Title Tag Optimization
Title tags are arguably the most important piece of real
estate on a web page. Title tag optimization helps to describe,
in a nutshell, what the web page is all about. Contrary to
what some believe, the title tag is not a meta tag as the
human visitor can see these tags with a browser such as Internet
Explorer or Firefox.
Title tag optimization can be done in two different methods.
The first method is to figure out what a web page is about
including keyword phrases and putting those phrases, (from
most important to least) in the title tag.
The second method for title tag optimization involves doing
keyword research and coming
up with keywords including title tags first, and then writing
a web page around those words. The first method described
is what people usually do when they consider SEO after the
fact.
The second method is more ideal, in that you can find out
what keyword phrases are popular and with low competition
and then build pages based on this research and the slant
of your website.
Title tag optimization will never involve using just one
keyword because usually these are too competitive to rank
for under normal circumstances. There are of course a couple
of exceptions to this rule. The first would be in the case
of branding a customer's website, a one-word title tag such
as Nokia, Samsung or IBM may be used.
The second exception to this rule may be for a new generic
word or obscure word that doesn't have a lot of competition
yet. There are some medical or scientific words that don't
have much competition or made up buzzwords that are just gaining
popularity that will also work.
Title tag optimization includes making sure at least two
word key phrases are used (and oftentimes more) and that they
are on-target in regard the focus of the web page. Putting
the words "Real Estate" in the title tag and then
serving up a page about diet pills doesn't make much sense
and won't go anywhere in the search engine rankings.
Use no fewer or no more words than necessary in the title
tag. This may seem like common sense, but some people see
this as an area for a commercial advertisement rather than
a place to describe their page. One last tip is to not repeat
words in the title tag. This could potentially get a page
penalized in the SERPs.
Follow these simple rules for title tag optimization and
you'll be on your way to getting higher rankings in the search
engines.
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