The page title tag is one of the most critical elements that search engines consider when ranking websites for keywords. The proper keywords you input to how you write it to entice people to click can impact the search result positions. Below are SEO best practices for page title tags.
1. Target Keywords
Making sure you did your SEO keyword research best practices and identified a long tail keyword with enough search volume with low competition as the primary keyword that you want to target for the landing page you are optimizing for. Place your target keywords closer to the front and keep brand terms in the back if you are targeting nonbrand keywords (when targeting brand keywords, obviously this is not the case). Do not keyword stuff or try to add as many keywords you want to target to the page title tag as that may lead to penalties in keyword ranking drop and organic traffic drop.
2. Entice Clicks
It’s best practice not to optimize a page title just for search engines to rank keywords, it’s more important to write so that readers will understand and be attracted to click on your listing. Using brackets, hyphens, upper cases (avoid all capitals), numbers, emojis, “&” vs “and,” and keywords like “FREE” can help boost the SEO clicks.
3. Length
Make sure you keep the page title length within 60 characters so that it does not get cut off with ellipsis in mobile or desktop search results or allow it to rewrite for you. When the page title is cut off, people may not understand what you have to offer and are less likely to click on your search results.
4. Unique
Each page should have its unique title tag. When two or more pages have the same page title, search engines become confused and are not sure which one should have better rankings, sometimes it may think you are purposely creating duplicate content which can lead to ranking drop penalties.
Summary
In summary, it is best to keep your page titles to target one primary keyword, attract people to click, keep it short, and make sure every page has a unique page title.