Author: Franz Malten Buemann

If you’re asking “what is a page title in SEO?” and wondering how it can work for you, you’re not alone.
Whether you write your page title first or save the best for last, your business relies on the impact of a great headline.
After all, over 50% of shoppers use Google to discover or find new brands. If they’re researching online, your audience is scanning to find what they’re looking for. So, let’s talk about how page titles impact SEO.

Many experts say that the page title is an important on-page factor for SEO. But which page title are they talking about?
In this post, we’ll cover:

What Is a Page Title in SEO?
Why Are Page Titles Important for SEO?
Page Title SEO Examples
How to Create SEO Page Titles That Stand Out

Before we dig into the details, let’s talk about the terms we’re using.
A title tag is what’s going to show up in the browser tab and (most likely) the search engine results pages (SERPs).

If your main goal is improving your click-through rate (CTR), this is a great resource to learn more about optimizing your title tags.
H1 is an HTML heading, and it’s usually the largest and most important heading on a web page. The page title appears on the page itself and is often denoted using H1 style coding.

So, a page title could refer to either the title tag or the H1, depending on where you publish your website content. Other phrases that you may see instead of “page title” include:

Browser title
SEO title
Blog title

This can be confusing. If you’re new to search engine optimization, it’s probably part of the reason why you’re asking about page titles in SEO.
For clarity, in this article we’ll use “page title” to talk about H1s, and “title tag” when talking about the title in the SERPs.
As you keep reading, keep in mind that what you call the page title is less important than what it can do.

Why Are Page Titles Important for SEO?
If page titles don’t show up on SERPs directly, why are they important for SEO? Because a strong page title can improve SEO on your site and improve the user experience because of its prominence on the page.
The page title sits at the top of the post. It can tell your reader what your post is about and draw them into reading the full article.
The page title has the power to lure and entice readers without having to compete with ads, snippets, and featured images the way that the title tag does.
There are a few other reasons that your page title is important for search engine optimization.
1. Page titles help users and search engines understand what your page is about.
According to Search Engine Journal, Google uses the page title to find out the content and structure of the page. This information relates directly to page rank.
Your page title helps search engines decide if your web page satisfies search intent. It can more completely answer a user’s question.
2. They reassure users that they’ve found what they’re searching for.
While title tags tell users what a page contains, this tag doesn’t appear on the page. So, the page title confirms that they are in the right place. This creates a better experience for the people visiting your site. Google’s guidelines also say that user experience is a ranking factor.
3. A page title can confirm page content if Google revises your title tag.

Google doesn’t always use the title tag to generate the title that you see in the SERPs, and your page title is another way that you can tell readers and search engines what your page is about.
4. They keep readers engaged and on your page.
A great page title can help cut down bounce rates and increase time on the page. This is because a visitor who quickly finds what they are looking for on your site is more likely to engage with your post by clicking to other pages on your site and to spend more time reading your content.
While this data isn’t a direct ranking factor, both low bounce rates and dwell time are important for SEO because they show Google that your page contains high-quality content.

Page Title SEO Examples
In these examples, you can see major differences between the page title and title tag.
1.Copyblogger
This page title from Copyblogger leads you into their article by pinpointing an important what and when.

The title tag is missing the when, but its inclusion in the page title will ensure that this page shows up in the right SERPs.

2. Ahrefs
This title tag from Ahrefs uses the term “beginner’s guide” to stand out in the SERPs.

They simplify the offer once you click on the article.

3. Essence
This page title stands out on the SERPs with fun adjectives that show what makes this listicle unique.

Once readers click into the page, Essence expands the title to emphasize the fun, summery vibe.

4. Fast Company
This title tag stands out because it targets a problem and how to solve it.

Fast Company adds 2022 to the page title to show freshness. They also use a story in the subheading to draw readers into their content.

Now, you might be wondering, “How can I get started?” Below, let’s review the best practices to keep in mind when writing SEO page titles.

How to Create SEO Page Titles That Stand Out
1. Include relevant keywords.
While you don’t want to stuff your page titles with keywords, it’s still a good idea to include your primary keyword.
If you can, putting it near the front can help search engines and users figure out what your page is about quickly.
If you can’t include your primary keyword, you should try to include a variant of your keyword that satisfies search intent.
2. Write for the user.
Your content should be written for the reader, not for the search engine.
This means that your page title should offer something useful to your reader. Usually this will be information that helps them better understand a problem or brings them closer to a solution. You might also want to spark their emotions.
3. Try long sentences, but pay attention to length.
If you’re using competitive keywords, a long headline is often more effective. In fact, according to a Backlinko content study from 2020, 14-17 word headlines bring 76.7% more social shares than short headlines.
Page titles don’t have the strict character limits that keep a title tag from getting cut off in the SERPs. While you don’t need to worry about Google cutting your title off, for a page title to be useful for SEO it should still stick to around 60-70 characters.
Your page title should be long enough to entice the reader, but short enough to make the meaning and purpose of the page clear to both users and search engines.
4. Don’t be repetitive or stuff keywords.
Your page titles shouldn’t include multiple versions of the same keyword phrases.
A great example of a bad page title is “Toaster, toaster oven, kitchen toaster, college toaster, 8 slice toaster, bagel toaster | Chris’ Toaster Emporium”.
Titles like this promote worst practices and often lead to having the same page titles used across most (if not all) of the pages on your site.
Plus, it doesn’t help users understand what’s on the page.
5. Don’t put your company name at the front.
In most cases, your website will already rank high for your company name.
Leverage the fact that search engines give more weight to the words that appear at the beginning of a page title. Form your titles using your keyword phrases first, and then your company name if it makes sense.
6. Be specific.
Every page on your site should have a specific purpose. It’s easy to create a unique page title for a blog. But ecommerce and business sites often run into repetition.

