeze past you in the search results.

2. Search engines love ‘em! The title tag (along with the URL and content) is one of the main points of reference for search engines and is thus highly relevant. Ignoring your title tags is neglecting a very important aspect of SEO.

3. Don’t lose sight of your brand – It’s always a good idea to use your brand in the title tag. If your brand is well known for the service, including the name will make the user feel more secure. If you’re not as well known, it’s important that your brand be correlated to the service you are offering to gain exposure, especially in the search results.

4. Keywords are key- Choose only one or two phrases that best represent the page content to include in your title tag, but don’t keyword stuff! Make sure your title tag is brief, cohesive and readable. It’s usually best to put your keywords first, followed by your brand name, using a dash (-) or a pipe (|) to separate them.

5. Size matters – Title tags should be short and sweet. Keeping your page descriptions under 65 characters or so (with spaces) will get all your info in “above the fold” as they say.

6.  Title dictates content – The only way your title tags will be effective is if they accurately reflect the page content.  Failing to do this will frustrate the user and confuse the search engines, making it less likely your page will be found.

7. Change it up – Just as you should avoid duplicate content on your site, you should avoid duplicate title tags. Each title tag should be unique to the specific page where it’s found.  This is not only helpful to users but improves page rankings as well.