Gwyn Drake - Bayshore Solutions Sr. Account Manager
By: Gwyn Drake – Bayshore Solutions Denver Emarketing Team
Keyword rich Title Tags have long been a part of SEO strategy. Not only are the Title Tags a basic way for search engines to confirm the content of a page and your site, they show up for the user at the top of the web browser, and of course, in the search results. Sure, there is an art to selecting the appropriate keywords, the order of brand name and page specific information, and where to place a | pipe. But one standard has always been clear: keep the title tags under 70 characters for the best readability by search engines and users. All characters past this point will likely go unread.
Some changes by Google, such as animal updates, are high profile and high impact. Others garner less publicity but pack a lot of punch. One such seemingly minor change is Google’s technique for not only defaulting to an alternative Title Tag over the prescribed HTML Title Tag but also selecting a page’s new Title Tag.
Google provided parameters for the new Title Tag selection process, but like much of SEO, interpreting the algorithm is as much of an art as it is a science.
Google’s Alt Title Tag Selection Process:
- Google will use an alternative Title Tag when the HTML Title Tag is truncated (aka, too long for users and Google to read in its entirety). Google states that “We’ll only do this one when the new, shorter title is just as accurate as the old one.”
- Avoiding boilerplate copy that does not represent the unique page content.
How to Improve Your Title Tags:
The information Google provided is a vague overview of the new process and algorithm which spurred on a lot of discussions and independent tests to determine more firm guidelines for users. Whether you are finding that your Title Tags are defaulting to Google’s selection, or you are being proactive while creating new pages on your site, here are the most conservative best practices:
- Shorter is Better: Keep Title Tags well under 70 characters. We advise “well under” because in addition to character length, Google may also be using a discretionary pixel length to determine truncated Title Tags. Letters such as W and A use more pixel space than most.
- Do Not Rely on the Accuracy of Google’s Selection: The statement that Google will “only do this when the new, shorter title is just as accurate as the old one.” From client experience, Google’s alternative Title Tag selection is not always as descriptive as the original.
- Keep Page Elements Optimized: Google has not revealed the alt Title Tag selection process and may pull from your H1 or an alt title. As always, it is our recommendation to strategically optimize all page elements.
- Customize Your Title Tags: If you allow your Title Tags to dynamically populate, you not only risk a title that is long, you may risk duplicating elements of a title across multiple pages.
Although the change may seem arbitrary from this big search engine giant, the change is in line with Google’s SEO themes of accurate content presented to your users.
If you’re considering enhancing your search engine optimization efforts (SEO) to better perform in search, contact Bayshore Solutions and speak with a web marketing specialist today.
Gwyn Drake is a Senior Account Manager at Bayshore Solutions—a Tampa Web Design, Web Development, and Internet Marketing Company.