As search traffic is the lifeblood of any successful website, increasing your overall organic traffic should be your top priority if you want to build a money-making blog. Here we will discuss the best practices for creating search engine-friendly title tags.
How do you create SEO-friendly title tags?
It is an HTML element that describes the title of a blog post or page. An SEO-friendly title tag is usually optimized for search engines, and it specifies the context of the post or page. Consequently, when writing title tags, you should aim to describe the contents of a page that is as relevant and accurate as possible.
Is it still important to use title tags?
There is no doubt that titles are extremely important. Not only on search engines but also appear on social media sites, forums, email lists and so forth. You should craft high-quality and compelling titles for your blog posts since 8 out of 10 people will read your headlines before reading your blog post content. Now that we have discussed the title tags in sufficient detail, let's take a look at how you can create search engine-friendly title tags for your pages to improve your organic rankings.
The goal of SEO optimization should be to:
- Develop high-quality content;
- Engage search engine users to click on your result;
- Engage the reader and prevent them from clicking back to Google after reading the entire article.
Here is a list of articles you can read if you would like to learn more about creating great content:
- What you can do to improve your storytelling skills
- The best way to improve your writing skills
The following measures need to be taken to attract people from search engine results to click on your result:
- Make your title memorable;
- Include your main keyword in your result to let people know what your result is about;
- Add power words, brackets, numbers, etc. To draw the reader's attention;
- Use capitalization in the title to draw attention to the right trigger words;
- The title should not exceed 60 characters or 575 pixels in length.
To ensure people read the entire article and do not return to Google, you need to deliver on the promise you made with your title, have an excellent introduction, and simplify the article (pay attention to the sub-headings) so that they can quickly determine whether this article is worthwhile.
You can boost your SEO beyond the keywords you include in your blog post title Some research suggests that engaging on SERPs over time affects your ranking, rather than including your main keywords in the Title Tag and Blog Post Title.
This means: The chances are that if you are ranked #1 but people keep clicking on #2 and #3, your ranking will decline. In terms of getting people enthused about your offering, you did not do a very good job. In the opposite direction, it is also true. You are likely to climb the rankings if you rank #6 but a significant number of people click on your offering (and remain engaged on the page! That's why we included steps 1 and 3).
SEO-Friendly Titles: Best Practices
1. Titles should be "unique"
Our recommendation of tip #1 on the list is based on a very good reason.
To get more traffic from search engines such as Google, your posts, titles, and content must be unique.
Certainly, Google search results will contain a lot of duplicate titles for similar content, but if you want to boost rankings you should create titles that are unique and highly engaging. As a general rule, you should create titles that are good for both search engine bots and visitors. Be sure that your webpage titles are relevant, as Google crawlers may become confused if you use irrelevant page titles.
Using unique titles when interlinking is another important consideration. Make sure each page on your website has a unique title. The same title should not be used on multiple pages within your website.
Many website owners copy the titles of their home pages on the internal pages of their websites. Such practices should be avoided.
2. The length of your titles is important
An optimal title length is one of the most important factors in creating SEO-friendly titles. The majority of search engine results are based on the first 50 to 60 characters in the title tag. There is no strict rule about how long your title should be, but it is a good idea to keep it short and compelling.
Keeping your titles under 60 characters is recommended. According to Moz, about 90% of your titles will appear properly in Google search results if your titles are under 60 characters.
Although there is no exact character limit, you should be aware that characters can vary in width. For example, did you know that Google's display titles are currently limited to 600 pixels in width?
You should also avoid characters that tend to take up a lot of space. For example, a character such as the uppercase "W" has a greater width than lowercase characters such as "e", "l", "i", "t", etc.
Quick note: Using all capital letters in your title is a bad idea at all costs - they are not only difficult to read for search visitors, but also display fewer characters in search results, which results in a truncated title.
3. Avoid the use of "stop words"
The most common words that search engines avoid processing are stop words. These are words such as a, an, the, etc. This is usually done to save space and speed up the crawling or indexing of large amounts of data. Here is a list of some of the types of stop words that you should avoid using in your title tags.
- A
- And
- But
- So
- On
- Or
- The
- Was
- With
To save as much space as possible, avoid using stop words in title tags as much as possible.
You should also avoid using these stop words in your URLs and keep them short and sweet by considering your primary keywords.
