Page titles are like the subject lines in emails – they grab your attention if they’re well written and make you want to click click. Badly written titles get ignored, no matter how optimised with keywords they are.

Here’s how to turn your titles into click-magnets:

As an example check this out:

Crappy title – not optimised = TOO LITTLE SEO:

“Veterinarian’s blog – Nutrition section, Felines”

SEO version = TOO MUCH SEO:

“Cat food, Vets recommend, Food for Cats, Recommended by Veterinarians”

And, like Goldilocks said about Baby Bear’s porridge, the third one is just right:

Balanced version:

“The best food for your cat – recommended by Vets”

Idea page titles have a little bit of SEO as well as a little bit of call to action.

Here are some best practices for title tags:

1. Remember brand awareness: include the name of your brand or site at the END of the title (put it after a divider/pipe bar “|”)
2. 65 characters or less (including spaces)
3. Start the title tag with the main keyword for that page – where it makes sense
4. Don’t cannibalize: the same keyword shouldn’t be used on multiple pages otherwise search engines have to guess which page is most relevant for that keyword
5. Keep an eye on both your conversion rates and click through rates (do some tests to see what works best)
6. Use your main page keyword again in the H1 header of the page for reinforcement

Any other suggestions or ideas are most welcome.