Your page title on your home page is the biggest indicator to search engines of what your website is about. If it doesn’t succinctly explain exactly what your website offers, as well as containing your keyword phrase as discussed in Search Engine Mistake #1, then you’re missing out significantly on website visitors.

What is a website page title?

The page title is the writing in the blue bar at the top of a web page, and originates in the Meta Tags, which are a set of instructions for search engines and technicians at the beginning of your web page. These Meta Tags are not displayed in the normal view of your website. However, (assuming your are using Internet Explorer) all you have to do is click on the ‘View’ tab at the top of the page and then select ‘Source’ to view the code behind your website.

Your page title will be in-between the two ‘HTML Tags’ and (which indicates the start and end of the page title).

Your page title is also shown as the clickable title link displayed in search results, if your site has been found using a search engine query.

The most common page title mistake that businesses make

Most businesses are proud of their brand name. Unfortunately that means that they want their brand name all over their website. Including all the areas that should be used for keyword phrases instead. Businesses HAVE to find a way to take independent advice AND act upon it without their brand coloured glasses on when deciding on their website page title.

How to write an effective page title

A page title should be between 10 and 60 characters long – including spaces. Any longer, and it may be cut when appearing in search engine results. It should ideally JUST be the keyword phrase that you have decided on for your page (Refer to The 10 Biggest Search Engine Optimization Mistakes: #1: Wrong Keywords).

A good example of an effective page title would be ‘Internet Marketing Consultant’.

The second best example of an effective page title would also include the brand name – for example, ‘David Bain - Internet Marketing Consultant’. This effectiveness of this title is however diminished compared to the first example.

The worst possible page title in this example would be ‘David Bain’. If found in search engine results, hardly anyone would visit the site because the title doesn’t denote what the website is about. In addition, the chances of appearing in desired search engine results would be reduced significantly due to the lack of keywords.

Remember to think about all your website pages – each page title on each page should be optimized. Not just your home page. A good example is the website http://www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz where all the business article categories have their own key phrase focused category pages. Take time getting your page titles right. It will prove to be an extremely beneficial tool for significantly increasing your future website traffic.