How do Title Tags Help SEO Efforts?

Title tags are all around us! Have you ever noticed the descriptive information for a web page at the top of your internet browser? That information is the “title tag” for that page. 

Here’s a look at how the title tag displays in a search window for Sesame’s website category page, for example: 

Title tags are the clickable heading shown within Google’s or the specific search engine results and browser tabs. Although not particularly visible to searchers not looking for them, they are VERY important for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes. 

Keep reading to learn why!

Title Tags Play a Crucial SEO Role

The page title is an important part of SEO. In the Search Results, it is shown above your meta description and under your URL. Here’s a sample from a “Sesame websites” search result: 

In order to appear more visible in search results relative to competitors, optimizing title tags is a necessity. Why? Because the title tag tells search engine crawlers what the overall them of a web page is, aiding the indexation process.

Title Tag SEO Best Practices 

Keep each title tag short, direct, and descriptive so the person who performed the search is able to tell if your business offers a solution for their needs. Consider highlighting the city your practice is in and give direct information plus a brief content description of what the visitor will see when they go to the page.

For example, for a dental practice named “Awesome Dental” in San Francisco an appropriate title tag could be: 

“Dentist in San Francisco – Awesome Dental”

Potentially Harmful

If a page does not have a good page title, it can negatively affect visibility in search results for important terms. Without an optimized page title, the search engine that is crawling the page will not understand that it’s relevant for a given term.

 When a page title is optimized with the correct information the crawler is more likely to notice that page and place it prominently in search results. That will translate to more traffic from prospective patients. 

Be Unique

Because each page’s title tag content depends on actual target keywords, it’s important to create unique titles for each page. Use primary keywords in the title tag that will show the user and the search engine crawlers the exact content they are looking for is connected to the search result they are about to click. 

It’s also ideal to use your brand or business name when possible (as in the example above) and to keep each title tag between 20-70 characters as longer title tags will not get completely displayed or indexed by search engines.

 

Having optimized title tags can greatly impact your practice’s search results visibility. The greater the visibility, the more frequently your specific page is listed prominently in search engine results. That translates to more website traffic from current and prospective patients. In short, don’t let your website’s title tags go without optimization!

 

—Aliah Rasmussen, SEO Specialist, Sesame Communications