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Look at the above example. Which search results stand out to you the most? Chances are you chose links 1 and 4, unless you specifically recognise other names, since they appear to be the most relevant to your search.

Maybe you’ve already started optimising your website for search engines to attract more leads to your website. But what about when you do show up in that scrolling list of blue links?

How do you stand out from the sea of links, especially when your page links are surrounded by your competitors’ page links?

What’s so important about your page title?

The wording you see in Google links is taken directly from your page title. When you click on a link to visit the corresponding page, you will see the title at the top of your browser window.

When people are searching on the web their attention span is generally pretty low and they are looking for quick answers. So when your potential customers do a Google search for a phrase or kewords that relate to your business, their eyes will scan down the list of link results, looking for wording that best sums up what they’re searching for. This could even mean that if you are ranking 2nd in the list and you have better wording in your title than the 1st link, people will probably click on your link first!

Take this opportunity to grab their attention, like you would if you were writing an ad heading in the classifieds of a newspaper!

Writing eye-catching links

Each linked page on your website is a potential link in Google. Decide what each page is about and what your goals are for the page and what people might be typing into Google search if they were looking for this page. Are you trying to sell your visitors something? Pick out the most relevant keywords.

• Format your title in a sentence or possible keyword phrase, with your keywords up front of the title.
• Keep it relatively short. Any title longer than 11 or so words will be shortened.
• Generally speaking, if you add your company name to the title, keep it at the end. There may be exceptions to this e.g. if it’s keyword rich or a well known brand name.
• Choose a contextual, descriptive title rather than a laundry list of keywords.
• Think about what you’d click on if you were the customer doing the search!

And remember, placing your keywords in page titles also boosts your search engine page rank, getting your link up there in the first place.

How to update your web page titles

If you have a website and want to start updating your page titles, you may be able to do this yourself if you have the ability to edit your own website. It may be best to do it gradually if you have a lot of pages. It won’t take much time and it could be the difference that gets visitors clicking through to your site!

To increase your sales through Google ranking, contact us at Arbre Media and we may be able to engineer some excellent results for you.

Updated on February 2, 2012