Every page on your site should be given a concise, informative and unique title to improve your search rank and search result click rates.

Titles are critical to giving users a quick insight into the content of a result and why it’s relevant to their query.

Google, “Create good titles and snippets in Search Results”

Set page titles

Every page should be given a title that describes its content. Well-written titles are vital for improving the search rank of pages because search engines look for keywords in titles to determine how relevant pages are to search queries. Titles are also critical for improving click through rates as titles are displayed in search results and when pages are shared on social networks. Page titles are set using HTML by adding a <title> tag such as <title>Page title</title> inside the <head> tag of each page.

Learn more

  1. Create good titles and snippets in Search Results
    support.google.com
  2. <title>: the most important element of a quality Web page
    www.w3.org

Use optimal length titles

Every page should have a title that isn’t too long or too short. Well-written page titles of a suitable length will help your pages stand out in search results and help search engines understand what your pages are about. Short titles are likely lacking in enough information for both users and search engines. Long titles aren’t displayed in full in search results which can be unhelpful to users. We recommend page titles are between 10 and 60 characters.

Learn more

  1. Create good titles and snippets in Search Results
    support.google.com
  2. Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide
    support.google.com
  3. Bing Webmaster Guidelines
    www.bing.com

Use unique titles

Each page should have a title that isn’t used anywhere else on your site. As titles are prominently displayed in search results, showing results with the same title makes it difficult for users to decide which result is the most relevant to them. Duplicate titles also make it difficult for search engines to determine which page is most relevant to a search query. As each indexable page on your site should contain unique content, you should be able to eliminate duplicate titles by giving each page a more accurate and specific title.

Learn more

  1. Create good titles and snippets in Search Results
    support.google.com
  2. Duplicate content
    support.google.com
  3. How can I make the pages on my site unique?
    www.youtube.com

More articles in this series

➜  This article is from our comprehensive SEO Best Practices guide.

➜  Next article in this series: Page headings