You can see from the example above that without stop words, your URLs will look great for SEO and will also be user-friendly.
What other options do you have? You can use descriptive words at the beginning of your website titles to make them appear more natural.
Instead of using short keywords, consider using LSI keywords in your page titles. LSI keywords are likely to make your headlines more click-worthy and help your SEO efforts.
4. Write headlines that encourage click-throughs
To generate clicks organically from search engines like Google, you need to create titles that capture the attention of readers.
To create click-worthy titles, it is important to consider the following three elements:
- Curiosity
- Benefit
- Emotion
Let’s briefly talk about each one of them with examples.
Curiosity: If you wish to increase your organic clicks, you must create curiosity when creating titles.
Especially if you're desperate to make money, you'll instantly click on it for more information. That's the power of curiosity. Use it wisely when creating your titles.
Benefit: Interested in dramatically improving your organic click-through rate? Start showing benefits within your title tags and you'll see great results.
As you can see from the above example, it is a benefit-oriented title that mentions how green tea can assist people in losing weight, especially those who are seeking to reduce their abdominal fat.
Emotion: Most people make purchases online because they are inspired by the emotions of other brands (or products). People buy Apple products because they are moved by the "ultra-premium" feeling they get.
This is an example of what an emotional title may look like. If someone going through a breakup finds a title like this one, he or she is likely to click on it to get more information. The above 3 elements can be used wisely depending on the topics you cover (or keywords you target) to create click-worthy titles.
5. Create SEO titles following this 3-step framework
Here is a three-step framework specifically designed for those who wish to create appealing title tags for search engine optimization.
Step 1: Select a primary keyword for each title If you wish to rank your pages in search engines such as Google, you must use at least one primary keyword on each page. Tools like Semrush make it easy to identify primary keywords.
For more information about using Semrush to find profitable keywords, please refer to our guide. Be sure to include your primary keyword in the title of your article to achieve better rankings.
Step 2: Identify relevant LSI keywords
Yes, you should include a primary keyword within your title tags, but if you wish to optimize your titles naturally, you should focus on LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords. There are LSI keywords that are semantically related to a particular keyword, for example, "Apple" is an LSI keyword for iPad, MacBook, iPhone, etc.
To find LSI keywords, you should use proper tools like Semrush, Ubersuggest, etc. as these tools provide extensive keyword phrases.
Step 3: Review the top 10 search results for your topic
Also, keep an eye on the top-ranking titles for the topic you're writing about. See if they use how-to posts, list posts, or something else. Did you notice anything in common?
Important Tip: Start with the most important keywords
Using your primary keyword as the first keyword in your page title is one of the best SEO tips for writing SEO-friendly page titles. It is possible to craft SEO titles for a keyword such as "belly fat reduction tips" in several ways, including;
- Belly fat reduction tips: How to lose tummy fat fast
- How to lose tummy fat: Belly fat reduction tips
By using #1, you will be more likely to benefit from search engines than by using #2.
The reason for this is that keywords continue to play an important role and search crawlers can easily identify the context of your website's users if you use your target keywords prominently, such as at the beginning of your title tag.
However, you should avoid using too many keywords in your page title tag.
6. The use of a brand in titles
What is the best way to add your brand name to every title tag you create? That is an interesting question which we will endeavour to answer as clearly as possible.
For better conversions and click-through rates, you should include a recognized brand name. However, if you are just getting started and no one knows your brand name, you should avoid it since it takes up more space (and leaves less space and width for targeting your primary keywords within titles).
In addition, your titles should be localized. If you wish to rank higher for certain keywords in certain demographics, you should include them in your page titles.
In the case where an SEO company is providing SEO services in a particular city, such as Delhi, the title tag should include Delhi along with keywords relevant to that page. For example, the meta title of their website could read something like 'Premium SEO Services in Delhi'.
7. Create sensible meta descriptions
In search engine results pages (SERPs), only three things appear in organic search listings.
- Title
- URL
- Meta description
Besides a title, URL, and meta description, search results also contain a rich snippet for product reviews (that is why star ratings are also shown in the SERPs). Now that we have discussed how to create search engine-friendly titles, let's move on to how to create better meta descriptions to improve your organic search engine rankings.
How to write search engine-friendly meta descriptions
In Google's blog, there is no limit to the length of a meta description, but the search results are usually truncated to fit the width of the device (usually a desktop, laptop, smartphone, etc.).
