Optimize Your SEO Title Tags: 5 Important Do’s And Don’ts

Of course, there are many different things you need to consider when creating an SEO-friendly website, from user experience and readability to keyword optimization and backlinks but SEO title tags are arguably the single most important of these things.

For any beginners, a title tag is the title of your page that is displayed on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page).

Because of this, you should treat your title tags as a sales pitch.

On the front page of Google for any given search, there are ten different websites all competing for the clicks of users. The title tags that are the most click-friendly and appealing to searchers will be the ones that drive the most traffic.

Of course, a well-designed title tag goes beyond just appealing for a user’s click.

Title tags also tell Google what your page is about and thus should be optimized from an SEO perspective as well.

With these two things in mind here are our top 5 do’s and don’ts for creating SEO optimized, click-friendly title tags.

Do Use Your Main Keyword(S) In Your Title Tag

One of the most important things you can do to tell Google what your page is about is to use your main keyword (or keywords) in your title tag.

Your primary keyword (the keyword that you use as an H1 and in your URL i.e. the keyword that you hope to rank #1 for) should ideally be at the beginning of your title tag.

For example, if, like My Betting Sites Australia, you are running an affiliate website in the sports betting industry and you have written an article about how to bet on Melbourne Cup horse racing then you may want to rank for the keyword “How to bet on Melbourne Cup”.

If this is the case, a well-optimized title tag would begin with this keyword. For example:

“How to Bet on Melbourne Cup » Place a Melbourne Cup Bet Today!”

You’ll also notice that after the arrow symbol this title tag employs a secondary keyword “Melbourne Cup Bet”.

If you have space, employing two keywords in your title tag is a great idea but always be sure to put your primary keyword at the beginning of your title.

Do Make Sure Your Title Tag Is The Appropriate Length

On the Google search engine, title tags must be less than 600 pixels long. This is approximately 60 characters although larger characters like “M” or “W” take up more pixel space than smaller characters like “l” or “i”.

These specifications also vary a little bit for desktop or mobile searches and depend on the display size of the user.

Because of this, it is important to make sure that your title tags fit within the 600px window as Google will cut title tags that are too long.

Title tags that are cut are significantly less click-friendly and informative for users so having a title tag that is too long can seriously affect your CTA (click-through rate).

Also, pay attention to whether most of your users visit your site on mobile or on desktop as mobile title tags will be displayed on two lines and so they can appear slightly different for different people.

You can use tools like Magool’s Free SERP simulator to check your title tag length and what your title tag will look like on desktop and mobile.

Do Make Use Of Dates, Special Characters, And Symbols

One of the biggest mistakes or things that many people forget about when crafting title tags is to make use of special characters and symbols to make their title tags more click-friendly.

Your use of special characters should also depend on what your competition, and what websites in your industry, commonly do.

For example, in the sports betting industry, it might be more appropriate to use a lot of different characters and maybe even emojis in your title tag but for a more professional industry, like the insurance business, the use of symbols may seem more out of place.

You will also want to avoid using symbols that other sites use because these won’t make your title tag stand out.

Common special characters and symbols that work well in title tags include:

• Punctuation Marks: . , ? ! – ~ •
• Brackets: ( ) { } [ ]
• Math Symbols: + = # %
• Other Symbols: » → & @ “ ” … _ | /

If the freshness of your page is also relevant then consider adding a date to your title tag. For example, putting “(Updated 2021)” or “[May 2021]” at the end of your title tag could drive additional traffic to your page.

Don’t Only Write Your Title Tags For Google

Because title tags are not the only thing that will make your page rank, many people try to over-optimize their title tags by stuffing them with keywords.

We’ve all seen it but just think about a title tag like:

“Best Vacuum Cleaner – Top Vacuum Cleaners Online – Buy Now”

You wouldn’t click it right?

A better title tag might be:

“Best Vacuum Cleaners: 10+ Cheap & Powerful Vacuums [2021]”

At the end of the day your on-page SEO is affected by many different things so instead of adding every keyword under the sun to your title tag (and potentially driving clicks away from your page) be sure to craft a title that contains your keyword, but that is also something you yourself would want to click on.

Don’t Re-Use Title Tags For New Pages

After you come up with a great title tag for one page it can be tempting to copy and paste it, change the keywords, and then reuse it for every title on your website.

While some of your ideas might translate well, the reality is that every page and every search has a different intention and therefore your new title tags should be crafted again to suit each new page on your site.

Also consider adding words or phrases to your title tags that you are not trying to rank for, but that you believe will satisfy the intention of people searching for your keywords.

For example, if you want your page to rank for the keyword “best vacuum cleaners” then adding something like “10+ Cheap & Powerful Vacuums” to the end of your title tag may better satisfy searchers than simply rephrasing your primary keyword in a different way (i.e. “Top Vacuum Cleaners Online”).

While your title tags won’t be the only things that help your pages to rank, they do play a very important role in telling Google what your pages are about and in attracting the clicks of searchers.

If you do manage to make it to the front page of Google then your CTA will likely be the biggest determining factor in whether your page climbs to the number one position so be sure to pay attention to your title tags and don’t be afraid to update your old ones if necessary.