Q and A: Is it better to have single words or phrases in the Title Tag?

Dear Kalena...

I am working on updating the title tag and description for the Cancer Council South Australia to make it more effective. Could you please tell me whether it is better to have single words or phrases in the title tag - I am unsure on the process of how search engines actually use the title tag?

With Thanks
Anne

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Anne

The content of the Title Tag (or Title Attribute to use the correct term) is considered to be one of the more important elements of a page taken into account by search engines when it comes to matching your web pages with search queries. Although there are over 100 different relevancy factors that make up a search algorithm like Google's, the Title tag is considered to be in the top 10.

Another reason why the Title Tag is important is that the content of the Title is generally displayed across the top of the browser AND used as the bookmark text when people add a page to their favorite's list. And finally, the content of the Title Tag is often what's chosen by search engines to display in search results pages to describe your site.

So taking all these factors into account, your Title Tag content should:

• Accurately reflect the page content it represents
  
• Be a readable sentence
  
• Include relevant keywords and phrases
  
• Work as logical bookmark text
• Be enticing enough to make searchers visit your page
  

Read more about how search engines treat Title and META tags.

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