Hopefully that title got your attention! The title of this article is actually incorrect. Your title does matter, it matters to your visitors and the search engines. Your title is what attracts people to your page. Properly used titles will increase traffic to your site and increase your rankings in the SE's.

So why are title's so important?

Go to http://www.google.com . Type in the phrase: web developer for hire . This is the page I would just love to be on. Currently I am on page 4.

Let's take a look at the first site in the results. [as of 07/2007]

The very first listing appears as follows:
Title: How to Hire a Web Designer [Site Planning]
Now if you view the source code of that site their title tag reads:
<title>How to Hire a Web Designer [Site Planning]</title>

Coincedence? Not really. Ok Phil but you still haven't told us why this is important... trust me I am getting to that.

Let's take a look at the fifth site in the results. [as of 07/2007]

The fifth listing appears as follows:
Title: Web Developer's Journal - Tips on Web Page Design, HTML, Graphics ...
Now if you view the source code of that site their title tag reads:
<title>Web Developer's Journal - Tips on Web Page Design, HTML,
Graphics and Development Tools</title>

Now we can talk about the importance of titles. Know how many characters you can use to still make an impact. In our example the first site had 42 characters in the code and all 42 displayed in the search results. On the other hand the fifth site had 87 characters in the code and ONLY 65 characters displayed in the search results. 87 - 65 = 22 words in the code that do not display on the search results. This means the fifth site lost the following phrase: 'and Development Tools'. This is a pretty important keyword phrase. Back to the first site who only used 42 characters. Google allows 65 subtract the 42 they used and they would add 23 more characters.

Do you see what I am getting at? Search Engines will only display a certain number of characters for your title. Anything over that really doesn't benefit you because users do not see the remainder of the title. Use every character of your title wisely and make the most out of your message.

Another similar topic is about the description of your website but that is a little more complicated. If you are using keywords in your title there really isn't much need to repeat those keywords in your description. Use your description as another marketing method to get someone to click on your title if the title doesn't capture their attention.

Keep in mind this example only used Google's search results. Other SE's may allow more or less characters so you have to balance how long your title is used by all search engines.

My home page title: Web Developer for Hire - Home [as of 07/2007] === 29 characters === oops better practice what I preach. I need to come up with 36 more characters.

Until next time - happy webmastering!

Phil