It is recommended that the meta description be between 120 and 158 characters long, with a maximum size of 920 pixels.
You should keep in mind that Google users also read the meta descriptions of your pages that appear on Google SERPs along with the titles.
In Google's search results, a meta description appears beneath the page title. Using your focused keywords even in meta descriptions can increase your SEO traffic, so make sure your rich snippets (aka meta descriptions) are optimized.
You should always supplement your SEO-friendly titles with a compelling meta description whenever you publish a new post. This will increase your click-through rates as well as user engagement.
Google SERPs ignore any extra characters beyond 120 to 150 characters, so the meta description will be truncated. Write your meta description for your users first. When you do, Google gives you priority. Do not keyword stuff your meta descriptions and optimize them naturally.
8. Optimize your website using the appropriate tools
If you are a WordPress user, here is a simple tip for you: install an optimization plugin. It is possible to implement most of the things that have been discussed in this article (including titles, meta descriptions, and other tags) by using plugins such as Yoast SEO. These plugins are free and even SEO beginners can utilize the suggestions provided by the SEO by Yoast plugin to increase organic traffic to their websites.
Below are our two recommendations.
1. WordPress SEO by Yoast
For on-page optimization and creating attractive titles for Google, the Yoast SEO plugin is the best solution. We have been using this plugin for quite some time now and we are extremely satisfied with its performance.
With more than 20 million downloads, it is the most popular SEO plugin, and its free version also provides a variety of features to help you optimize your content.
From one location, you have the option of adding a focus keyword, changing your title, adding a meta description, improving your social media settings, etc.
2. Rank Math
Rank Math is a new entry but has quickly gained popularity among the blogging community because it offers a wide range of features including keyword optimization, sitemap creation, LSI tool integration, 404 monitoring, redirection system, and more.
This plugin is extremely easy to set up, and you can tweak any SEO-related changes you want, from adding nofollow links to setting up sitemaps, to importing settings from other plugins.
So there you go! Start using optimization plugins to get more traffic and better results from search engines without sweating much. It is definitely worth giving Rank Math a try if you are looking for an alternative to the Yoast SEO plugin.
Practices that should be avoided
Is it equally important to avoid these errors when writing your page titles in addition to following best practices?
Long-tail keywords should not be used as exact match titles
Previously, exact match titles (especially for long tail keywords) were recommended, but with the advent of Rank Brain, this is no longer the case.
As an alternative, you should conduct keyword research and identify long-tail keywords to target. You should then use those keywords as part of your title, not as the title itself.
Do not use the same title for a page as your competitors
Before writing your page title, it’s always a good practice to search Google for your target keywords and analyze the top results.
If you use an exact copy of a page title that is already ranking in Google, then it would be very difficult for you to rank in the top positions.
Google likes to present different titles in the first 10 positions so to increase your chances of appearing in the top 10, you need to differentiate your titles.
If you were to write a post today about Off-Page SEO, then your title should not be the same as the ones above.
Instead, you could write something different. For example, “Off-Page SEO Made Simple. A Step By Step Guide”.
Optimizing the page title after publication
It is important to create a post title based on the best practices described above when you first publish a post, but that is not the end of the process.
As part of the ongoing SEO process, you should review the performance of your titles and, if necessary, take corrective measures to improve them.
You may be able to increase your CTRs and rankings by improving your page titles.
What are the opportunities available to you?
The same procedure can be used to improve the ranking position of your old posts by changing their titles.
To conduct this type of analysis, you will need a paid tool such as SEMrush. This tool offers a great range of features for Digital Marketers, but you may use any tool of your choice. The following is a brief overview of the procedure:
- You should optimize your titles and publish your posts.
- Check the ranking position of the post for various keywords after 5-6 months.
- Change your title to include keywords that appear on the first page of Google and receive a significant amount of monthly search traffic.
- Google Search Console's Fetch and Render function can be used to resubmit the post to Google.
- Keep an eye on your ranking.
As a final note
Make sure the page titles of your blog posts do not exceed 60 characters before publishing them.
Use your focused keywords in your page titles to rank high and place them at the beginning of your titles to gain more weight. Don't over-optimize. Use compelling meta descriptions in conjunction with excellent titles to increase your organic click-through rate.
Share your thoughts in the comments if you have any additional questions about writing search engine-friendly titles.