The title tag is an HTML element which specifies the title of any web page in a single, brief sentence, and is considered to be one of the most important on-page SEO element.For example, this is what the content marketing Institute’s (CMI) Content marketing article’s title looks like after a google search:
A lot of people think title tags are quite easy to craft and there nothing can go wrong with them. The truth is that title tags have more SEO potential than a lot of people realize. Ahrefs had a 37% increase in traffic after changing their title tags!
There is much to know about title tags than normal. First, is, what should be the length of your title tag?
Title Tag Length
Search engines typically display the first 50-60 characters of your title tag. Titles under 60 characters have a 90% chance of being correctly displayed on search engines. The best way to remember is using this rule of thumb:
✅ Minimum Length: 30 characters/285 pixels.
✅ Maximum Length: 60 characters/575 pixels.
However, nothing is fixed. This length is no guarantee that your title will be displayed properly, it ultimately depends on the search engine.
How to Write the Perfect Title Tag?
Since title tags are such an important part of both Search engine optimization and search user experience, writing them is a high SEO-impact task with minimum effort. A perfect title tag has some main elements like relevant keywords, great readability, appropriate length, call-to-action, and uniqueness.
Here are some things to keep in mind to write the perfect title tag:
Length of the Title Tag
The length of the title tag is a much more complicated aspect than it looks as you have to take into account different search engines, devices, and Operating systems.
Characters VS pixels
No matter which search engine, in each SERP there is limited space for the title. Google advises to use the maximum number of pixels; however, Bing, Yahoo & DuckDuckGo advise the opposite. This makes sense as pixels are way more accurate than characters.
TITLE TAG LENGTH IN GOOGLE: For Google, make sure your title tag is at least 30 characters long, but not more than 60 characters. If talking in terms of pixels, make sure you use a minimum of 285 pixels but no more than 575. Keep in mind that Google’s tablet and mobile versions have higher max-width for title tags, but it is not yet possible to optimize title tags according to devices.
TITLE TAG LENGTH IN BING: For Bing, make sure your title tag is at least 25 characters long, but no more than 65 characters. Bing, however, does not have a different capacity according to devices.
TITLE TAG LENGTH IN YAHOO: Since there is not much information present in their Help Centre, an average of 50 characters should be the maximum limit for title tags in Yahoo. In case you have a very short title, Yahoo might use one of your headings as a substitute. To prevent this, make sure the title tag is at least 25 characters long.
TITLE TAG LENGTH IN DUCKDUCKGO: Even though DuckDuckGo does not have much information about optimizing its pages, research shows that it is best to stick to a maximum of 65 characters. If you don’t want the search engine to use one of your subtitles, make sure your title is at least 25 characters long.
Readability
The best way to write title tags is to focus on your audience; the first checkbox should be that the title must be easy to read. You should avoid writing the titles in only CAPITALS or lower case. Make use of the uppercase letter to emphasize some parts of the sentences.
Try not to use a lot of special characters in your title tag. Make sure your title tag is informative and easy to read for your audience.
Relevant Keywords
First and foremost, do not stuff your title with keywords. Doing so will not only dilute your keyword focus, but you may also end up not ranking for any of the keywords at all.
You should use your most relevant keyword at the start of your title tag as that allows search engines to understand that those are the most important keywords for the page in the question. Ideally, you should use only one to two keywords and write an interesting title.
Some of the most common formats of writing keywords using the title are:
✅ Primary Keyword, Secondary Keyword | Brand
✅ Primary Keyword and Secondary Keyword – Brand
Unique Title Tag
Another important aspect of your title tag is uniqueness. Each page must have its unique title tag, as having similar titles will confuse both the audience and search engines. Especially the search engines, as they are going to face a hard time choosing the relevant page to pick to rank for keywords, often only ranking one.
Call-To-Action
Even though choosing relevant keywords important, it is also important to choose the best words for the rest of the title as well. Carefully chosen words can get you a new lead or prospective customer.
Why Should You Care About Title Tags?
SEO: Looking at any yearly industry surveys held amongst industry specialists in SEO, the title tag has been playing and continues to play an important role in any search engine’s ranking algorithm! It was and remains to be the number one check box for on-page optimization of your website. If you want to rank on search engines, pay attention to your title tags!
User Experience: Title tags play a major role in user experience as they are often displayed in Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) and have a major influence on the Click-through rate (CTR – the percentage of people who are clicking on your listing) of any listing. Since search engines are majorly going to use your title and meta descriptions in the SERP; optimize it and make it appealing to increase the CTR & the chance of ranking.
Browsers use title tags when bookmarking or in the browser tabs. Eg:
Social Media: Sometimes, when you share an article on social media, it uses your title tag as the headline of the post! Having a great headline will automatically increase your CTR on social media.
Wrapping it Up!
Title tag plays an important role in your website’s ranking and development on the internet. The search engine relies a lot on title tags to identify multiple articles and connect with relevant keywords, to rank them accordingly! It will play in your best interest to keep this in mind when crafting another article for your website.