In HTML code, the title tag specifies the title of your Web page. The title tag is inserted into the header of your web page and looks like this:
<head>
<title> Creating Title Tags for Search Engine Optimization & Web Accessibility</title>
</head>
As it is between the <head></head> tags, it will not be visible as part of the text of the document but can be seen in the very top border of your web browser (Firefox, Opera, Safari, Internet Explorer etc.)
The title has three primary roles
- used by the web browser in the window title bar
- used as a description for bookmark lists
- Most importantly it is one of the primary pieces of information that search engines use to index and rank your site.
A good page title must be descriptive and contain key words appropriate to the page for the search engines to use. However that is not the be all and end all of a page title; the title must also stand out from the crowd and be captivating enough to make the human want to click to go to your page.
There have been many studies as to how long a page title should be. Research has shown that different search engines display differing amounts of title in their results, Google for instance will display 66 characters whereas Yahoo results show 120. Internet explorer truncates the page title it displays in the top margin to 95 characters whereas Firefox displays all the title. Furthermore, research by hugoguzman has shown that Google indexes at least 164 characters of a page’s title tag.
With this in mind Webdesco has come up with a solution that meets the criteria of the primary roles; create a page title that has four parts, first part is 66 characters long so as it looks good in Google search results, the second part that is 29 characters long which combined with the first part looks good in the Internet Explorer top margin. The third part that is 25 characters in length for the additional information shown in Yahoo search results and finally the fourth part being 44 characters long for the additional information Google will index.
Sound confusing? Here is an example
Part 1 - Web Page Title Tags Maximum Length For Search Engine Optimisation
Part 2 - Title Tags and Google SEO
Part 3 - SEO Keyword Research
Part 4 - How Important are Title Tags for Google
Put it all together using the vertical bar as a separator and you get the following page title
Web Page Title Tags Maximum Length For Search Engine Optimisation | Title Tags and Google SEO | SEO Keyword Research | How Important are Title Tags for Google
To make life a little easier for me (and for you if you choose to use it) I have created a little form (shown below) that can be used to create the four parts for a perfect page title. (Note that in parts 2,3 & 4 I have reduced the allowed characters by 3 to allow for the separator).
