The Title tag is the most important element in determining
relevance for a web page. You want to make sure you are as specific
as possible when naming your page. If your page is about “Blue
Widgets”, your page should not be titled just “Widgets”. Now,
depending on the size of your website and resources available, it may
not be practical to address every single web page title right away.
You need to focus on your users. What are your most popular web
pages? This type of thinking can generate a list of pages to focus
on. Viewing your top pages in Google Analytics is one way of viewing
this information. In addition, if a lot of web pages on your site are
dynamically generated, you may want to implement a logical
re-visioning in code by setting rule-sets in how to trim them down.
The best part about optimizing for title tags with dynamic pages
comes with all the glorious rules you can set forth. Here are some
examples in scenarios in what you can do to optimize.
- Set the maximum character count to 70. This included any data entry or tool set point for the field.
- Set the maximum character count in the database of the pertaining field.
- When selling products, ensure you list the Brand of the product first, then list the products description or model number keywords.
- Set a variable in your implementation to ensure the Title tag can not be dynamically changes unless there is some form of validation from the user (boolean value).
- If a user somehow manages to enter in more than 70 characters, have the developer check the string and remove the ending characters of the title. This will ensure you have no incomplete pieces of text that takes away from the weight of keywords in the title.
- You may also include the brand at the end of the page. The title can appear as Blue Widgets – Your Website Name without the .com. However, never sacrifice listing the brand name if your title is within the 70 character limit. You should have a developer dynamically count the length of your website name and only include it, if all full characters can fit in the title while including your website's name. Listing your website's name is important to build recognition in the search listing. A user is more likely to click a link with Ebay in the title vs. some unknown website.
If you have a smaller website, you should use Google's keyword tool
to best populate the title of your page. You should consider the
volume of searches and the level of competition of the keyword
phrase. Another tactic when developing your title tag is to ensure it
is a little unique vs. any heading tags in place (h1, h2,
etc..). This gives a slight boost in uniqueness of the page.
As a final note, the closer the keyword phrase is to the beginning of the
title tag, the stronger the weighting will be. You never want to list
your company site first for any unique page. The exception to this
rule can be your home page if you are concentrating on building brand
identity.
