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How your web page titles can help you with local
search
If you're selling products and services that are related
to a special area, it is crucial that your website gets found
by the right people. One of the easiest ways to get found
by people that live in your area is to optimize your web
page titles.
What is the web page title?
The title of a web page is the text that is written between
the <title> and the </title> tags in the
HTML code of a web page. The web page title is displayed
in the web browser window when someone visits your website
and it is usually used as the linked text when your website
appear in the search results.
Why is it important to use optimized web page titles?
The web page title is one of the main factors that Google,
Yahoo and other search engines use to rank web pages. A
good web page title greatly improves the chances of getting
high search engine rankings.
In addition, the web page title is used as the bold linked
text on search result pages. That means that it should
be clear, concise and appealing so that web surfers click
on it.
How to change your web page title so that it gets
better local rankings
If you optimize your web page titles correctly, they will
both increase your search engine rankings and they will
attract people from the right local area to your website.
You'll benefit from targeted traffic and you'll get more
sales than before. Here are some things that you can do
to improve your web page titles:
- Include the name of your business, important keywords
and your city in the title of your homepage:
Smith & Sons - The shoe shop
for inexpensive footwear in London
- Depending on your business size, change the order of
these items. Well known businesses should list their company
name first. If your business is new then it's usually better
to list the keyword first:
The shoe shop for inexpensive footwear:
Smith & Sons in London
People are probably looking for a solution to their problem
(inexpensive shoes) instead of your company name. Instead
of your city, you can also use the name of the greater
area if your service is available in that area.
- Use a different title tag for every page. This is important.
The title should reflect the content that can be found
on the page. For branding purposes, the titles should contain
your company name and a popular keyword for which you want
to be found on search engines:
Smith & Sons: About our London
shoe shop
Smith & Sons: Buy inexpensive sneakers
in London
Smith & Sons: The best prices for
boots in London
- Use short web page titles. Short titles are much easier
to read for web surfers. Do not try to stuff keywords in
your web page title. It is much more better if your website
is highly relevant to one keyword than somewhat relevant
to many keywords.
If you want to optimize your website for different keywords,
optimize different pages for different keywords.
- Do not use special characters in your titles. Avoid symbols
and other special characters. They might not be displayed
properly on all computers and your website might look strange
in the search results.
If you change your web page titles as explained above, your
website will get better rankings on search engines and it
will be found by people who live in the right area.
Unfortunately, the web page title is not the only element
that influences the position of your website in the search
results of Google and other search engines. If you want to
make sure that your site appears in the top 10 results, you
should optimize
all factors that are needed to get top rankings.
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