SEO Break Down - Part 1: Page Titles
Posted on February 11th, 2008 by IBabel under SEO
Over the next few days I’ll be covering SEO as a whole. I haven’t gone too much into SEO on this blog as I’m not really an SEO enthusiast but I think it’ll be nice to break down the basics in a nice series.
So let’s get into the first post in this series; page titles.
Why Do We Use Page Titles?
I think the best thing we can do first in this break down is establish why we use page titles. Let’s go back to pure basics.
Well, page titles help people see what a page is about before they visit it. Simple as that. I believe, personally that relevance is better than keywords. Meaning, the more relevant you make your page title, the better chance you have of Google placing you higher in the ranks. Also, the better chance you have of people clicking on your page title.
By stuffing your page titles with keywords galore you cheapen the image of your site, page and immediately put forth a perception of spam. People will just intuitively blank page titles like this out as it doesn’t look attractive or explain much.
Remember, the average person, the average web user doesn’t know anything about SEO. Even remotely. Neither do they know about PR or why sites are where they are in search results. All they know is they’ve searched for something and they are going to click on the most relevant title. Subconscious maybe, but true.
What Makes a Good Page Title?
To me, a good page title is one that briefly but perfectly defines a page and one that is 100% relevant.
You need to remember though, what makes a good page title to you aka a web savvy tech who knows about SEO doesn’t necessarily make a good page title to the average person.
It all depends what market you are in and what type of site you own.
If you’re in the Internet marketing niche then it will be, a lot of the time - SEO, web savvy people searching for the things that you provide or write about.
If you own a store selling comedy DVDs for example though. Then even if you know about SEO and how to rank well and think Google are only looking for keywords. Remember that it’s average humans that will be looking for what you provide.
A title such as: RICKY GERVAIS DVD, DVD RICKY GERVAIS, GERVAIS, THE OFFICE. For example. Would be awful! Yes it has a popular comedians name in it numerous times and a relevant association people would often search for with his name.
But, do you think that title is attractive to the average person? Neither do I. They would be more likely to click on something like: Ricky Gervais - The Office DVD.
It’s clean, 100% relevant and has all the keywords you need for Google to gobble up. Difference is, it’s not overkill. It mentions everything, once. That’s all you need.
It’s covers both sides of the fence. Google likes it because it has relevant keywords and the average Joe likes it because it’s exactly what they’re looking for, it says all it needs to say.
How to Write Good Page Titles
It’s not rocket science. It’s very simple actually, there’s no particular skill or art to it. Just write what you see but write it for humans. Yes, make it keyword friendly but NO do not make it stuffed with keywords to try and manipulate search engines.
Well, I say ’search engines’ but let’s face it. Google.
Here are some very simple rules to follow when writing page titles
- Make it as short as you can whilst still fully explaining the nature of said page
- Include relevant keywords in the page title but do not stuff it
- Write for humans
- Use proper grammar
If you search for something. Anything, like a Photoshop tutorial. The results that come up in the first 10 are always the neat and tidy ones that get the point across and are 100% relevant whilst being as compact as possible.
Google likes to display the most relevant pages. But also the highest quality pages first.
Just write what you see. If you have a page explaining how to peel oranges. Call it that.
So something like: How to Peel Oranges
As I’ve already mentioned, using proper grammar is also a plus. It’s not essential in content but in page titles I’d say you have a much better chance of Google ranking you higher and a much better chance of people clicking on your link, if the grammar is readable. It immediately shows you are more professional.
Now, that How to Peel Oranges page title example I just gave. I know, it seems too basic right? Surely there are tons and tons of other pages with the same title that have been indexed and ranked well before me.
You’re right! But this is where content comes in.
I’ll be covering content in Part 2 tomorrow. Stay tuned!
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February 11th, 2008 at 11:15 am
One title related breakthrough I had was, instead of just making the page title of a product just the name of that product, I stuck the word “Buy” on the front. Now I get traffic from loads of different “buy …” keywords which I never had before and it also makes my site more clickable in the SERPs.
I’d recommend it for any other retail site.
February 21st, 2008 at 4:29 am
Good tips for page titles writing. I do agree that page titles is as important as keywords. Reader also considerate the page titles before they decide to continue read the content.