What is Meta Title | Importance of Meta Title Tag in Search Engines

Meta title is the HTML code that defines the title of your web page. It appears at the top left corner of your browser when you visit a web page. In coding, the Meta title is placed at the header of your web page, above the Meta description and Meta keywords tags. Every HTML document/web page must have a title tag in the head section. It plays an important and wider role in how your web page is perceived, as well as in your search engine optimization work (SEO). Search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing etc rates your meta title tag in high priority when some one search with any specific key word.

 Meta title is the text which contains information about the contents of your web page. Title tag is one which is visible to the search engine and the visitor as well. Most importantly, it attracts the search engine and the visitor very aggressively. Most search engines consider this tag as the primary information about the site and visitor sees this information as the first thing on top left corner of the browser. Moreover, when one bookmarks the site, the text in this tag appears in the bookmarks list.

 For SeoShout.com the meta title is as;

 <title>Search Engine Optimization, Tips for Google, Yahoo, Bing Search Engines to get Traffic | SeoShout.com</title>

 Every page must have a unique Meta title. The Meta title is used by directories, web resources and other webmasters and site owners when they link to your page. If you have a concise and catchy Meta title that really sums up your site’s topic, your site will more readily be reviewed and favored by these sources.

 The Title Tag is one which is given the most weight by search engines’ algorithms. In fact, this tag should be written so that it should give the idea about your site instantly. A perfect written Title tag can generate quick and appreciable traffic to your site. The text written in this tag appears as clickable text in the search engine result page (SERP) and if it is really meaningful and conveys most about the web page, more clickthroughs will be the result.

 The Meta title is also the main header that users will see when they find your web site through a search engine. This is another reason you want a concise and direct Meta title. While it can certainly be effective to use a keyword or two in your meta title, be careful not to overuse them, as to the viewer, a solid title will be more appealing than a series of keywords.

 As this is an important feature of the page content as the search engines crawl this title. It can also contain one or two core keywords. The keywords should hit the target audience or the target market. In other words, in order to find out the right kind of keyword you should undergo a thorough and in-depth keyword analysis. You can then use these keywords in the Meta title. The search engine robots crawl the web page. If you use excessive of keywords in the Meta title, it can result into spamming.

 But most importantly, the Meta title is one of the first and most important things that search engines look for when determining the focus, content and relevance of your site, and this in turn has a big effect on your ranking in search results.

 Meta title should always be typed with the first letter of each major word capitalized, in the style known as Title Case. This means everything is capitalized except for smaller words like “for”, “is” and “a”.

 Every page on your site has a unique Meta title. It may sound straightforward, but you’d be surprised how many pages do it. This hurts your SEO marketing scheme as it disallows you from indicating the independent and unique keywords and content associated with each of your pages.

 If you’re writing a Meta title for your home page, never use simply “Home” or “Index Page”. Remember, your Meta title has to draw in viewers from the search results pages, so the Meta title should tell your viewer, as well as the search engine, what each page is about specifically.

 About the length of Meta title, Google will index your Meta title on the results page till 66 characters. To get the best, try to make your Meta title very concise and specific. Google defines the length of article title as

 “Ensure that your article titles are not too long or too short. Currently, the title is required to be between 2 and 22 words.”

Some Additional Tips: Article titles (Google)

 - Label your headlines with a clear news title.

- Ensure that your article titles include at least ten characters.

- Ensure that your article titles are not too long or too short. Currently, the title is required to be between 2 and 22 words.

- Don’t include a date or time in your article titles.

- Make sure to include the title of your articles in both the html <title> tag, and in a prominent place in the article body such as an <h1> tag.

- Avoid using a substring of the title of your article as a link to your article page.

- To make sure your articles display properly on mobile devices, don’t include a leading number (which sometimes corresponds to an access key) in the anchor text of the title.

 Source: http://www.google.com/support/news_pub/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93981

Meta Title, On page optimization, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Title Tag