Whether your page is being seen by an Internet user or a search engine spider, one of the first things the viewer will come across is your title tag. In the search engine listings, your title tag will usually be used as the link listed for your page. In your code, the title tag is what the search engines look for as one of the relevant factors for your page.
Crafting a good title tag is a matter of experience and knowledge. The experience part comes in when you’re looking for a tag that will attract your target user group. The knowledge comes in when you want your tag to contribute to your page’s search engine optimisation. There are two absolute must-haves in a good title tag:
1. SEO. Titles weigh in fairly heavily in the search engines’ assessment of your page. It is absolutely vital to have your page’s keywords prominently in the title, preferably as close to the beginning of the title as possible. A keyword in a prominent place helps link your page in relevance to that keyword.
2. Readability. If your title tag isn’t catchy, there’s a fair chance that it won’t be clicked on when it appears in the search engine results pages. For this reason, it’s worthwhile spending a fair bit of time crafting just the right title tag. Achieving a good title tag can be tricky, as keywords won’t always fit nicely. It’s worth it for your SEO to spend the time working keywords in seamlessly.
