Top Five Search Engine Optimization Factors

Factor #4

By Guest Author Bev Mapes, Top Of The List

Our previous articles in The Vision indicated the top factors that help websites achieve high placement in search engines as:

Factor #1 -  keyword focused anchor text in inbound links
Factor #2 – external link popularity
Factor #3 – diversity of link sources

Today we discuss the #4 factor: keyword use anywhere in the title tag. This factor is usually one of the easiest to optimize, since it involves simple changes directly on your website.

Where the Title Tag Displays on a Web Page

While it may sound like the title tag goes at the top of your webpage, it actually goes at the top of your browser window. For example, here is a shot of Micro Visions' home page.

The title tag is emphasized in the picture below, and reads “Micro Visions Inc. – Your Objective Information Technology Advocate and Managed Services Provider”:

Other Locations a Title Tag is Displayed

The title tag also appears as the underlined “link” when your website places on a SERP (search engine result page). Here’s an example of a Google SERP for the term “objective information technology advocate,” which is a keyword phrase in Micro Visions’ title tag:

As you can see, Micro Visions comes up first on this term, and the searched upon term is even in bold in the title tag. Another thing to notice about the title tag displayed above is that part of it is truncated. Having longer title tags is your decision, but search engines will read up to 120 characters (including spaces) in that tag, so we tend to use as many as make sense for describing what is on that web page.

The Logic Behind Title Tag Significance in Search Results

Most website visitors who are looking for something using a search engine will click on a link that contains the same keywords they searched on. Search engine developers view this user behavior as very significant, thus, if you put targeted keywords in the title tag on your pages, it helps your site’s placement on those keywords.

More Tips When Optimizing the Title Tag

As with SEO in general, there are numerous details about every strategy, and knowing and implementing as many as possible is what makes one site place higher than another and thus be more visible online. Here are a few more of those title tag details:

• Title tags should be unique per page. Time should be spent in identifying appropriate keywords, matching landing pages, and then optimizing the title tag for those keyword phrases.
• Use appropriate keywords that describe what is on that page as well as the search terms users are querying.
• Many CMS (content management system) website programs now have methods for you to add title tags yourself. If your CMS has this capability, you can do this yourself very easily.
• The source code for a title tag is very easy, and looks like this: <title>Put title tag contents here</title>

On non-competitive keywords, title tag changes may result in placement without much more work, but on highly competitive keywords, the linking factors we discussed in earlier Vision articles are absolutely necessary. Combining appropriate links to optimized landing pages makes for powerful optimization.

Top Of The List LLC is a Grand Rapids search engine marketing firm working with Micro Visions, a leading information technology and managed services provider. Top Of The List offers organic SEO packages which target all five top optimization factors, helping our clients achieve optimal search engine placement and drive increased target market traffic to their websites. Learn the fifth most important search engine optimization factor in next month’s Vision, or contact Top Of The List at 616-460-6778 today if you’d like to begin optimizing your website today!

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