How to Create SEO friendly Title Tags What is a title tag? Ok, so what is a title tag? Let’s cover that first! The title tag is the blue text you see in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) 
How to write a title tag: There is debate over how long or short your title should be. Since Google only displays the first 66 or so characters (with spaces), Your best bet would be to keep it under 66 characters and relevant to the content on the page If you want to be on the first page of Google’s search results, you must include your keywords in your Title tag, ideally before all other words in the title. Do not repeat your keywords in the Title, Google and the other search engines see this as spam.
Here’s an example of good Title: <title>Window Cleaning in Portland, OR</title> <title>Bob’s Window Cleaning</title> On the other hand, would be a BAD title because very few people will be searching for your exact business name. I see this far too often though… CHANGE YOUR TITLE TAGS!!!
Unique title tag for every page: You should have a unique title for every page of your website. A common mistake I see a lot of companies or individuals making is that they either leave generic title tags i.e. “home page,” they try to stuff every keyword into their title tag i.e. “carpet cleaning, house cleaning, window cleaning, office cleaning…” or, they create identical title tags for all of their pages. Doing this is NOT going to give you the results you want Here are a few SEO tips I found:
- You don’t want anything too broad such as “shoes” because chances are you don’t sell every single shoe known to man. Go after your target audience.
- Think about your audience, are you aiming specifically for a gender or demographic, perhaps you are only located in a certain geographic location? If so, this information should go into your title tag to improve your chances to rank for your niche, after all it’s much easier to rank well for “discount Nike shoes” then it is to rank for “shoes.” This information will also give more information about your page/site to the users.
- Keep the length of your title tags to around 65 characters or less, anything longer will usually get truncated by search engines
- Research your online competition to know what the competitive landscape looks like; this is just a good overall SEO practice.
- Branding comes second, keywords come first. What I mean by this is don’t start your title tag with your company name because that’s the easiest thing to rank for. Start off with your target keywords and include your company name at the very end.
Note: title tags are an important aspect of “onsite” SEO. Onsite SEO is anything having to do with your actual html. While having your html optimized is essential, most important to you when optimizing your site for Google will be “offsite” optimization. Offsite SEO in its most basic form is link building; Google looks at links to one website from another as vote. No wonder a little research will reveal that as a general rule the highest ranking pages always have the most links. If you’d like to learn more about Offsite SEO, as well as some more onsite tips check out my do it yourself SEO Guide. Note: title tags are an important aspect of “onsite” SEO. Onsite SEO is anything having to do with your actual html. While having your html optimized is essential, most imprtant to you when optimizing your site for google will be “offsite” optimization. offsite SEO in it’s most basic form is link building, google looks at links to one website from another as vote. No wonder a little research will reveal that as a generalrule the highest ranking pages alwas have the most links. If you’d like to learn more about Offsite SEO, as well as some more onsite tips check out my do it yourself SEO Guide.
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Thanks Doug for all the help getting to the top of Google. DeJay Brock(Quote)
You can post your comments here and get SEO benefits by inculding your URL in the above field. Louisville WIndow Cleaning(Quote)
Mac user take note; the ‘Title’ Text appears in the middle top portion of our web browsers. (just to clarify things)
Great article Doug. Funny how many sites I visit and the title is ‘Home’, ‘Index’ or worse, ‘untitled.html’. LOL
Keep ‘em comin’ Doug!
Meta description tags anyone? perhaps? Toronto Window Cleaning(Quote)
Following this suggestion as well as proper use of H1 and H2 tags helped me get on page one of all major search engines for my keywords.
Thanks Doug! Marion Ohio Window Cleaning(Quote)
How do you incorporate your keywords into every different title? Maybe something like “Window Cleaning in Tulsa, OK | About Us” ? Would something like that be advisable? Tulsa Window Cleaning(Quote)
Great Blog! You have some great content that should help our Window Cleaning, Pressure Washing, and Final Construction Cleaning company that is located in the Washington, DC – Maryland, Virginia area. Thanks for the tips. Maryland Window Cleaning(Quote)
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HA HA HA. That is a hilarious comment. You would never
catch me talking about my Window Cleaning, Pressure Washing and
Gutter Cleaning Service business in Houston Texas and its
Surrounding areas including The Woodlands, Spring, Sugar Land,
Pearland, Missouri City and Katy Texas. Does doing that in a blog
comment really help? Feel free to delete this Doug. Houston Texas Pressure Window Cleaning and Pressure Washing(Quote)
Thanks Doug, Good to know, I’ve since shortened my 100+ Character
Title Tag to 63 Characters. Muskoka Window Cleaning(Quote)
Is this title tag okay or is it to long and is the use of dashes
okay? Houston Texas-Pressure Washing-Window Cleaning-Gutter
Cleaning Houston Texas Window Cleaning(Quote)
Yes blog commenting actually does help, especially if the blog allows dofollow comments.
Doug(Quote)
Yeah that title works fine. No Dashes are necessary.
Doug(Quote)
This a fabulous post and may be one that is followed up to see how things go
A friend mailed this link the other day and I will be excitedly waiting your next write-up. Continue on the fantastic work. Lurlene Winsted(Quote)
Stumbled upon your internet site via google the other day and absolutely think its great. Carry on the great work. Cordell Stouder(Quote)