What’s a Title Tag?
A title tag, also known as a meta title or a meta title tag, is the title of your web page in HTML.
The web page’s title tag appears as a headline in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
The title tag is important for:
- User experience
- SEO
- Social sharing
So, make sure your web page’s title tag is accurate and describes the content on the page.
Is it good practice to check your title tag using a Title Tag Preview tool.
This shows you how your web page’s headline will appear in Google’s search results.
Using a Title Tag Preview Tool helps ensure part of your title doesn’t get cut off by being too long.
Best length for a title tag
Although Google doesn’t specify a title tag length, desktop and mobile browsers show the first 50–60 characters.
Titles that are under 60 characters are:
- Displayed properly in the SERPs
- Important for user readability
But, Google doesn’t use characters as a metric for title tags and instead uses a pixel width.
So, Google SERPs can display a maximum of 600 pixels.
Also, Google’s search engine bots crawl the whole title tag even if it’s cut off in the SERPs.
Why are title tags important?
Title tags are important for two main reasons:
- Helping search engines know what your page is about
- Giving organic searcher first impressions of your web page
Title tags are used in three places:
- search engine results pages (SERPs)
- web browsers
- social networks
SERP Title Tags
Key features of title tag in the SERPs include:
- Is your web page’s headline in SERPs
- Is your website’s first impression to a searcher
- A good title helps searchers click on your web page
Web browser Title Tags
Key features of title tags on a web browser include:
- The title tag is displayed at the top
- Acts like a bookmark when you have a few tabs open
- Titles with important keywords help your content stand out
Social network Title Tags
Social networks display your title tags when your web pages are shared.
But social networks like Facebook and Twitter allow you to modify titles to be different from the ones on your web pages, using their own meta tags.
This is beneficial as you can customise titles and their lengths to better target audiences on different social networks.
Title Tag Examples
HTML code example
With HTML markup, your web page’s title tag is in between the <head> portion of your page’s code.
For example:
<head><title>Title Example</title></head>
With CMSs (content marketing systems) you can change the title tag in two ways:
- In your web page’s HTML markup code
- Your web page’s metadata setting’s title tag field
Format example
Here is an example of how to format your title tags:
- Primary Keyword – Secondary Keyword | Brand Name
For example:
- Web crawlers – Technical SEO | SEO
Good Title Tag Practices
Title tags are important for search engine optimisation and user experience.
And an easy way to start optimising your content for SEO, is to write a good title tag.
The best practices for optimising your title tags for users and search engines include:
Title length
Search engines change titles that are too long by cutting off the words over the maximum character length with an ellipsis, also three dots.
Sometimes search engines even rewrite the whole title.
Keep your titles under 60 characters, that’s just a rough estimation.
Because the display limit is based on a 600-pixel container, it could be 60 characters, give or take, as some words are wider than others.
Certain characters take up more space, for example, a capital “W” is wider compared to a lowercase “i” or “t”.
So, try to avoid using titles in all capital letters because:
- It’s hard for search visitors to read
- It limits the number of characters Google shows
But remember, even if your title length is within the limit, search engines can show a different title from what you have in your HTML.
For example, Google can cut your title short and choose to display your brand name at the end:
- What’s the difference between Ahrefs… – Software Review
Here are a few extra things to remember:
- Longer titles can be better for social sharing
- Some titles are naturally long
- Think about how your titles look in search results
- There is no penalty for using a long title
- Keep the searcher in mind and think like your website visitors
Don’t stuff keywords
Don’t create a bad user experience by stuffing your title full of keywords.
For example:
- SEO | Best SEO Tips | Search Engine Optimisation
Also don’t use different variations of the same keywords in the same title.
It’s bad for search users and search engines will penalise you.
Because search engines are better at understanding variations of keywords, don’t list keyword phrases in your title.
Use a unique title
Get high click-through rates by using unique titles.
Using unique titles also shows search engines that your content is valuable.
With the help of modern CMS and code-based templates you can make data-driven, unique titles for every page of your website.
For example, for product pages with a numerous product names and categories, use data to make titles using this formula:
- [Product] – [Category] – [Brand]
Remember, avoid default titles, like “Home”, “New Page”, “Untitled” or “Product Page” because:
- Google thinks these are duplicated on your website or on the web
- These titles reduce click-through rates
Important keywords first
Influence the search rankings by putting your keywords closer to the start of your title tags.
Because the first two words on a headline are what people scan and are most likely to notice.
So, use unique aspects like the product name first in your titles.
Bad titles like:
- Brand | Major Category | Minor Category | Product Name
Should be avoided because:
- Front heavy titles with repetitive information give little unique value
- Long titles are cut short by search engines and the unique aspect won’t be seen
- Titles that are keyword-loaded and will be rewritten by Google
Leverage your brand
You can improve click-through rates by adding your brand to your titles.
If you have a strong brand that is well-known, add it to the front of your title.
In cases like that, you want to be more brand focused and use your brand on your home page or about page.
If not, then place your brand at the end of the title.
But remember, Google or your content management system may place your brand name on your titles automatically, so check how your search results are displayed.
Think about your customers
Getting clicks from visitors who find your content valuable is as important as optimising your title tags for search engines.
So, when creating your title tags, think about:
- Visitors user experience
- Search Optimisation
- Keywords use
Because, your title tags are what new visitors first read when finding your brand on organic searches so leave a good impression.
Bad Title tag Practices
At times, Google shows a title different to what you’ve put in your HTML.
The main reasons for this includes:
Keyword-stuffed title
If you over-optimise or keyword stuff your title, Google will rewrite it.
And Google doesn’t like the use of delimiters, like pipes ( | ), to put phrases together.
So, optimise your title for search users.
Your title is long
Before, Google used to cut short long titles.
Now, Google rewrites long titles, using the middle part of the title or text from the content on your page.
So, make sure to check how your titles show up in SERPs.
Relevance issues with your title
Google also rewrites titles that:
- Don’t match searcher intent
- Full of marketing jargon or phrases
- Don’t reflect the content.
So, make sure your titles reflect your content.
Alternate titles
Google can pick other alternate titles to replace the one in your HTML, like a meta tag for Facebook or Twitter.
So, if this alternate title is one you don’t prefer then rewrite the alternate title data.
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