Title tags can be the most important on-page factor when it comes to SEO. If done right, title tags can really improve your sites ranking on major search engines. If done wrong, title tags can really suppress your site's rankings.

Title tags are one of the "Big 3" factors that search engines use to weigh your site. Title tags are just as important as your content and the links you have pointing to your site. In this article, I will provide background as to what title tags are and some ways that you can improve your existing title tags.

What is a Title Tag?

A title tag appears on every web page and describes the page you are looking at. The title of the page gets placed between two <title></title> tags. The picture below demonstrates the title tag for http://www.anythingweb.org.



Besides displaying on your site, your title tags will also appear on major search engines. Major search engines display the title tags in their search engine page results.

Tips For Title Tags

1. Descriptive Title Tags - Think of your title tag as a newspaper header. It should describe your content and let the user know what your content is about. Many times I find that your title tag and match the title of your article/page or whatever is in your <h1> tag.

2. Keep Them Short - You should keep your title tags under 64 characters long. Why is that you ask? Well, Google only shows 66 characters on it's search results page. Yahoo on the other hand will allow 120 characters on their search results page and MSN will display up to 70. Even though Yahoo and MSN allows you more characters, I would advice to keep your titles short. This way, your whole title will be displayed properly on all search engines.

3. Keyword Placement - It is always better to keep your keywords at the beginning of your title tag rather than at the end of your title tag. Although you want to add keywords to your title, you don?t want to overload the title tag. The title tag should look natural and not should not appear to be overstuffed with keywords.

4. Use Site Name ? Your brand name or site name should appear in your title tag. If you decide to use you brand name or site name, it should be placed at the end of your title tag. The image below demonstrates what my homepage title tag looks like.



5. Unique Title Tags - Your title tags should be unique across your site. You don?t want to reuse any title tag more than once.

6. No Capital Letters - Do not use all capital letters in your title tags. You can start each word with capital letters, but I would strongly discourage you from using all capital letters.

Overview

Title tags are an important part to SEO and improving you site's ranking on major search engines. If you want to improve your title tags on your site you should use descriptive title tags that describe your content. Secondly your should keep our title tags short and to the point. Don't use too many keywords and stack your title tags with useless words. Thirdly, use your site name at the end of your title tag. Keep the beginning of the title tag for keywords. Next, keep your tags unique throughout your site. You shouldn't use the same title more than once and lastly, don't use capital letters in your title tags.

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