The title tag is what shows up at the top of a user’s browser page, and it is also seen in the search results - go ahead, take a look at the top of your browser and you'll see the title of this page in the blue section at the top.
Most search engines index the contents of the title tag, and actually make it one of the most important factors in the site ranking process. So if you don’t have an optimized title tag, you might be missing the boat as far as rankings are concerned. Plus, it's not the best user experience to visit a Web site with no title tag, since the title tag is what shows up in the Favorites when a site is bookmarked. No title tag equals the very bland "(Untitled)" and is not a big incentive for people to come back to your site.
So how do you write a good title tag? Let's say you have a business that sells personalized embossed dog tags in a suburb of Portland, Oregon. You have a couple options as far as the title tag is concerned.
Examples of Title Tags
- “Dog Tags”. Not good. It’s vague, and not targeted to your specific market.
- “Oregon Dog Tags”. Better, but still not as precise as it should be.
- “Personalized Embossed Dog Tags-Portland, Oregon”. There! It’s specific, it’s to the point (title tags should be under 200 characters), and targets who is most likely to be looking at your site.
