SEO Tip 6: Target the Title

The page title will be displayed by (most) search engines on their search results pages. The title is therefore what people see before they visit the page. The title is in many ways the “CV” of the page, it is what gets people interested and brings them to the page. Most search engines also pay particular attention to the words in the title.

• Make the page title attractive and appealing to your target audience.
• Most search engines pay particular attention to the page title, so consider ensuring that the page title contains the keyword or keywords that you are targeting.
• It seems that most search engines will only consider the first 69 characters in the page title. Google seems to consider only the first 69 characters, Bing might be only the first 65 characters. So it is best to limit the size of the title accordingly. Depending on the size of your visitor's browser window, the title may appear truncated if it is much more than this (YMMV).
• Review the title and compare it with other sites/pages that you consider to be your competition, does your title stand out as different, can it be changed to make it stand out even more?
• Headings (and in particular the main page heading) should contain the keywords you are targeting.
• Be aware that a search engine might use the first heading on the page instead of the title, so ensure that it is suitably worded.

This tip is part of a series of tips on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). The previous tip in the series was Tip 5: Keyword Placement and the next tip in the series is Tip 7: Images and alt text.