SEO Help - Your Title Tag

You have your site but you're not getting found.  You thought you were doing SEO right.  You did your keyword research and you have come up with a website full of unique quality content.  So why aren't you getting ranked well on Google?  Have you looked at your Title tags?

So what is the Title Tag?

Basically, the title tag is HTML code.  This HTML code is located in the header section which is not visible on the webpage itself.   You can see what the Title tag of a site is by viewing the blue banner at the top of the browser when on a webpage (It's the blue banner on Internet Explorer).  Through the eyes of the search engines, the most useful piece of code on any page is the title tag and typically carries alot of weight in the search engines' algorithm.  Don't skip over the importance of your titles.

Title Tag Errors

There are two main mistakes that website owners will make in relation to the title tags. 

1. The same title tag is used on every page: You see this often when a business uses the name of their company on each page.  This works well if the company is only optimizing to get found on engines for their business name.  This, however, is usually never the case.  Companies want to be found by visitors based on their services they provide.  
   
2. The second mistake occurs when a designer places the page name in the title tag.  This happens usually on the home page and contact us pages of site.  Rather than put useful key word text in the home page title tag, it just says something like 'home', 'default' or 'business name home page'.  This is not helpful in getting better ranked on Google, Yahoo and other search engines.

How  Should I Create My Title Tag

Avoid the two mistakes I listed above when trying to optimize your sites.  As I mentioned, the Title tag is extremely important in SEO.  Here are some guidelines when creating your title.  For these recommendations, I assume that you have done keyword research.  To create useful title tags, take a look at the webpages on your site and review your blueprint (keyword list).  What is the overall theme of the page?  That is the starting point of your title tag.  Create a 2 to 9 word phrase based on your theme and blueprint.  Keep the tag to no more than 90 characters and make it readable.

Remember to do your Title Tag right as it is one of the most important aspects to the SEO fo your website.