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The page title is entered into the meta tag of the code for your page.  It deserves your full and thoughtful attention.  Whether you have a new mini-site or a gradually developed, mature, professionally created website, you must determine each page’s title carefully determined for several very important reasons.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization): If we look back to the early days of the short history of the Web, search engines looked first to the self-identified keywords displayed within the meta data of a web page to classify its topic.  However, foolish webmasters abused the trust and to spam the keyword tag area.  As the search algorithms became more sophisticated, the title tag became the most important of all the meta data.  Thus, in comtemporary times the title tag is one of the major determining factors in search engines determination of the content area of a web page.  This issue is important enough that many businesses decide to outsource the function of expert keyword research.

I.D. at Top of Browser: The words used in the title tag are displayed in the uppermost area of the browser window.  Although some visitors do not even notice the word or words used in the title, other visitors rely upon that as a short-hand reference to quickly identify the topic of that page.

Lead In To Search Listings: The title of the page appears at the top of any search engine result that returns your page.  It becomes the anchor text in the result, so that, when it is clicked, the user will land on your page.  It stands out because it is underline and a different color (blue) from the description.

Bookmark Text:  Although the visitor always has the ability to change the text or even add tags in some browsers, the title tag supplies the default text for any bookmark for a page that the user enters into the browser.

Here are a few suggestions to aid you as you determine appropriate titles for each of your pages 

1. Use your primary keyword as the entire title of a page or within the title of a page.  If you consider it important to do so, you may include multiple keywords in the title, but rank order those keywords and separate them by ” – ” or “|” marks.

2. Make sure the title you choose will stand out to someone who has executed a search when your page shows up in the results of a particular search.

3. Assure that the title is simultaneously as brief as possible and a truly accurate description so that it is useful to the visitor who sees it in the top of the browser window or in a list of bookmarks that have been saved to the computer.

4. Never assign the title “Home” to your home page (i.e. index.html or index.php, etc.).  That adds no value to your SEO or your users’ experience unless, of course, the page happens to be about the concept of “home.”  However you can use the word as part of a larger title in a descriptive way, such as “Home to the World’s Cheapest Plumber.”

5. You should experiment with changing your title every once in a while to see if you achieve better search engine results, in the same way that you would run tests on all of the major variables on your website.

Related posts:

1. Give Careful Thought to Any Page Title
2. The best way to Produce A Keyword Rich Title
3. Fundamentals Of A Search Engine Friendly Website
4. Getting More Visitors From Search Engines
5. Without search engine optimization Internet marketing does not work