SEO, or search engine optimization, is what everyone strives for with their site. Although a lot of SEO happens off the page – link building, social networking, article writing, etc.. – what happens “on the page” is still very important.
Title Tag (or Page Title) – Still the King!
One of the most powerful SEO areas on your site is the Title Tag.
The Title Tag determines the text (Page Title) that is displayed at the very top your browser’s window.
It’s also the first line of text in your website’s information that shows up on a Google search results page
Having a keyword-rich Page Title will really help Google understand what your page is about. You probably have an “About Me” type of page on your site. What does it say at the top of your browser window? Does it say About Me or something like that? If so, that’s not really going to do much in helping you with Google.
You want to have a keyword-rich title. Maybe your name is John Smith and you’re working on branding yourself as the “coolest guy in Las Vegas.” Right now your About page may have a title like, About John Smith. Again, not really going to help you come up in the search results.
John would want to change the title on his About page to read something like this, John Smith – The Coolest Guy In Las Vegas.
Or maybe John’s specialty is glass repair, and he lives in Las Vegas. A good page title would be, Las Vegas Glass Repair – John Smith, or John Smith – Las Vegas Glass Repair.
Brand Your Name
Why am I adding John’s name to the Title when all he really cares about is being found in a Google search for Las Vegas Glass Repair? Because it’s important to brand your name. In business (as well as life) these days, potential clients or employers will often Google your name to see what comes up. If you’re blogging and putting out useful information in your field, you want these potential clients to see that. It gives you credibility. It shows them what you know and how you can help them.
Also, maybe there’s some stuff, true or not true, out there on the web that you’d rather not have these potential clients read. It’s better to bury that stuff by putting out as much positive content as you can.
Creating Effective Page Titles in WordPress
If you’re using WordPress, you know that when you’re creating a new page or blog post, whatever you put in the Title field is the title of the page or article and also the Page Title that we’ve been talking about. Maybe you want to have a keyword-rich Page Title with your name in it, but you don’t necessarily want that to be the title of the blog post you’re writing.
For example, for this article I want the Page Title to be Ted Vieira, Las Vegas Web Developer – Effective SEO You Can Do Yourself – Title Tags, but that wouldn’t really look that great at the top of the article. Especially if you’re putting your name in the title of every article you write it will quickly start to look a little comical, like you’re some kind of Saturday Night Live character who’s a little to full of himself. 🙂
That’s okay, this is easy to work around. If you’re using StudioPress/Genesis (affiliate link) themes you can write the title of the article in the Title field, then just scroll down to the Custom Document Title field and enter the page title that you want. If you’re not using a theme that provides this, no problem. Install the WordPress plugin, All in One SEO Pack. It’s free and you can get it here, or just install it through your WordPress admin area. That plugin will allow you to have an post title and a separate page title.
For example, for this post I would enter:
My blog post title: Effective SEO You Can Do Yourself – Title Tags
My Custom Document Title (Page Title): Ted Vieira, Las Vegas Web Developer – Effective SEO You Can Do Yourself – Title Tags
Cool, You’ve Fixed the Page Titles. Are You Done?
Is this going to guarantee that you’ll be on page one for a particular search? Of course not, but it might. Depends on how saturated your market is. But it definitely will help. If you’re not using your Title Tags you’re missing out on a lot of SEO power.
