All about Web design.

Don't Put Your Slogan in the Title Tag - Optimize Your Web Pages

Don't just put your slogan in the title tagwhen you formulate the copy of your website. Theformulation of the title tag is the mostimportant single aspect when you fine-tune yourwebsite:

1. It is what people first read when thelisting of your site turns up in Google and othersearch engines.

2. It is the single element of your website that the search engines pay the highest emphasis on.

If you look up the source code, the title is whatis between these tags: title and /title in the hard brackets. You can get the length of your title tag checked here: http://www.scrubtheweb.com/cgi-bin/webtools/meta-check.cgi

A typical slogan isn't stuffed with importantkeywords. My slogan for my stock photographybusiness is "Stock photos from most of the World"and I am quite happy with that. It is honest andcatchy which I like. But it isn't a good titlefor my website of A-Z Fotos: www.azfotos.com .Let us analyze that as an example.

The first two words of the slogan would be fineas the title tag because 'stock photos' are among the mainkeywords for A-Z Fotos. They are also finebecause they are put in front of the title tag.Don't forget this so-called 'keyword prominence'in title tags.

They also function well whenpeople are browsing down the listing after thesearch button has been activated, because peopletend to look for exactly the word they wrote inthe search box.

But the words 'from most of the' is absolutelyuseless. It is the kind of words that the searchengines simply ignore because they are toocommon. The last word 'World' isn't any better.Nobody would search for the 'World'. - To say itmildly, it is too broad!

The alternative to your slogan is to formulate atitle which includes your most important keywordsfor the specific webpage in such a way that it isattractive when the surfer browses down thesearch result.

For Google the title shouldn't be longer than 62characters. Include your brand name if itincludes keywords. Otherwise avoid it in thetitle unless it is very well known. As always becareful to choose relevant keywords andcombinations of words that are often searchedafter. I always check at

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/for the relevance of the keywords I have in mind.Be aware that many keywords are to some extentseasonal. Overture offers the frequency ofsearches in US of last month.

Searches in UK can be checked at

http://inventory.uk.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Remember to make the title tag even more specificfor your subpages, i.e. the pages after the homepage (index-page).

Avoid having more than onepage with the same title.

Get help from Soren Breiting to find ideas for your online marketing at http://www.ALLeMarketingTips.com and receive the latest really useful tips at http://www.StockPhotoNews.com (about pictures and marketing). Soren has written more than 20 printed books, and countless articles in journals and magazines about his special fields of interest. He is widely published on the web, too. Enjoy Soren's wonderful stock photos at: http://www.azFOTOS.com