{"id":38486,"date":"2019-09-20T08:28:11","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T08:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/?p=38486"},"modified":"2023-09-15T20:45:01","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T20:45:01","slug":"seo-title-tags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/seo-title-tags\/","title":{"rendered":"We Analyzed 1.5 Million Title tags to find out what the ideal length is for SEO in 2024 (Hint: It’s not 80 characters anymore)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I see a lot of advanced SEO’s shake their head as they see yet another blog post about title tags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But hold onto your Twitter hate until you scrolled down a bit further on this page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, Title tags are probably one of the best things to invest your time in as a search optimizer as they are clearly one of the most important factor<\/b> when it comes to making your content relevant for your chosen keywords and they take less than 10 seconds to edit each.<\/p>\n\n\n

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And as you can see from the title tag a\/b test screenshot above, a well crafted title tag can easily increase your search traffic without increasing your rankings.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this is why, learning how to craft highly clickable title tags can take your SEO game to the next level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in this post, we have looked at 1.5 million title tags<\/b> to see what the most successful pages have in common<\/b> and the results might surprise you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let’s put first things first for the most novice of our readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is a < title > Tag?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A < title > tag is an HTML element that determines the name of your web page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It looks like this in the source code of your page:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

< title ><\/strong>
How To Write The Best Headlines For Shares, Links & Traffic<\/strong>
< \/title ><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This piece of information is particularly valuable for browsers; they use it for tab titles, URL suggestions, bookmarks, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s an example:<\/p>\n\n\n

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It is also used by search engines as the primary source of search result titles:<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Ah<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

And the same goes for social media. Unless you customize your titles specifically for each particular platform (Facebook, Twitter), any link you share will display your < title > tag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, quite often, it becomes your headline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I say \u2018quite often\u2019, because Google can change your title if it is spammy, incomplete, or otherwise not sufficiently descriptive to be displayed in the search results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To add more clarity, here\u2019s what Google says<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIf we\u2019ve detected that a particular result has one of the above issues with its title, we may try to generate an improved title from anchors, on-page text, or other sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, sometimes even pages with well-formulated, concise, descriptive titles will end up with different titles in our search results to better indicate their relevance to the query.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a simple reason for this: the title tag as specified by a webmaster is limited to being static, fixed regardless of the query.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And here\u2019s how Google\u2019s Gary Illyes explains it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe will never quit rewriting titles. We\u2019ve seen so many sites whose titles really suck. A lot of sites have no title; a lot of sites have a title saying \u201cTop Page\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Google almost always rewrites titles. We couldn\u2019t provide useful results to our users if we quit rewriting titles. Experiments showed us users preferred written titles. So, we\u2019ll continue to write titles.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In other words, if you want to enjoy all the benefits of a solid SEO-worthy title that drives some traffic, you should stay within the guidelines<\/strong>, because bad titles get rewritten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What A < Title > Tag Is NOT<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A < title > tag is not your < h1 > tag<\/b>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"H1
< h1 > tag.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In HTML, < h > stands for the heading. So, whatever you use for the heading of your article on your page will only display to users once they land on your page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, < h1 > tags, as well as the content, are very important for Google to rank your page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s good practice to have your title very similar to your < h1 > headline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s for two reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n