If more than a couple of hours on the internet then you've probably noticed a variety of page titles, ranging from mild, non-descriptive all the way to downright misleading. Most cases of poor web page titles are due to a lack of understanding. For example, have you ever seen a web page title, which went something like:
"Blue Widgets, widget Blue, Blue Widget Company, Best Blue Widgets, Cheap Widgets Blue Widgets Blue Wholesale Buy Blue Widgets"
This is a case of a web site owner with outdated SEO (search engine optimization) techniques in an attempt to improve its ranking. Not only will this not work, but also encourages real people (who otherwise would be to purchase these wonderful blue widgets) away.
They have also probably seen web sites where each page has the same title, which is usually the name of the company. While this is not a case of a web site owner trying to manipulate their ranking, is not helping to increase conversions.
Both from the standpoint of SEO and from a global perspective of marketing, the more effective is the title that offers an accurate description of the page, but short enough to display completely in the search engine results pages. In most cases, 60 characters or less will be sufficient to describe a website and still appears in full in most search engines.
March 19, 2010, 03:37:08 AM