This past week we held a 72 hour SEO Marathon on Facebook. I would like to thank everyone that signed up for my 15-minute website review. I shared tips on basic SEO and the recent changes Google made to their Algorithm.  I also told many website owners exactly how to fix the most basic problems.

One thing I noticed on just about every website was either improper use of title tags or no title tags. Title tags are one of the most important ranking factors for Google. If you have no title tags, do not expect to be found online for specific phrases.

Below I have posted specific instructions on using proper title tag structure. Hopefully, this will help you create the proper title tags using the correct targeted phrases.

First, let’s make sure that everyone knows what a title tag is and where it is located.

• The title tags are what appear in the clickable link on the search engine results page.

• They are located on the top left-hand corner of your browser.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get started:

1. Title tags should be no longer than 65 characters – While it is OK to have to have over 65 characters, the search engines pick up only the first 65 characters of the title tag.
2. Keywords – Do not use single word keywords in your title tags. This is one of the biggest errors I see on websites. I have looked at so many websites that have this error. Even the ones that are using so-called SEO experts, have it on their sites.
3. Keyword Phrases – Instead of Keywords, your title tag should contain specific keyword phrases. For example, if your website was an acupuncture site and you were located in Brewster NY, you would not use: “Acupuncture, Brewster NY,” instead use: “Acupuncturist Brewster NY” It is more specific and targeted to your geographic location.
4. Commas – I can say without a doubt, that just about all my Facebook friends who have a website, are using commas in their title tags. Get rid of them now!!. If you have keyword phrases separated by commas, it throws a red flag and Google will most likely ignore the phrase and consider it spam.
5. Hyphens & Pipes – These are appropriate keyword phrase separators. There are others you may use, just do not use commas.
6. Stop Word – Do not bother using stop words such as: the, it, I, be..etc. Google discounts them and you waste space.
7. Text Copy – Once you have written your SEO optimized text for your content, use keyword phrases with specific keywords from within the text. In the example below, notice the highlighted keywords within the content for www.eudoxieacupuncture.com. The keywords were combined to create the title tag keyword phrase (Acupuncture Brewster NY).

When you do a Google search for that phrase, notice it shows up within the first 5 rankings.

Below are some more quick tips:

1. Use at least 2 keyword phrases per page
2. Use a unique title tag for each page
3. Do not use the same keyword phrase and title tags on every page
4. Use keyword phrases that are relevant to your page
5. Do not use a cluster of single keywords as title tags
6. Avoid stop words such as: it, the, that, he, be. Google does not recognize it and it frees up space.
7. Do not use the company name by itself without any keyword phrases
8. Do not use, untitled document, website URL or anything else that is useless to the search engine.

Well, that is it, for now, my friends. I hope this information has been helpful to you. Watch for my next post about Meta Tag Descriptions.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at amiranda@marknetgroup.com. You can also follow me us at:

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