Again, my friend Kyle Reddoch brings us another great web design tip. This is actually a 3 part series, but I’m going to include them all in this post for your convenience.

HTML TITLE tag - understanding web page titles

Many web developers ignore the importance of the <title> tag. Though, according to HTML specifications, the use of <title> is mandatory, I have come across many pages on the Internet in which this tag is just not used.

<title> provides us with an opportunity to spell out the content of our pages. It is also used by search engines to index pages. On search sites such as Hotbot, Altavista etc. the title of the web page is displayed as the link.

This tip will show you how to write titles better, or rather, in a more logical manner. I have adopted this style and it has helped me in maintaining my web sites and in search engine optimization.

Decide on the keywords for the page and then build the title tag around them. Make sure you have all the keywords / key phrases in the title tag.

Contents of the HTML title tag

I have always believed that <title> tags should contain the important keywords and key phrases. This helps the web page to rank higher in search engines. I usually follow the keywords with the web site structure. I first put the the description of the present page (so that all keywords are contained in this description). Be sure that all the keywords and key phrases are included in the <title> tag.

You can use commas or hyphens to separate the key phrases in the <title> tag.

You must remember not to use colons or the forward slash (/) in the<title> tag. When you save a web page using the “Save As” option from the browsers “File” menu, the contents of the <title>are used as the file name. Since colons are not allowed within filenames on a Macintosh system and slashes are used to represent directories, it’s best to avoid them. Hyphens and commas, thus, seem as the best good choice.

Importance of TITLE Tag in Search Engine Optimization

The TITLE of a web page is displayed on the title bar of the browser. The title text is placed between the <TITLE> - </TITLE> tags inside the HTML head section.

There are a few important reasons why you should choose an intelligent title for a web page

* Many search engines display the results using the content of the TITLE tag.
* If the title is missing, such search engines will display the page as “Untitled”. This is not only ugly but also very unprofessional.
* The contents of the TITLE tag are used by search engines to index the page.
* It’s recommended that you write down all the important keywords that describe the web page contents and compose a sentence that should be used as the title of the page.

I hope this gives you a better understanding of the title tag and why you should ensure your web pages includes it. If you have comments or questions regarding web page title tags, leave us a comment below.