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pageoneresults - 5:38 pm on Jan 11, 2009 (gmt 0)
I know, the <title> Element gets a lot of fanfare around here. That's because it is one of the most important elements of the page structure. I don't think we could ever tire of these types discussions because you can always learn something new when it comes to <title> structuring. I have some neat little tidbits to share with you too. ;) No Limits There is no "official limit" to the number of words and/or characters for <title> Elements. There are only suggested limits that are not set in stone either. I use different strategies for different documents. I do not follow the same structure from page to page. Since the semantic markup on the page changes, my <title> elements usually reflect those elements and their order. SERP Truncation ... One of the things you'll want to think about are the truncation limits in the SERPs. Google truncates at 66/67 characters depending on what is in the last character position. You'll want to make sure that you've kept "full" words in those first 66/67 characters so nothing of importance is getting truncated in the SERPs. My understanding is that well crafted <title> elements that appeal to the searcher's visual are where it is at! How you "turn the lights on" may have a direct impact on CTR. Turn The Lights On One of the goals is to craft a <title> that when a user searches for 3 or more words, that entire <title> "lights up" in the SERPs. That is assuming that you are using a 5-7 word <title> element in most instances. In performing my test queries, I've found many sites holding prime positions using strategies of this nature. Some are doing it purposely, others have "stumbled" onto just the right mix in their <title>. And of course it is all dependent on the search query. Shorter <title> Elements also perform well. But, I feel that usually only happens when the page is "very specific" and you're dealing with one "primary phrase". When I say shorter, I'm referring to 66/67 characters or less and that includes spaces. For me, long titles are anything that truncates and presents the ellipses (...) in the SERPs. Forward/Reverse Thinking Forward and Reverse <title> structure should be given careful consideration. If you follow the link above, they provide this example... I'm a big fan of using the above type structure by default. The hyphens are separators and allow you to duplicate primary phrases and/or parts thereof allowing increased exposure for keyword searches. You can easily write a <title> that uses the keyword twice and use that from both a Forward and Reverse perspective. Use the hyphen to your advantage. They also provide an example from a Newspaper Web Page. That one is interesting in that they suggest the actual date in the <title>. I feel this is very good practice and with Google now displaying dates in the SERPs, it is definitely something to consider. You can also get the date to display in the SERPs if it appears right after the <body> element and/or in the first part of main content that Google can freely index. Works in the meta description too. The <title> Element is mandatory.
G88: Providing descriptive titles for Web pages
[w3.org...] Users can more quickly identify the content they need when accurate, descriptive titles appear in site maps or lists of search results. When descriptive titles are used within link text, they help users navigate more precisely to the content they are interested in. <title>WGBH – Media Access Group – Captioning FAQ</title> Example 3: A Web page with a descriptive title in three parts
A Web page provides guidelines and suggestions for creating closed captions. The Web page is part of a "sub-site" within a larger site. The title is separated into three parts by dashes. The first part of the title identifies the organization. The second part identifies the sub-site to which the Web page belongs. The third part identifies the Web page itself. Note that the (mandatory) title element, which only appears once in a document, is different from the title attribute, which may be applied to almost every HTML and XHTML element.