Your page title (also known as ‘SEO title’ or ‘title tag’) is the short title of your page that appears at the top browser window and in search results.

Page title in search engine results

Where do I set my page title?

Setting your page title is much easier with the use of an SEO plugin, which will give you the ability to set the page title on a page by page basis, or set specific rules for how your page titles can be automatically formulated (e.g. “%Page Name% | % Website Title”).

The dialogue box for setting your page title varies from one SEO plugin to the next, but most look similar to this:

Page title using SEOPress
Page title using SEOPress

What should I write in my page title?

Your page title serves two purposes:

  1. Tells people using a search engine what your page is about
  2. Tells search engines what your page is about

Because of this, you want to make sure that the title is optimized for both bots and humans alike.

Here are a few tips to writing effective page titles:

  • Each page should have its own unique title
  • Write for humans first, often you’ll include SEO benefits naturally.
  • If there are keywords you’re trying to rank for, try putting those at the beginning of the title.
  • Give a clear and accurate representation of the contents of that page (no trickery!).
  • Try to stay under 60 characters in length (most SEO plugins will test this as you type)

Don’t be surprised if Google doesn’t always use the title tag you set in search results. While setting your title tag does give Google a suggested title, they will sometimes alter it to better match the users search query or what they’ve determined is most accurate for the page (at their discretion).

Well written, accurate, SEO-rich titles will help you rank higher in search results and give your website a better click-thru rate.