Today is the second installment of the recap from the Lunch and Learn I presented in August on the First Steps for Onsite Optimization. In our first recap, we talked about Keyword Development, and today’s post and video clip will cover using these keywords in the optimization of the Title Tag’s of a website.

Keyword Optimization – Title Tags

As search engines crawl and index the contents of a webpage, the title tag is one of the first aspects of keyword optimization that they encounter in the HTML of the page. The HTML is usually within the first 30 to 50 lines of code and should be present in every HTML page.

The content of the title tag is populated in a few areas a potential visitor to your site will see it, so it is not only for the search engines, but for the end user as well. The two areas a visitor might see your title tag are:

• the link in the list of search results
• the tab at the top of the browser

In light of the fact that a potential visitor might see your title tag and it could influence them clicking through to your site, it is important the title tag is written correctly so it clearly defines the content of the web page to the search engines and, at the same time, engages the potential visitor and draws them into the website. Below are a few things to focus on when developing title tags:

1. Length – Google recently adjusted the width of the SERP results and in light of this, we usually shoot for keeping the total length of a title tag between 55 and 65 characters (including spaces)
2. Keywords – You should place the most important keywords towards the front of the title tag
3. Branding – Make sure you get your brand name into the visible character count of the title tag
4. Readability/Emotional Impact – Make sure your title tag engages a potential visitor by thinking about the entire user experience when developing the title tag

Resources:

Check out this article on Moz.com that goes into some more detail about the development of title tags.

You can take a look at the full deck from the lunch and learn here, and watch the full video here.