Search engine optimisation can be a tricky task to undertake, especially if you are a novice.
There are a large number of factors to consider, and one of those is meta data. This includes titles, descriptions, keywords and alt tags.
Page titles should start with the key phrase or keyword you are targeting on that page. Approximately seventy characters are visible in the browser bar and crawled over by search engines.
Cosmic recommends using descriptive titles, using your focus keywords and phrases as a starting point. Doing this throughout your website can have a great impact on your website, especially if you have lots of content such as blog posts or even an e-commerce store. Well optimised categories and product titles can work wonders for your business and website traffic. Remember to keep the titles under 70 characters to ensure that Google will be able to index it in full.
Here are some quick tips to consider:
- Length: Title tags should be a maximum of 70 characters long, including spaces.
- Keyword placement: Your most important words (keywords) need to be first in your title tag, with your least important words being last in the title tag (most to least).
- Keyword separation: Use pipes (the | symbol) to separate important keyword phrases. Avoid commas, underscores, dashes or any other punctuation unless the keyword is written that way).
- Wording: Keep your important phrases short and simple. Leave out words that would make it read like a sentence.
- Company name: If your company name is not part of the important (keyword) phrases, put it at the end of the title tag; if it is part of your important words, put it as the first words in the title tag. You can leave it in for branding purposes – so people will see the brand and click. This isn't valid for all sites.
- Don’t duplicate title tags: They must be written differently for every page. Do not mass replicate your title tags.
- Relevance: Title tags must be written to be descriptive of the content on the page.
If you'd like to know more about SEO, visit Cosmic's SEO blog or get in touch with our team today on 0845 094 6108 or e-mail jamie@cosmic.org.uk.