Power your page titles with targeted keywords

A well-written web page title can make all the difference in being found for the keywords you want. Your page title is the first thing the search engines use to determine the content of your page and also what they use to "file" you in their index.

Your web page title is displayed at the very top of the browser window. It also appears as the first highlighted line of your listing in the search results. Your page title has to attract both people on a marketing level and search engines on a keyword level.

Every page on your site should have a title. This is especially important for framed websites. Search engines can index the pages on your site without the frame. A generic title will only get your un-framed page lost in the index.

The page title tag has a limit of 20 words, but it is usually better if it is as short as possible. The best title is two or three keywords that relate directly to the page content. Your home page title can be more general, as it should describe the "theme" of the overall site.

Optimized home page title:

Phoenix Real Estate. Homes for Sale and Investment Property in Maricopa County.

Un-optimized home page title:

Fred Smith, Real Estate, Service and Value Guaranteed, Homes for Sale

The optimized page title could actually be found for at least six separate search terms:

Phoenix Real Estate, Phoenix Homes for Sale, Phoenix Investment Property, Maricopa County Real Estate, Maricopa County Homes for Sale and Maricopa County Investment Property.

Choosing your titles carefully and using your power keywords to create them will definitely make a difference in your page rankings in the long term.

By using the allintitle:"keyword" search at Google, you can easily discover how many other sites are using the same keywords in their web page title. This can give you a good indication about how much competition you face. You should not use the same keywords for every page of your site; there is enough variation of words that you can actually expand your keyword reach. Being found for as many keywords related to your business as possible is your best search marketing strategy.