Improve your ranking with web page titles

Look at what the site developers are getting wrong !!!

It totally baffles me when I see this:-
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLG%2CGGLG%3A2005-47%2CGGLG%3Aen&q=allintitle%3A%22untitled+document %22

28 Million web pages where webmasters have neglected to give the page a title!

The <title> tag in a web page is arguably the most important element on the page as far as optimising your web site for search engines go!

If you have done your research, you will know what the most important keyword phrase is for your website.... in other words, what people would type into a search engine to find you and your competitors.

Page titles should reflect and contain your most important keyword phrase. A quick peek at the title bar on the ecademy homepage will reveal the title:- Ecademy - Business Networking - Connecting Business People

Similarly, look up in the title bar now... the title: Web Page titles and their importance - Ecadamy

I mention the second one simply because the second biggest mistake is having the same title on every single page of your website.... a big NO, NO!!

Each individual page is different.... and generally focuses on something specific... for each page, you should think long and hard and actively research what would be best to use... what would be most common for people to type in so that your get targetted traffic to the page.

Sometimes the most common is far to competitive. Terms such as 'web design' and 'mortgage deals' for instance, may be too big a fish to aim for, but you can dilute the terms a little to have more of a chance at getting listed highly. To use the above examples, you could broaden them as follows: 'professional web site design in Eastbourne' (yes, people do make searches like this)..... or ' the cheapest mortage deals'

I hope this article helps you to not take your web page titles for granted.... they are given tremendous weight in search engine algoythms and neglecting to do your research when naming pages could seriously affect the level of traffic to your site, and obviously your search engine rank.

Rob Collyer
CEO and Founder of Web Design Forums - Web design and development help and discussion

Excellent article, although the link you have provided no longer provides any results just a blank result section. Perhaps instead of searching for blank <title> tags, just search for allintitle: Default or something pre-defined like that?

There are some interesting technology issues that the Google search uncovers. Note: Rather than clicking on the google link above, copy the text, and paste to your browser. Have a look at some of the results that the Google search brings up. I found two that had redirects from the main page that Google had indexed to another inner page. One redirect that I saw was a javascript redirect, another page a flash checker page that Google had cached. You have to be very careful with all use of technology on you site. Be very self aware!

just search "allintitle:" ? I get a blank page with google.. msn brings up results

it's true but then most people don't know anything about SEO

and if you are developing a new website most people just plow straight in with content and design.
Only when you start to use CMS systems that automate the use of titles does the habit of signatures become second nature.

There are so many things to think about in SEO it sometimes takes the pleasure out of just designing a web and writing content.
I suppose that's why blogging does so well in SEO as it automates the whole process