Of late I’ve noticed many of my clients are not particularly aware of the importance of web page titles. Many have just “Home”, “Services”, etc. as their web page titles. They either don’t know what they are, or even if they know, they don’t know their significance.
What is a web page title?
Modern browsers like Google Chrome and the latest versions of Mozilla FireFox don’t show the web page title text in the window title bar so may be that’s why many people don’t know of their existence. Luckily I found the web page title visible in Internet Explorer; here is what I mean:
If you look at the source code of your web page, your title appears within <title></title> within the <head></head> area.
Why is your web page title important?
It is your web page title that makes your web page or blog post unique. When people automatically link to your web page it’s your title that becomes your representative text. Here’s why you need a well-defined, convincing web page title:
- Search engines use your web page title. The search engines not only use your web page title to rank it (it should contain your primary keyword) they also show it as the hyperlink text when your web page shows up on their search result pages. It has been proven there is a greater probability of people clicking the link and coming to your web page if the link contains the keyword or key phrase they have just used.
- Bookmarking tools use your web page title. When people bookmark your web page it is saved using your title. The next time people want to come back to your web page after looking it up in their saved bookmarks they’ll be able to identify it only by the title. Similarly bookmarking and link sharing websites like Delicious and StumbleUpon use your web page title to organize information.
- Social media tools use your web page title. Have you ever tried to post a link using a social media plug-in? It is the title of the web page that accompanies the link/URL. If there is no accompanying title there is no way of finding out what the link represents and hence people will not share it on their social media profiles.
- TrackBack services use your web page title. Services that automatically index the web and look for relevant pages look for your web page title to create indexes.
- It’s easier for people to connect to your web page if it has a well-defined title. Everybody realizes the importance of quality incoming links and you will be basically discouraging people from linking to your important pages by not including a title. If a title is missing it forces people to come up with their own titles and this acts as a deterrence. Provide them a title so that they can quickly lead to your web page.
- Your compelling web page title encourages social media sharing. It is your web page title that makes people share your link with their friends and followers. No matter how interesting information your web page contains, unless your web page title doesn’t carry the most important aspect of your web page it is not going to be shared.
So you can see, despite being just a single line of text, or important your web page title is.
But it is not that all the clients don’t understand the overwhelming importance of web page titles. There are many clients who are actually eager to pay extra for creating SEO-friendly and compelling web-page titles.
According to search engine point of view page title is the fist sign of the
content of the page. It is the key information returned when search engines
list results to a keyword search.
Amrit, this was a fantastic article. I believe you've hit the nail on the head. Many online users have gone to Google Chrome and Firefox for security reason and don't have a clue about the SEO effects of web page titles. Great post and thanks for sharing it.
Hello Sherry. Thanks for your encouraging words. Yes, it is intriguing that most of the modern browsers are abandoning showing page titles over the browser window and that is why many people are unaware of their existence. Although within the top corner of the tab you can partially see the titles they don't make any sense. Using Firefox and Google Chrome don't affect your search engine rankings, but it is always helpful if you can see page and blog post titles.