The single most important piece of metadata you will write for a webpage is its Title.

Writing a title for a webpage/blog post is an art but it is even more so when it comes to incorporating search engine optimisation into the mix.

In the source code of each webpage, title tags look like this:

I am very important

Without a doubt you want to spend time on optimising your title text because they are the first words that appear about your webpage in the search engine results pages (SERPS); a title can work for you or against you.

A good title can:

1. Convert a searcher to a visitor. If your title catches the eye of someone on a SERP then they are more likely to click on it. It could be because the title is highly relevant to their search or because it’s been written in way that makes the person want to find out more. If you can get the searcher to visit you have an opportunity to sell and influence.
2. Good usability. The title is displayed by the visitor’s browser (most often Microsoft Internet Explorer) in the border of the viewable screen as the visitor is viewing your website.
3. Make you popular with the search engines.  You want that…right? The goal of a search engine is to return relevant results to the searcher so if you use keywords that accurately describe the content of the webpage they are more likely to deem your content as relevant to the searcher and return it in the SERPS.

Here are some tips to writing SEO titles:

1. Make sure you have unique title for every single page/blog post on your website
2. Aim for about 64 characters (6-9 words). The W3C recommends that The title should ideally be less than 64 characters in length. Google displays up to 66 characters, if your title extends longer than this Google cuts off to the last word. For example Cats love Nutribics for shinny coats, strong claws and good clean teeth. (72 characters). Google would display this as Cats love Nutribics for shinny coats, strong claws and good clean … (65 characters) so as you can see it makes more sense for the characters to come in at 66 characters or under. In this example the title could have been edited to Cats love Nutribics for shinny coats, strong claws and good teeth. 66 characters, makes more sense, and your get the valuable keyword ‘teeth’ in your title. Yahoo displays titles up to 120 characters. In order to accommodate and maximise opportunities on both major search engines you could have a two part title e.g. Cats love Nutribics for shinny coats, strong claws and good teeth. Cat food bargains at our pet supermarket every Friday (120 characters) - that way you would still look good on Google and maximise the opportunity for a longer keyword rich title in Yahoo.
3. Start with the specific i.e. with exactly what the page is about, and move to the general
4. Ask yourself, what are the main keywords that describe the content of the webpage? Try and include the main keywords in the title. Don’t try to include all of them; it’s important the title makes sense and indicates what the webpage is about.
5. Try and exclude common words such as: the, and, of, is.