Your title tag is the first thing a person will see about your business, as it’s the title that shows up on the search engine results page. The blue link at the top of a result is hyperlinked back to your website. If you’re looking at your website, it’s the text that’s written at the top of the browser (keep in mind it may be cut off due to the length of the title). Understanding how to write an effective title tag to draw in customers is essential. You want something catchy but functional. In this article, we’ll see the top five effective ways to write title tags for local SEO.
What’s important about a title tag?
Your title tag is likely the most critical aspect of your on-page ranking. When a user enters a search term on Google, the results which appear need to be relevant. As such, Google needs to recognize the basic idea behind each web page before it organizes the results. The algorithm behind the search platform will often form a generalized pattern of pages, arranging the results as most relevant at the top and decreasing relevance as the positions drop. Your title tag is a significant component of a search engine’s functioning. It provides algorithms a quick and easy way to explain what the page is about.
Beyond the search engine function of title tags, these blurbs also encourage viewers to click through to the website. If they’re not exciting and engaging, they’re going to keep scrolling. The proper title for your content can increase traffic by nearly 37%. The correct formulation of your title is both optimized for keywords and interesting for viewers.
However, not all title tags you use for local SEO may provide your needed results. Because prominent search engines like Google continue to evolve, you may not know whether your current title tags still work well or are found to be effective. This is where SEO experiments come into play. SEO experts have continuously conducted title tag testing and other relevant experiments to know what is essential to search engines and your customers and determine the need for title tag modifications or replacements. Yet if you have to change your title tags to achieve a more favorable outcome, then you should know how to create one in the first place.
Thus, to help get you starts, here are five effective ways to write title tags for your local SEO keywords:
Watch the length of your title to tag local SEO
Search engines will only display your title’s first 50-60 characters before cutting off the rest. Anything after the cut-off will not be visible for your audience. Meaning they’ll have to guess what your article is about before clicking the link (not a great marketing approach). The closer your keyword is to the front of the article title. The stronger it’s going to be for search results. Try to keep your local SEO visible before the 50-character mark.
Keep it Newsworthy to Write Local SEO Title Tags
Titles don’t have to be long and dragged out to be effective. They don’t need to be earth-shattering marketing tools every time you update a post online. You need to consider what Google wants to know about the page before you publish it. Feel free to add an adjective to the front of your keyword or an additional description behind it. If you’re using a location-based keyword, include that in your title tag too.
Having a simple keyword of sugar baby Seattle isn’t enough for a title. But it definitely contains the local SEO content Google wants to see before making recommendations. Imagine looking through a newspaper at the various headlines; if your title tag would make you stop and read the content, you’ve done enough. If you’re targeting local SEO, make sure to include the proper spelling of the location in your title tag too.
Don’t be Vague with Your Titles
Clickbait content has taken a nosedive recently, thanks to users becoming increasingly frustrated at the lack of information. This marketing tactic will often have extreme headlines that focus on something “earth-shattering”. Or “revolutionary.” Users would usually click on the page to discover a drawn-out article without substance.
Always make sure you avoid such practices. Titles like this aren’t likely to show high on SERP. So, will likely cause your bounce rate to increase over time. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself whether the title tells you what you’re going to learn, understand, or debate just by reading the title. If it hasn’t, it needs to be reworked.
However, even if creating vague page titles is discouraged, it doesn’t mean you can’t put a unique twist on your title tags. Because your online business competes for clicks with your competitors, you should add relevant words that would make your titles stand out. These could be something about your business and not just vague words that aren’t related to your business.
Always Use Your Target Keyword to Write Local SEO Title Tags
Local SEO is a way for businesses to increase local exposure by optimizing for geographical areas. You want to target locations or regions your company currently services without coming across as pushy with your title. Never try to include your keyword more than once in the title, and never attempt to include multiple cities in one title. It’s better to create two separate pages for two cities than trying to accommodate both keywords.
By doing so, you can avoid the risk of keyword stuffing in your title tags. Generally, keyword stuffing refers to the act of intentionally adding or stuffing your target keywords into your title tags to increase your search engine rankings. Unfortunately, keyword stuffing is a big ‘no’ in SEO as it appears to be spammy and is more likely to provide a bad user experience for your website.
Remember to Branch Out with Your Titles
There’s nothing worse than visiting a site with hundreds of blog posts with almost identical names (except for the geographical location of the industry.) You want to have a variety of articles that include different titles and formats for your readers. Consider sharing listicles (such as five reasons to hold your breath at the beach), informational (understanding how dogs can alert those with hypoglycemia), and opinion-based content.
While you don’t need to include disclosure of sponsor or affiliation in the title tag, you’ll want to include any endorsements, discounts, or compensation you’ve received from the company within the blog post. This only applies to sponsored or affiliate-based marketing efforts. Consider including the local keyword within these sponsored posts by incorporating it into the overall theme of the blog post.
One example would be sharing a post with the title, “The top 5 mishaps in bathroom renovations in Michigan.” This title explains the entire concept of the blog post while encouraging viewers to click through and learn more. From this title, the local keyword “bathroom renos in Michigan” is still in, while you’re appealing to a viewer’s interest too.
Conclusion
Writing title tags for your local SEO efforts doesn’t have to be a challenging process. By keeping the information mentioned above in mind, you can create title tags that can attract more visitors to click and visit your website. As a result, you can drive more targeted traffic, resulting in more conversions and revenues.