D. Keith Robinson's Gorilla Web Tips
Tip Number Seven - Writing Better Web Page Titles
August 18th, 2003
What's In A Title
One of the easier ways you can improve your Web pages is to write better titles for them. It's surprising to me how little this is done, considering that it's a usually fairly easy and the benefits are huge.
A title is simply that, a name for your page. It goes within the title tag of your HTML. This is what usually shows up in search results and often what people will use when linking to. Obviously it's very important.
A Good Title Tag
I've found in general the best way to write a title tag is to keep it short and to the point. Use keywords and phrases that not only describe the page, but words that appear on it as well. Don't try and get clever, just say what you mean, and call the page what it is.
A good title tag is:
- Clean. Readers and searchers (those folks who are going to look at your title) are usually in a hurry looking for something. Strive to help them by using trigger words and plain language.
- Short. Less then 10 words, and usually the shorter the better. There are times where you may want to include extra words, like I do on this page, but do your best to cut the title to the essence.
- Meaningful. Keep your title to the point. Place the most important information first, this is what your readers and searchers will see, if you must add information like a company name or tag line do it at the end of the title.
Think of your title as the super executive summary of your page. Just provide the most relevant words that say what your page is all about and you'll be fine.
The Benefits of a Good Title
By writing good titles for your pages you will help people find you in search engines as a good title tag is probably the most important thing you can do to optimize your site for search. It will not only increase your relevant results, but will give the searcher a better read on what your page is about.
There are also many usability benefits. By using a clear, short and meaningful title tag you provide your readers with the information they need to get an idea of what your page is about. When sending your page via e-mail or linking from another site, your title tag can be repurposed to title those links, again setting the reader up for a much more useful experience.
What a Title Tag Is Not.
There are so many poorly written title tags out there I feel like it might be a good idea to explain some common mistakes and point out big no-no's of writing title tags. Here are a few thing you shouldn't be doing with your title tags:
- Using clever language. Unless there is a really good reason to do so, avoid tricky or clever titles. Keep it simple and straight forward. If you're page is a listing of recipes for spaghetti use "Spaghetti Recipes" instead of "The yummy noodles" or something. Make your titles count. Always assume your readers won't "get" it.
- Keyword spamming. This is useless to a searcher. Sure they might see your keywords, but they won't click as they have no clue what the page is about. It's never a good idea to trick a user into clicking through. Sure you get a click, but in the end what you want is a reader or user. What's worse, you could get blacklisted from some search engines for this.
- Adding a description. This might sound like a good idea. It's not. A title tag that is too long will dilute it's relevancy and ultimately hurt more than help. When it shows up in the browser on as a search result only the first bit will be available anyway.
- Putting your site name first. Again, unless your talking about a home page, this is not too helpful. You can have your site name on every page, but you usually want to start with the most relevant information first. This can be ok, if you page title is very, very short.
As always there could be exceptions to these, as these are just some general guidelines. If you take the time to think about your titles and try and understand what words benefit searchers and readers in your particular situation I'm sure you'll see a whole lot more people finding your site and spending more time once they get there.
Some Examples
#1 - First off, Let's take one that has a direct relation to this article. Jakob Nielsen's:
Marginalia of Web Design (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox November 1996) [link]
this is not too bad. Not too good though either. What the heck does Marginalia mean?? A title is not the place to show off your vocabulary skills. Even if you know what that means, which I don't, does it give you an idea that this page is about writing page titles, text size and color and better image thumbnails? Are people going to search with that term? The answer is probably not in both cases.
This one is a bit tricky, due to the varied nature of the content on this page. I'd title this page:
Web Design Recommendations for Page Titles, Images, and Fonts
or something like that. Even just Web Design Recommendations would be better.
#2 - Ok how about this one?
Net Standard : Promoting a better web | Usability Standards | Provide Page Titles. [link]
Pretty good, but a bit backwards. It would be better if it read:
Provide Page Titles | Usability Standards | Promoting a better web
or something to that effect. You get the most relevant information towards the front and eliminate unneeded information helping to keep it fairly short.
#3 - This comes from a PDF that I had to re-title last week. The original title was:
What You Need To Know About Life Vests For Children.
You can see how that one might need some work. The phrase "what you need to know" is a qualifier, but otherwise not very useful. What I did was change it around a bit with:
Life Vests For Children - What You Need To Know
this way you still have the qualifier and you get the most important information up front.
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