Page titles are vital in attracting more visitors from search engines – when you craft them well, they encourage people to click on your pages over others, increasing your click-through rates and signaling your site’s value.
In short: your title is your page’s first impression in search results. When it’s clear, relevant, and interesting, it stands out and brings in more traffic.
In this guide, we’ll explore how to create titles that not only align with SEO best practices but also catch the searcher’s eye!
What is a page title?
The title of a page is declared in the head of the HTML. Although it's not visible on the page itself, it is shown in the browser tabs and is featured prominently in search results.
Why do page titles matter?
From an SEO perspective, page titles are essential for two main reasons.
First, they give Google a clear idea of what your page is about, which helps with better crawling and indexing. When Google can quickly understand the focus of your page through the title, it’s more likely to rank it accurately for relevant search queries, making your content easier to discover.
Second, page titles are what searchers see in the results, meaning they influence whether someone clicks on your link or moves on to another result. A compelling title grabs attention, improves click-through rates, and signals to Google that your page might be a great answer for a particular search.
In August 2021, Google refined how it selects titles for search results. While Google still relies on your page’s title tag, it may also pull from the H1 tag or other visible text on the page if it thinks these better reflect the content or intent of the page. This means that optimizing both your title and H1 is smart, especially since they work together to clarify your page’s main topic.
Typically, the title appears prominently as an H1 on the page, making it easy for visitors to identify the content at a glance. While fine-tuning your title won’t directly improve your rankings, a well-crafted title can boost indirect ranking factors like click-through rate (CTR) and bounce rate, both of which can support your SEO goals.
Apart from SEO, page titles are important for other reasons. Visitors will see the title of your page in their browser tabs:
When people share a link to your website on social media, the OG tags will also show the title prominently:
Where do I set my page title?
A page title is declared at the top of your HTML source, like this:
<html>
<head>
<title>Example.com - An amazing homepage</title>
...
</head>
Most content management systems, like WordPress or Squarespace, also allow you to enter a custom title.
What is the optimal page title?
Crafting the perfect page title takes some time and experimentation. Here are some basic guidelines your page title should follow:
Use the correct length
A page title should be somewhere between 50 and 70 characters. If it's longer, Google will show an ellipsis at the end, making your website less attractive. Something like this:
Interestingly, a study found that title tags between 40 and 60 characters have the highest click-through rates (CTRs).
Include relevant keywords in your SEO page title
Using relevant keywords, such as your primary keyword at the beginning of your meta title helps send a strong signal to search engines about your page’s focus, potentially improving its relevance for those search terms. Plus, it instantly tells visitors what your page covers, so they know right away they’ve found what they’re looking for.
Generic titles like “Homepage” don’t offer this clarity. They don’t tell Google or the visitor anything specific about your content, which means they miss the chance to draw in search traffic or engage users who are scanning search results for something relevant and helpful.
Use your brand name
Your page title should always include your brand name. It helps searchers recognize your website in the search results and when looking at their browser tabs.
We recommend putting your brand name at the end of your page title and including your most important keywords first:
Latest news about SiteGuru and SEO | SiteGuru
One exception is your homepage. It's better to start with your brand name on the homepage and give a short description of your business after that:
SiteGuru | online crawler and SEO audit tool
You'll often see a pipe (|) or a dash (-) used to separate the brand name from the rest of the title. Choose whichever you prefer.
Use a unique title
Your page title should be unique for each page so that Google and your visitors can easily tell them apart. Unique titles provide clarity, making your site easier to navigate and more appealing in search results.
Prevent keyword stuffing - write for humans
Avoid stuffing your page titles with keywords in an attempt to rank for all of them. This approach doesn’t work anymore because search engines prioritize readability and relevance over keyword frequency. In fact, keyword stuffing can harm your SEO, making your title look spammy and decreasing the chances users will click on it.
A clear, concise title with one or two relevant keywords signals to Google and users what your page is about without feeling forced.
How do I measure if my page title is good?
The quality of your page title is largely defined by the CTR from search engines. We'll explain how this works.
If your website ranks for a certain keyword, you can expect an average click-through rate associated with its position. For example, if you rank in position 3, on average 15-20% of the searchers will click on your result. If your website is in position one, this will be around 30%.
Brian Dean from Backlinko has done extensive research in this area, resulting in a CTR curve that looks like this:
You can see more CTR curves for specific searches in Advanced Web Ranking's CTR Study.
To check how well your page title is doing, find your average ranking for that page and compare your CTR to what you could expect based on the CTR curve.
For example: if your website ranks in position 2 for a keyword, you can expect an average CTR of around 24%. If the CTR for that keyword is significantly lower, then for some reason people are not clicking on your website in the search results.
Your next step: based on the page title best practices you’ve learned, check your page title and meta description for that page to see if there's any reason why people would not click on it. Try to improve it, and monitor your CTR to see if it has helped.
You can get both your CTR and your average ranking straight from Google Search Console:
CTR graph in Google Search Console
Click-through data in Search Console
You can also use our CTR Performance Check to see which CTRs you can improve right away. It’ll find your underperforming pages and keywords from Google Search Console. No signup needed!
See what your page title looks like by using Page Title emulators
A page title emulator is a tool that lets you preview how your page title will look in Google search results. This helps ensure your title fits the character limit and check what it’ll look like to searchers.
If you’re a SiteGuru user, you don’t need an extra tool for this, as there’s a page title emulator built right in.
Just go to your dashboard, then Content > Page Titles, and then click on “SERP” to check how your title looks on both desktop and mobile.
This way, you’ll know if your page title is informative and visually appealing for anyone who finds it on Google.
Speaking of SiteGuru, you can rely on it for all your SEO needs from now on.
Using SiteGuru to audit page titles
Checking all your page titles can be a hassle, especially as your website grows. SiteGuru checks the titles of all your pages for length and uniqueness. We also show you a full list of all your page titles to quickly audit them, without having to visit every single page.
If you’re currently not a user, why not try SiteGuru for free, for 14 days? Start upgrading those page titles and your entire SEO for more clicks, more traffic, and more conversions!
