Title tags are a part of HTML elements that signify or indicate the web page’s Title. A title tag is displayed as a representative of the search snippet in the SERPs. Title tags are important for a good user experience, and the tags appear clickable headlines for desired results. A good title tag is considered to be precise and gives an accurate description of the content uploaded on the web.
Why is Google Title Tags Important?
Title tags may seem like they directly do not influence your website’s growth on any search engine. Google, in 2020 had advised focusing much on title tags or meta description, but this does not make them irrelevant at all. As Google chooses snippets from title tags, they still become an important parameter for deciding click-through rate.
Google’s Title Tag Update:
As per the Google updates in August 2021, Google has changed the way on how page titles may appear on SERPs and are more focused on generating titles that are more relevant to the document. The recent system has been using the headers and subheaders as the Title content page’s Title. The change in Google’s system has been brought because since the previous update in 2012, and the HTML-generated page title would not be competent enough to generate a page title that would give an overview of the page. There are many key factors for the failure of the previous system update due to keywords stuffing in the Title, irrelevant, and making the Title too long.
The latest Google update on Page titles focuses more on the factors like readability and the accessibility of a webpage. The clickable titles which Google generates often are the headers and subheaders from the page and replace the tags you have mentioned in your Title or meta description.
These new updates of the Google Title page have been shown to affect more than 60% of the web pages that are being affected by this update. In simple words, whenever a site owner will make any changes to the HTML of the page, Google will act on those changes and then possibly generate a new and more accurate page title tag. Therefore, in the perspective of SEO, header 1 & 2 play a crucial role.
Google Title tags Myths before the 2022 update:
Many web owners have many myths about the title tag, and this new Google Title tag update has helped debunk many of them. These Myths are:
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Inserting keywords in the Title:
Using the keywords is of utmost priority, but one has to be equally careful as aimlessly filling your content with keywords can just be devastating as well. As technology is advancing, search engines are being made capable of understanding a conversational language. When the keywords are stuffed into the Title, this leads to creating a diversion, and your uploaded content may not reach the target audience. The best way your title tags can benefit you is by avoiding keyword stuffing.
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Using brand name at the end of the Title:
This is used as one of those tactics by companies to insert their brand names in the heading to improve their brand’s visibility. Though this might help in increasing the selectivity of a customer with regard to a particular brand, it does not promise that it will build your online reachability.
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Using longer titles for CTRs:
Longer titles do not indicate higher efficacy of your content uploaded. Though this is used for CTR, keeping title tags smaller and more efficient which highlights the content that you have uploaded, will benefit you in the long run.
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Use of power words:
In a recent study, it is shown that using power words like best, amazing, and many more such words have caused a decrease in the Clickthrough Rate by 13.9% as these words give off an impression of untrustworthiness. Using them appropriately will help increase CTR.
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Emotional Title for higher CTR:
The page title tag should be concise and portray a brief summary of the content you want to upload. Having a page title can cause a deviation from the main motive of uploading, and this may cause a hindrance in your CTR.
These were a few of the myths blindly followed by web owners’ whole writing title tags. This would always not bring positive results but cost you. The new Google Title update has made changes and practicing good and quality-based SEO practices are very important.
How Does This New Update From Google Affect SEO?
The new update ought to cause many changes for web owners, and some of them are listed below:
- The auto-generated Page title tag or the AI-generated title tag will affect the ranking of a webpage, and this won’t cause any serious issue to the SERPs.
- This change may also result in the change causing fluctuations in ClickThrough Rate. This may also lead to a gradual dip in CTR.
One of the best ways one can do this is to follow or keep practicing the habit of generating content with a good header and page title. The keyword should be more focused in headers and spread out evenly throughout your content.
One can easily know that their webpage is failing through Google analytics and information, which tells you the drop in CTR and impressions your webpage has received. One can do it by rewriting the headers and Titles and then submitting them again to solve the problem. This way, your webpage won’t be affected drastically.
More Concise ways of writing a good title tag:
As per the new updates of Google, the first 50-60% of your title tag will be presented, and hence your title tags should be effective and eloquent. The main focus of these updates is that the search engine has picked the best option that is relevant to the User’s search requirements, and hence as a web owner, you must make sure that your title tag highlights or at least briefs about the article.
Some of the ways that you can use to create a title tag that is effective and impactful are:
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Including a question:
Title tags that contain questions are said to have gained higher CTR. We all must have been aware that this question brings a sense of curiosity among the masses, and it can be directly related to the User’s pain point. Presenting solutions with these questions will help to give a better user experience and drive more traffic towards your website.
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Adding positive title tags:
Emotions play a key role and are considered to be an integral part of the marketing approach. One can make use of this, which can help you improve your CTR by 7%.
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Maximum use of keywords:
Long-tailed keywords have shown a greater impact on the CTR and have shown an increase in CTRs by 3%. Keywords play a crucial role in driving traffic to your website.
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Create high-quality content:
Creating content with extremely good tags helps support and build engaging content. Great content will help in leveraging your website in SERPs, and so by adding value to your content, you can increase the number of visitors and users who would want to visit your web page again and again.
Conclusion
Reconsidering the recent updates put forth by Google has affected many websites on the search engine. Many web owners and businesses have complained regarding the Title, but Google reassures the web owners that the new system can correct itself.
But, waiting for Google to do it is a very long process, rather than using well-researched keywords and title tags. Title tags are very important as and when a searcher looks for any data on the web, many users rely on these to navigate or switch between pages. Hence, it is important to accurately describe what the page is all about and not just stuff the title with keywords.
