Most pages lose the click before anyone reads a word of them. The title in the search results is vague, cut off, or the same as every other page on the site. This lesson gives you a simple formula, three before and after rewrites, and a short list of mistakes to remove.
What a good title does
The title tag is the headline of your page in search results. It is the clickable line at the top of each result. It also shows in the browser tab, and often as the headline when someone shares the page.
A good title does two jobs at once:
- It tells Google what the page is about.
- It tells a person whether the page is worth a click.
The second job is the one most titles fail. On a search results page, your title sits in a list with many others. People scan that list in a second or two. They pick the line that looks most like the answer to what they typed.
Space is limited. Google usually shows roughly 50 to 60 characters of a title. It measures width in pixels, about 600 of them, so a title full of wide letters like W and M is cut sooner than one full of narrow letters. Treat 50 to 60 characters as a guideline, not a rule. A longer title is not an error. It just gets cut off, and the cut may land on the word that mattered most.
One more thing to know: Google may rewrite your title. If it decides that other text, such as your main heading, describes the page better, it can show that instead. A clear, accurate title that matches the page is the best way to keep the one you wrote.
A title is a promise about the page, so only make a promise the page can keep.
A simple formula: topic, angle, brand last
I use the same three parts for almost every title.
- Topic. The main thing the page is about, in the words people use when they search. This is your main keyword, which simply means the phrase you want the page to be found for. Put it at or near the start, so it survives if the title is cut.
- Angle. The reason to choose this page over the others. It can be a format (a guide, a checklist, a comparison), a number, a year, an audience (for beginners, for small shops), or a detail such as a price or a location.
- Brand. Your site or company name, at the end, after a separator. If space is tight, the brand is the first part to drop.
The pattern looks like this:
Topic: Angle | Brand
You do not need all three every time. A homepage can lead with the brand, because people who search for your name want to see it first. For every other page, the topic comes first.
Part of the On-Page SEO Guide, with the full checklist for this series.
Three rewrites
Here is the formula applied to three common page types.
A blog post
The first version names a section of the site, not the content of the page. The second says what the reader will learn and who it is for.
A product page
Product codes mean something to you and nothing to a shopper. Use the plain product name, then the details people filter by: who it is for, the material, the fit.
A service page
For a local service, the angle is usually the place plus the thing that makes you easy to choose, such as opening hours or response time. Only claim what is true. If you are not open 24 hours, do not say it.
Where the title lives, and common mistakes
The title is set in the head of the page's HTML, in the title element:
<head>
<title>How to Brew Pour-Over Coffee at Home: A Beginner's Guide</title>
</head>
You rarely need to edit the HTML by hand. Most site builders have a field called "SEO title" or "Page title". Note that the title is not the same as the main heading that visitors see at the top of the page. The two can be worded a little differently, but they should describe the same thing. I cover headings in the heading structure checklist.
These are the mistakes I see most often:
- The same title on every page. If every page is called "Hale Plumbing | Home", Google cannot tell the pages apart, and neither can people. Each page needs its own title.
- Keyword stuffing. "Plumber Austin, Austin Plumber, Best Plumber Austin TX" reads like spam. Say the topic once, clearly.
- Too long. If the angle or the place name falls past the cut, the title loses its point. Move the important words to the front.
- A title the page does not deliver. If the title says "price list" and the page has no prices, people leave, and Google may replace the title with its own.
The short text under the title is the subject of the next lesson: write meta descriptions people want to click. Both are part of the On-Page SEO series.
Check your own page
Open one important page and answer these questions:
- Does the title say what this page is about, in words a searcher would use?
- Are the most important words in the first 50 characters or so?
- Is this title different from every other title on your site?
- Would a stranger still understand it if you removed your brand name?
- Does the page deliver what the title promises?
Paste your title into the title length checker to see where it would be cut, then run the free audit to check the rest of the page.
