If I think back to the early-90's, when I began my career in the Web industry with an agency, CKS, there were many long talks about the Title tag and what should be included. Fifteen years later, there is still discussions about what should be included in the Title tag. There are a lot of firms and individuals who will engage in title tag spam, OrganicStats is not one of them.

Example Title Tag Evolution:
1995: Sax Student Loan Consolidation Incorporated - Tips on consolidation
2001-2005: tips, student loan consolidation, student loans, loans for students, better student loans, lots of student loan offers
2006: Tips for student loan consolidation - Sax Student Loans

So let's break down the changes over the years:
1995: Back then, everyone wanted to promote their company first.
2001-2005: Many shady, snake oil SEO firms came along and realized they could manipulate the search engines by changing the title tag to include keywords. Google and the other engines have become wise to this and the benefit no longer outweighs the negative effects of this "optimization".
2006: Today, the key is on the content and "getting what you clicked for". When you see a search result with the suggested 2006 title, you know you will land on a page with tips for consolidating your student loan.

So now that you understand where the Title tag has been and where it is now, let's look at the two top tips for improving your Title tags.

Note: Title tags are no longer just for search engines, but sites like Digg and reddit (social networks) use the Title tag for the name of the link. So today it is even more vital that the Title tag be used appropriately.

1. Length of your Title - The length of your title matters. For most search engines (and now social networks), the title tag should be between 60-67 characters. To be safe, I would limit to about 63 characters. In my 2006 example above, we are at 59 characters, which is a perfect number. Google ignores words such as "in," "and,", "the," "to," and "for," so let's leave them off if possible.

2. Company Name - Move it to the back, up front is reserved for the page name. I think it is perfectly alright to include the name of your company in your title tags, in some ways it will add credibility to the link, but let's put it at the end of the link. If your company name is long, consider some abbreviations. For example, you do not need to include the firm organizational structure (i.e. LLC, Inc., Corporation, Partnership, etc).

So let's look at the revised Title for the example page using the two tips we just learned. The final choice would be something along the lines of:

• "Student Loan Consolidation Tips - Sax Student Loans"
• "Ten Tips for Student Loan Consolidation - Sax Student Loans"

The number of characters is perfect, the ordering is correct, and the user will know exactly what they will get when they click on your link. And so, both are excellent choices and a small birdy shared with me that numbering "Ten Tips" typically draws in more attention from the social networking sites.

If you are looking for an expert to provide you with recommendations, OrganicStats includes Title tag analysis in both the Master Service and the Organic SEO Service.

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