Ask any SEO expert, and it’s likely they will tell you that the <title> element in a web page’s <head> section is the single most important factor to maximise search engine visibility. Create a title, they say, that includes the key term you’re optimising the page for… given time, links and luck, you should have a page that ranks well for that term.
It’s a little more complicated than that, as you know already. But I don’t disagree that the <title> element is very, very important, and this short post is the first of two on the topic of titles.
This post provides guidance on what to write, and provides a couple of very useful resources.
Tomorrow’s post concentrates on the topic of titles for blog posts.
Step 1: Think of Your Title Element As Your Page Headline
Your page title has way more value to you than just a search engine ranks booster. Because whenever someone searches and your page shows up in the results, the first thing they see is your page title. Highlighted in large, blue font. Your title needs key terms for SEO purposes, no questions - but it also needs to grab your prospects attention from all the other search results and make them click on your link (not someone else’s).
There’s a limit in the length of the title, as well. Keep your title to 60 characters or thereabouts, and you guarantee it won’t be cut short on the search results pages.
Step 2: Think of Your Meta Description as Your Page Subheading
There’s some confusion about whether the meta description value imparts any search engine value at all. Personally I’ve seen that it does, and then seen that it doesn’t. My guess is that Google fiddles around with this and sometimes it’s considered according to some arcane and mystic algorithmic trickery, and other times its ignored. I haven’t yet tried it on Yahoo! and Live.
No matter, because the meta description plays a hugely important role as your page’s subheading. On the search results page, it’s the text that shows up on your listing just below your title (and above your URL). You have around 160 characters to play with, and this needs to be your very best effort at persuasive copywriting. Again, the goal is convince a bored prospect that your page is the very best resource and they need to click on the link right away.
Step 3: Make Your Titles and Descriptions PERSUASIVE
This is the hard bit, because it involves creativity.
You’re not creative? Me neither, so I get help. And the two resources I repeatedly come back to are:
- Sean D’Souza’s eBook Why Do Some Headlines Fail?, a short (12 page) publication that he’s kindly allowed me to make available to you on this blog. If you like this, I recommend you check out Sean’s website http://www.psychotactics.com which is chock full of good marketing advice.
- Brian Clark’s Copyblogger website at http://www.copyblogger.com. As the name suggests, it’s devoted to the subject of copywriting (not just for the web) and it’s regarded as the most complete resource on the topic. Well worth bookmarking, or adding to your feed reader.
Both these resources are free.
An Example: The Title Of This Post
Following the lead of Sean’s eBook, I thought I would share some of the rejects for this post. Here’s the short list (and see if can guess what my key term is):
Three Steps to Killer Page Titles - Curiosity for this one, but no question either implied or stated. Very “how to”, and ho-hum.
Do You Know How To Write Killer Page Titles? - The question is there, as well as curiosity. But it’s a bit wordy and a bit “twee”; it’s my second choice, but still not great.
Do You Know What It Takes To Write Killer Page Titles? - Same comments as the one above, but even longer. Too many “padding” words.
The winner, at the top of this page, is short, to the point, and (in my opinion) challenging enough to get a semi-interested person to read it. The question is there, so is the curiosity.
12 responses so far ↓
1 Tom // Jan 15, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Great post, Mark. Curious: what plug-in do you use for SEO on your blog?
2 Mark // Jan 15, 2008 at 1:36 pm
@Tom: Thanks for stopping by! I use the All-in-one SEO Pack plugin. It’s the winner, in my opinion.
BTW here’s a hint for tomorrow’s post: have a look at the post, and you’ll see that the post title, the page title (in the browser title bar) and the page slug (in the address bar) are all different. That’s because they all are there for different purposes
3 Tom // Jan 15, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Thanks Mark. I had been considering SEO pack. I was going to use SEO Title Tag, but SEO pack is more complete. Much appreciated advice.
4 Francisco (Houston Wedding DJ) Perez // Jan 16, 2008 at 1:42 am
Great Post, this is one area I need a lot of work on and it really pointed me in a good direction. Thanks
5 Anne-Marie // Jan 16, 2008 at 1:42 am
Thanks for the writing inspiration today. I’ve been working on my headline all morning and think I’ve got it finally.
6 Colby Morita // Jan 16, 2008 at 8:20 am
Nice Post. I need to think more about my page titles and this post gives me a good starting point.
By the way, I like the “Three Steps to Killer Page Titles” title the best. For some reason I just like step-by-step articles. Just my two cents.
Thanks!
7 Mark // Jan 16, 2008 at 9:27 am
@Francisco, Anne-Marie, Colby: Thanks very much for your feedback, it’s great to know you find this stuff valuable :-). And Colby, that was actually the working title while I was writing it… but you raise a good point, those “3 steps” type of title really do grab attention, don’t they?
8 Chris Bloczynski // Jan 16, 2008 at 11:44 am
Hey, Mark! Great post… I’m sending it through the Stumble cycle for you.
I wrote a bit recently that is along the same lines, where I dissected different headline styles and presented 99 different techniques to create a headline that pulls your reader into the text of your article. I hope you find it relevant.
Again, great tips!
9 SEO Blog Titles For Search Engine Traffic | Stratify Pty Ltd // Jan 16, 2008 at 1:41 pm
[…] RSS ← Can You Write Killer Page Titles? […]
10 Mark // Jan 16, 2008 at 1:43 pm
@Chris, thanks very much for visiting, and I’ll go & check out your link now.
11 Internet Marketing Case Stevens // Jan 17, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Hello Mark.
Great post. And I do agree that All-in-one SEO is the best optimization plugin.
It’s simple, easy to use, straight forward and highly effective!
As for Brian Clark’s Copyblogger:
You should read that blog daily, it’s very valuable.
But since this post is about headlines, check out Brian’s
How to Write Magnetic Headlines at
www.copyblogger.com/magnetic-headlines/
check out
12 Mark // Jan 18, 2008 at 9:46 am
@Case: You got it! But there’s so much excellent content on Brian’s blog I didn’t want to just highlight one post.
BTW if you haven’t already check out Chris’s post in his comments a few up. It’s really good
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