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Using Page Titles for Search Engines
Within the context of Onpage Optimisation or internal ranking factors, the Page Title is the single most important element for search engines in determining what the landing page is about. Thus, the decisions on the use of particular keywords over others within Page Titles have major implications for organic search visibility, rankings and performance.
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</head>This stresses the importance of the wording of Page Titles to be first and foremost driven by Keyword Research, where such aspects as organic rankings, search volumes, keyword difficulty, estimated click-through rate and estimated traffic are taken into account in selecting a string of keywords over others. Over time, the keyword strategy for Page Titles can be enhanced by web analytics data, comparing actual organic traffic, engagement and conversions resulting out of the keyword optimisation efforts.
Using Page Titles for Users
Having the most weight for search engines in determining what the landing page is about, the Page Title is, by design, also shown to users at the decision point of click-through to the landing page. Namely, it is the top visible element in SERPs, on social media platforms and in web browsers. A good Page Title encourages users to click through to the website by offering a both holistic and explicit description of what the Landing Page is about.
Depending on the website’s ability to outrank its SERP competition, the Page Title targets the head terms of the Landing Page, which brings the additional benefit of these keywords being featured in bold when they are part of a keyword the landing page is shown under. Although this may seem insignificant at first glance, users have learned to associate bold keywords with a match to their search query, which makes them pay greater attention to the Page Title ahead of their decision on whether the landing page is likely to satisfy their search intent.
Furthermore, the more long-tailed the keyword is, the more likely the users are to rely on these strings of bold keywords to make their click-through decision. In an SEO context, two secondary uses of Page Titles come in the form of posts on social media platforms as well as browser tabs and bookmarks. As a general rule, social media platforms pull the same Page Title a search engine would use. That is unless you choose to use distinct Page Title tags for social media platforms in particular to take full advantage of their unique context and technical specifications, such as Title lengths.
Writing and Structuring Page Titles
Before sitting down to write your Page Titles, keep one vital principle in mind: doubling your keyword rankings can be far less effective than dominating a smaller selection of highly relevant terms. Since only a fraction of users ever reach the conversion stage, time spent blindly chasing organic market share is usually better invested in understanding your specific user base in greater detail.
If your website is focused on a particular topic or market, chances are, you’re going to have a solid idea of what the Titles of all your web pages are going to look like. However, it is easy to underestimate how much more value you can offer users by simply understanding the demand of the market and the granular implications it has over various uses of keywords and the user intent behind them.
Without a doubt, the choices of which Title versions to choose should be first and foremost based on Keyword Research, as there is no better way of formulating your Titles than by directly linking them to the existing demand in the market. Furthermore, having done all these things just right, over time certain universal patterns begin to surface that can take your optimisation efforts a step further. Getting them right from the beginning can bring some marginal benefits to the performance of your SEO:
- It is generally believed that when the meaning behind two versions of Page Titles is identical, the version featuring the most important keywords at the beginning should be preferred to that featuring them at the end. The reason behind this is that a search query that features its’ most relevant and specific aspects at the beginning is likely to rank marginally better for those keywords, compared to the same search query using them at the end. An additional benefit comes in the form of what is often described as offering users unique value at first glance, or to put it simply, featuring the important aspects of a Page Title at the very start of the Title to give users clues of what a page is about – early.
- Secondly, this can also be balanced against the optimal use of Title lengths. Depending on the authority of your website and its ability to rank in organic search results, you may also consider the length of your Titles as an important factor that may influence your rankings and click-through rate.
- In the case of smaller websites with limited authority in SERPs, the best bet is to go after the long-tail search queries which are plentiful in number and are less competitive (with less competition coming from highly authoritative websites). Thus, web pages of less authoritative websites can and often do establish rankings for multiple long-tail search queries, the cumulative search volume of which can, over time, outgrow that of head terms (main keywords), the SERPS of which are overcrowded with powerful competitors over long periods of time. The main strength of small websites lies in the fact that they can react to micro-market trends more promptly, occupying positions in the market at a time when it is of limited interest to the big players.
- On the other hand, well-established high authority websites are often better off focusing on the main market trends, trying to capture as wide a search neighbourhood as possible. The goal here shifts from answering every search query with the highest possible accuracy to building an online brand authority that users can rely on for high-level information which brings the benefit of engaging users with the brand early in their decision-making cycle.
Optimal Page Title Lengths
In order for the Page Title to display fully in SERPs, as opposed to it being truncated and replaced with ellipses, its length should be within the limits of 561 pixels. The actual number of characters can and will vary for each Page Title, as some characters are wider and are spread over more pixels than others.
This allows only for an estimated number of characters to be used in the planning phase for writing and scaling of Page Titles, which can be as low as 50 and go as high as 70 (depending on cummulative character length in pixels). As a general rule, 90% of Page Titles under 60 characters will display fully. However, to ensure each Page Title is displayed fully in search results, one must consider the default pixel width measure of 561 pixels.
