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A title tag is more than just the name of a page. When used well, a
title tag is an important navigational element that helps users
determine where they are on the web and on your site. But a title
tag can do even more: it can help you get a good listing in the
results list of search engines and provide an easily recognizable
link in a user's list of favourites.
What is a title tag?
In the html code of a page, the title tag is at the top of the page,
in the <HEAD> part, between <TITLE> and </TITLE>.
The information in the title tag appears in the browser's title-bar,
right at the top of the web page. But that's not the only use of the
title tag. The title tag is also used to identify a page in Windows'
tool bar and is also used when a user adds a site to his favourites.
A lot of search engines also use the title tag as the title of a web
page.
The various uses of the title tag show how important it is that every page of your site has a good
title tag. A lot of surfers not only use the title tag in the
browser's title bar to see on which site they are, but also where
they are on that site. Users who open several windows at the same
time use the buttons in the tool bar to determine which web page is
which. When the text on the button is meaningless, that often causes
frustration. The same is true for a user's list of favourites: if a
user can't immediately see which link refers to which site, he has
to click the links to find out and that is of course a waste of
time. On a results page, users are also more inclined to click on a
page with a clear title than a page that's called 'Frame principal',
'Homepage' or simply 'main'.
The build-up of a title tag
First of all, the title tag has to be in the same language as the
site. It isn't much use to burden users with information in a
language they possibly don't understand. Using a different language
or, as some sites do, several languages, also causes a lot of
confusion on a search engine: users expect a page to be in the same
language as the title of the page. Misinforming users by using a
different language or presenting the title of a page in two or three
different languages, which seems to be a typically Belgian
phenomenon, is not a good idea.
It's not a good idea to start a
title tag with welcome messages like 'Welcome to the site of company
x' or general words like 'Homepage of company x'. Users scan texts
on the Internet rather than read them and the first word of a title
tag is the most eye-catching and important one. Keeping this in
mind, it is best to start your title tags with the name of your
company or site.
It's not a good idea to use the same title tag for
all the pages of your site. If you do so, users who open two pages
of the same site in different browser windows can't use the title
tag to see which page is opened in which browser window. To inform
users about the content on the page it is best to put the name of
the page after the name of your company or site. That way, the title
tag not only tells users which site the page is from but also what
kind of information they can find on the page.
Because some search
engines don't show title tags that are too long, it is best to keep
your title tags short, under 64 characters is ideal. Internet
Explorer allows for longer title tags but also only shows the first
95 characters. Whatever you do, make sure your title tags always
appear in their entirety; a title tag that is broken off in
mid-sentence, or worse, in the middle of a word, looks very sloppy.
Els Aerts & Karl Gilis
A more in depth version of this article
has appeared in Tips & Advies Online Ondernemen, year 5, number
21 (Belgium and the Netherlands).
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