HTML optimisation : the Title tag (1st part)
We start today with our first phase on HTML code optimization. This article is dedicated to the Title tag. If you are new to HTML, you will find a short introduction (the basics) in our previous article “HTML for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)”.
What is the Title tag ?
If you look at the HTML code of the following web page, mp3 player – Google search (right click + View source in Internet Explorer), you can find the following piece of code at the beginning of the file,
This part of code
<title>mp3 player – Google search</title>is used to display in the title bar of the Google result page the text “mp3 player – Google search”
The Title tag, according to the HTML 4.01 standard
The HTML 4.01 standard stands that :
- each HTML document must have one and only one TITLE element,
- this TITLE element must be inserted in the HEAD part of the document,
- the TITLE element does not belong to the text flow (it would be displayed as the title of the page or the window),
- the TITLE element can contain accented or special characters,
- the TITLE element must have an opening tag and a closing tag.
Here is an example of a well-formed TITLE tag,
<HEAD>
<TITLE>mp3 player catalog</TITLE>
... other head items ...
</HEAD>
<BODY>
... body of the document ...
</BODY>
</HTML>It is strongly recommended to fit to the standard because search engines prefer well-formed documents, i.e respecting the HTML standards.
In the common use, the TITLE element is often called the TITLE tag. To be clear, the TITLE element is composed of an opening tag (<TITLE>), a closing tag (</TITLE>) and some text, “mp3 player catalog” in our previous example.
Is the Title tag really important ?
This HTML tag is unique. There is only one copy per HTML page, usually at the beginning of the file. As this tag is not included in the text flow of the document body, it is barely visible. That is why we can wonder whether it is important for SEO and whether there are efforts to make on it.
This HTML tag is probably the most important of all. It has a great impact on search engines. If you were to optimize only one, it would be this tag. It is highly recommended to work on this tag to improve your SEO. A well-targeted title is often a large part of theme and ranking job done.
