About your page title and how to put it to work
Along with the H1 tag, your homepage’s title tag is the most critical SEO (search engine optimization) element of each page of your website.
The page title is a bit of HTML that provides the name of each page of your website. This title is displayed in search engine results pages as the clickable link in blue.
Here’s mine for the Blossom Creative Online homepage:
This is what searchers see when my website is served up in the search results. The page title is the top line of blue or purple text.
What’s the big deal about the title tag?
People read your title tag in their search engine results and decide based on its contents whether or not they will click on that link.
Search engines index your page title and use it to determine when (if at all) they will offer up your website on the search results.
What is your current page title and how does it display in search results
Finding out is as simple as putting your website homepage’s URL into the Google search query box.
Copy and paste your website’s homepage URL in the search box in Google or your preferred search engine. The first search result is more than likely for your homepage.
The page title for your homepage is whatever is shown in the blue link.
Take a screen shot of the result or copy it into a document. You’ll need this for the next step.
How to turn your page title into a sales rep
The title tag for your homepage is the first impression people get of your business when they are searching for people who can answer their question or solve their problem.
A strong title tag will accurately describe the content of the page in a way that is engaging and attractive. You want your ideal client to read your page title and click on your link, not your competitors’.
A bad page title: Home
A good page title: Yin Yoga | Online Classes Now Available | Sunrise Yoga Studio
A good page title will entice people to click with confidence that you have the answer to their question or the solution to their problem.
What impression is your homepage’s title leaving with potential clients
Look at your page title and ask:
Is your page title acting as your best sales rep?
Does it attract the right people to learn more about what you do?
Does it describe the purpose of your business?
Elements of a good homepage title
You’ll need to have a list of keywords on hand. A good rule to follow is to use the same primary keyword in both the title and H1 of each page. Remind yourself of which keyword you used to write the H1 for the page. You’ll want to plug that into the formula.
What unique benefit do you provide, particularly in relation to your primary keyword?
The page title needs to be around 60 character or less, or the search engine may truncate the title (page titles that are a little too long will have a … at the end). The search engines will still index the information that’s been truncated, but the humans won’t be able to see it.
Use Title Case when writing the page title. This is standard practice and is most readable.
Formula to produce a click-worthy page title
Plug in the above info to this formula:
[Primary Keyword] | [Topic of Page or Unique Benefit] | [Business Name]
Example: Yin Yoga | Online Classes Now Available | Sunrise Yoga Studio (63 characters)
Example: HIIT Fitness Classes | Private Sessions | Mary Smith Training (61 characters)
Try it out for your business. Play around with your primary keyword, unique benefit, and business name until you get something that will attract your ideal client in around 60 characters.
Want my guidance as you make these crucial updates to your website? Book a seat in the next SEO Masterclass!
