What the page title does

How it works

The title sits in the head of the page in the <title> element. It is not shown on the page itself, but in three important places:

• In search results as the blue, clickable headline. It is the strongest signal of what the page is about and often decides whether someone clicks.
• In the browser tab and in bookmarks. With many tabs open, it is how people find the page again.
• In screen readers. It is the first thing a screen reader reads out when a page opens. The title tells people where they are. WCAG therefore requires a descriptive title for every page (success criterion 2.4.2).

Google usually uses the title as it is, but sometimes replaces it with its own text, for instance when it is missing, very long or does not match the content.

What matters

• 10 to 60 characters. Shorter usually says too little, just the company name for instance. Longer titles get cut off; Google truncates by width in pixels, which is roughly 60 characters.
• Content first, then the brand. What the page offers goes first, because people read from the start. The brand follows after a dash.
• One title per page. If the code has several <title> elements, search engines take the first. Usually the theme and a plugin each add one.
• A different one for every page. Identical titles on many pages make them impossible to tell apart in results and in tabs.
• No list of keywords. A title is a phrase for people, not a list.

How to set it up

In the CMS you enter the title per page, often in a separate “SEO title” field added by an SEO plugin. Without it, the system usually takes the page name and appends the site name. Check the template if the title appears twice. In HTML, a good title looks like this:

<title>What the page offers – Brand</title>

For a start page that might be: “Tax advice for freelancers in Bristol – Smith & Partners”.