Case-sensitivity; Acronyms, Nontraditional Characters;
It is generally considered that the use of CAPS in Page Titles does not directly influence rankings. However, caps are significantly larger in size and thus occupy more pixel space. It is considered acceptable to capitalise the first letters of the words used in Page Titles, but it comes down to personal preference. On another note, the text written fully in caps will stand out among the other search results and while this will likely draw attention, it will also associate it with SPAM. Nonetheless, the use of caps shouldn’t be discouraged as long as it serves a purpose other than drawing attention, as in the case of acronyms.
Similar logic applies to the use of nontraditional characters (i.e. !, @, $), which should generally be discouraged unless they serve a purpose which couldn’t otherwise be explicitly communicated. The main reason behind this is that users can spend as little as a fraction of a second on reading any given Page Title and the presence of special characters adds an additional layer of complexity that demands additional attention from users. Also, some special characters require encoding and some are reserved for special technical purposes which if employed incorrectly may occasionally result in broken code. So, if you end up using special characters, make a habbit of checking how they display to users on the front-end.
Synonyms, Keyword Variations and Keyword Modifiers in Page Titles
Although search engines are getting increasingly better at recognising the meaning behind words, synonyms and keyword variations not being an exception to the rule, niche examples may not always be as evident to a search engine as they are to an industry specialist. Nonetheless, the use of multiple terms, whether synonyms or variations of the same keyword, in Page Titles should only be allowed if they, in fact, add value at that first moment of user exposure to the Page Title in SERPs. Otherwise, they may be better suited as part of the meta description or introduction paragraph as part of the body content, at a later point in the user journey.
Keyword modifiers are a select number of words used as extensions to the head keywords most often utilised to target long-tail search queries. The selection of keyword modifiers should be initially made based on such keyword metrics as search volumes and keyword difficulty. At a later stage, once the landing page starts receiving traffic, the use of keyword modifiers can be further refined based on onsite user engagement and conversion rates.
Avoiding keyword stuffing as part of Page Title Optimisation
Keyword stuffing can be broadly defined as the practice of using keywords anywhere on the website that have the intent of misleading search engines. Over time search engines have learned to recognise such practices and penalise the websites that use them.
As the search engines continue to evolve and get better at recognising the use of keyword stuffing, in the future the use of any keywords that are aimed to appeal to Search Engines at the expense of the user are likely to be identified as such. It may be worth noting though, that at current times websites are very unlikely to get penalised by search engines for simply using the wrong keywords, only those using keyword stuffing practices at scale are likely to find themselves in trouble.
The activation of Branding in Page Titles
Another generally favoured practice is the use of the brand name in Page Titles for Brand Awareness, where over time consumers assign authority and relevance to websites based on the search neighbourhoods they are shown under. For the reason that the Page Title is the top element in SERPs for any given landing page displayed alongside 9 other organic SERP competitors, over time it has become the element that can take the most advantage of the branding factor to influence click-through rates and organic traffic at large. Ensuring that the brand name is shown and is fully visible at the end of the Page Title in SERPs may positively influence organic traffic in several ways:
- Positively affect click-through rates of first-time visitors who are more likely to initiate an online interaction with a source that can be easily identified by a name and thus could be held accountable, at the very least in the consumers’ minds, for the trustworthiness of its content.
- Positively affect click-through rates of returning visitors who are more likely to rely on a source of information they have previously interacted with and thus have a formed expectation for their authority and trustworthiness.
- Positively affect the branded search for similar queries, which in the long haul may and does influence the organic rankings for those same or similar search queries, performed without the mention of the brand.
Missing or Duplicated vs Unique Page Titles
Naturally, for all these factors to be applied to Page Titles, they have to be specified in the first place. When search engines index and show landing pages in search results that are missing the Page Title, they will pull a snippet of text from the page at hand. While the snippet replacing the Page Title may occasionally be fit for purpose, it is most commonly less so than a purposefully specified one.
Another important factor is the uniqueness of Page Titles on the website. A Page Title is considered unique when it is unique to a landing page on a given website. As a result of automatically-generated pages, duplication is a common resulting issue. Search Engines will generally assign less value to pages with duplicated Titles but still rank one or multiple versions. In many cases, search engines will rewrite the Page Titles, when they’re duplicated or deemed not relevant to the landing page they represent. As a general rule, if the Page Titles follow the above guidelines, they are likely to be indexed exactly as they are.
Duplicated Page Titles based on Pagination
Modifying page titles for paginated sequences (e.g. adding ‘Page 2’ to the title) is often regarded as overkill. Search engine representatives have noted that such granular differentiation is rarely necessary for crawling or ranking. If you prefer to provide users with context regarding a page’s position in a sequence, this is best handled through the URL structure—especially when using readable parameters.
