What is the most important element for on-page SEO?
If you refer to Google’s latest “Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide”, listed right on top is…Page Titles.
What are page titles and how do they impact your site? Page titles are the sentences you see at the top of your web page and it’s the line that gets listed first before any other information in Google’s search results.
Often, many webmasters make the mistake of focusing so much on content, they totally forgot about page titles or paid scant attention to them. This is a huge mistake!
Why are page titles so important? It is because they serve to inform a visitor (or Google user) to your website what that page is all about in a sentence. Based on the page title, a person can decide if he wants to click on that link or not. Naturally, not only should your page titles be catchy, they should also concisely and accurately describe the content of that page. Do not try to fool users (and Google) by having great-sounding titles that have no relevance to that page’s content.
What else should you take note with regard to page titles? Well, keep them short, no more than 160 characters or else Google to truncate the rest of the sentence. For example, if your web page’s content is about upholstery, fabric and leather care, restoration and repair, you could write your title this way:
Upholstery Repair | Fabric Care | Leather Restoration
or,
Upholstery Restoration, Fabric Care and Leather Repair
How important are page titles? Very. In all instances of search engine optimization, we notice a significant jump in the ranking of our websites. Often, we see overnight jumps of several pages in ranking just by having well-written page titles that contain the keywords you are targeting. On some occasions, brand new sites get indexed on page 1 of Google simply by having a well-written and suitable titles. So, if “Upholstery Repair” is the most important keyword that you want to rank for, then have it included in the first words of your page title.
One important thing though: remember, you must keep your page titles unique. That means you should not have the exact wordings for all the pages on your website. Instead, re-write your page titles so that each is unique and different from the others in your website.
Try it today and see your website’s rankings rise!