Editing Page Titles in WordPress
Now that you’ve understood all the aspects of writing successful Page Titles, what you’d likely want to do next is actually be able to write them or change them directly in WordPress.
Editing Page Titles in WordPress
There are a number of ways to edit Page Titles in WordPress. Let’s begin by exploring how to edit the Page Title when creating a new Page or Post within WordPress.
Editing Page Titles from the “Page” or “Post” view
From the “All Pages” or “All Posts” tab within your WordPress backend navigate to the Page you’d like to edit the Page Title for and click “Edit“. On the Page or Post, you’ll be able to edit the title at the very top of your content editing area.
It is not uncommon to want to edit multiple Page Titles in a row, after the pages in question have already been published. The most convenient way to accomplish this is to “edit”Quick Edit” them directly from within the “All Pages” or “All Posts” view.
Editing Page Title using “Quick Edit” within “All Pages” or “All Posts” view
Chances are you’re working on a big website, so in certain situations editing the Page Titles directly from your “All Pages” or “All Posts” menu can come in handy. Open “All Pages” or “All Posts” view in WordPress, navigate to the Page or Post you want to edit and Press “Quick Edit“, then Edit the Page Title within the “Title” field.
Optimising Page Titles for Search Engines
There are various WordPress plugins that support title editing featuring additional benefits.
Employing the RankMath WordPress plugin for editing Page Titles
One such tool for editing metadata, including Page Titles, is RankMath that also allows a Preview of the Page Title in the Google SERPs. This is useful for writing Page Titles of just the right length and testing them right in the editing window.
Rankmath can pull the default WordPress Page Title and apply a formula to mention the website name
A noteworthy insight is that by default Rankmath will use a formula to build the SEO Title shown to users and search engines: it’s composed of the WordPress-specified Page Title (%title%) followed by a separator (i.e. dash) and the website name (%sitename%).
The Rankmath formula used to generate the SEO Titles across all pages or posts can be modified within the main settings of the Rankmath plugin
Rankmath will overwrite the default WordPress Page Titles
Any text you change within the “Preview Snippet Editor” for the Title input field or within “SEO Title” input field within the “Quick Edit” for the page will overwrite the default-specified title in WordPress.
Installing Rankmath
After you’ve installed the Rankmath SEO plugin, you will need to click the Rankmath icon in the top-right corner of your view. Upon click, your Rankmath editor will likely appear below your content field the first time around. It is recommended to drag it to the top-right corner of your screen from below the content editing area.
Editing Page Titles using Rankmath
- Once you’ve clicked on the “RankMath” icon in the top right corner, you will see the following screen on the right-hand side.
- The “General” tab is pre-selected by default and displays your current Page Title, URL and Meta Description, the way they’re visible in Google Search.
- Click “Edit Snippet” to be presented with the editing controls.
Once you click “Edit Snippet” you will reach “Preview Snippet Editor” which will allow you to edit your Page Title, Meta Description and URL slug.
If you have certain target keywords set up within the “Focus Keyword” section of Rankmath, these will be highlighted in bold for Page Titles and the other onpage elements, exactly the way you would expect for them highlighted in Google Search when users search for those particular keywords.
Once Pages or Posts have been published, the need to change the Title for multiple pages in a row is not at all uncommon. If you’d like to change the Page Title for a few pages, the most convenient method is through the “Quick Edit” panel within the “All Pages” or “All Posts” view.
Editing SEO Title using “Quick Edit” within “All Pages” or “All Posts” view
Open your “All Pages” or “All Posts” view in WordPress and navigate to the Page or Post you want to edit the Page Title for and Press “Quick Edit“, then Edit the Title within the “SEO Title” field.
Google Search may ignore your Titles in favour of their own
It may be worth noting that the specified Page Title either through the WordPress controls or the Rankmath controls doesn’t guarantee the it will be shown exactly the same in Google Search!
In fact, Google often experiments with different Page Titles for your page and often chooses a different Page Title than the one provided through WordPress.
Page Title Tags for Social Media
Page Titles are also displayed on posts shared on Social Media. Each Social Media platform will have its own lengths for Titles, some allowing more content to fit inside them compared to search engines. This is where the use of a Protocol called Open Graph comes in. While the Open Graph protocol won’t work with all the social media platforms out there, it is by far the most commonly used one.
It may be worth noting that Open Graph allows websites to make specifications on how their content will be displayed on Social Media, which can get quite granular and include anything from the appearance of simple elements like the Title, description and website name and go all the way to the appearance of images and music controls.
However, what is great about Open Graph is that making a change to a Page Title for Social Media platforms can be as simple as adding the code snippet below.
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<meta property="og:title" content="Page Title Optimisation for Social Media | WordPrexeo"/>
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