Unique page titles help prevent traffic cannibalization. Cannibalizing happens when two pages from the same domain rank for the same keyword and are stealing traffic from each other. With unique page titles, you’re less likely to create pages that Google believes are serving the same keywords.
To improve your page titles, think about the specifics of the page in front of you, and try to describe it.
For example, if a page is just about “toasters”, the title should include your keywords centered on toasters. Don’t add generic keyword phrases like “kitchen appliances.”
7. Get some help.
Writing a great page title used to take a lot of practice and testing. But you can speed up the process by taking advantage of useful tools and templates to create original and high-performing page titles.
If you enjoy the process of writing, try one of these headline analyzer tools:

CoSchedule
Advanced Marketing Institute

Another option is to use a blog topic research tool that also offers great headlines. If this idea appeals to you, try using the HubSpot Blog Ideas Generator.
SEO isn’t easy.
While writing titles can be hard, it doesn’t have to be. Once you’ve mastered the art of SEO page titles, you can focus on other strategies that can drive traffic to your site.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in May 2010 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Google’s keyword match types ensure that the money you spend on your Google Ad campaigns is well spent, ensuring you don’t waste money drawing in unqualified traffic that is not likely to do business with you.
Read on to learn more about the different keyword match types for PPC ads, the type of traffic they generate, and how to use them.

Keyword Match Types
There are four different keyword match types for Google Ads: broad match, phrase match, exact match, and negative match. The image below shows the syntax for using each type, what queries your ad will appear in for each, and the search terms that would surface your ads.

Below we’ll go in-depth into each type, and provide context for how each one shows up in search results.
1. Broad Match
A broad keyword match is when your ads show in search results for queries related to the meaning of your keywords but don’t necessarily contain the exact terms. It’s the default type for Google Ads and works best with smart bidding. The syntax is to write out your keyword.
If your keyword is iPhone case, your ad could show up in queries for apple phone case and best iPhone case for kids, and phone case.
A broad keyword match helps you reach a wide audience, but your visitors are unrefined as the terms they search for are related to your keyword. However, to ensure traffic is somewhat related, Google will also take into account a user’s search activities, the content on your landing page, and other keywords in your ad group.
2. Phrase Match
A phrase match surfaces your ads in queries that have the same meaning as your keyword or more specific forms of your keyword. Words can be added before or after your keyword, but not between. The syntax is to place quotes around your target word, like “keyword.”
If your phrase match keyword is “iPhone case,” you could show up in queries for buy iPhone case, blue iPhone case, iPhone case sale.
Using phrase match puts your ads in front of a smaller audience, but they are only shown in searches that include what your ad is for, so audiences are more refined. Note that modified broad match was discontinued in 2021 and its parameters were added to phrase match criteria.
Broad Match vs. Phrase Match
The key difference between broad and phrase match is that phrase match reaches fewer audiences but traffic is more qualified for what you’re offering, while broad matches reach a wider audience, but searchers may not necessarily be looking for exactly what you’re selling.
So, if your search term is iPhone and you use broad match type, your ad would show if a user searched iPhone case, apple phone case, or iPhone 11 case, but if you used a phrase match your ad would only show for iPhone case.

3. Exact Match
An exact match is the opposite of broad match, and your ads only show in queries for the same exact meaning or intent of your keyword. This can include singular or plural forms, misspellings, abbreviations, and accents.
With this type, you’ll get more refined visitors to your site, but you’ll have less reach. The syntax is to place your keyword in square brackets, so [keyword].
If your keyword is [iPhone case], your ad would show in queries for iPhone case, case iPhone, and iPhone cases.
4. Negative Keyword Match Types
Negative keywords are used to exclude your ads from specific queries to help you focus on reaching the right users. Your ads will show for relevant terms, but not for the exact term you’ve written.

There are three different types of negative keywords: negative broad match, negative phrase match, and negative exact match. We’ll discuss them below.
1. Negative Broad Match
A negative broad match is the default negative keyword. Your ads won’t appear if the query contains all of the terms you’ve selected, no matter the order. The syntax is to simply write your keyword.
Google uses running shoes keyword as an example and says your ads would show in queries for blue tennis shoes and running shoes, but would not show for blue running shoes, shoes running, or running shoes.
2. Negative Phrase Match
Negative phrase match keywords won’t surface your ads in queries that contain the exact keywords you’ve given in the exact same order. If the query includes additional words, your ads won’t show either if the order is the same as the keyword you’ve set. The syntax is to write your keywords in quotes.
If your keyword is “running shoes”, your ad would show in searches for blue tennis shoes, running shoe, and shoes running, but wouldn’t show for blue running shoes.
3. Negative Exact Match
Negative exact match will exclude your ads in queries that contain your exact keyword in the exact order you set, without any extra words. The syntax is to write your keyword in brackets.
According to Google, your ad would show for blue tennis shoes, running shoe, blue running shoes, shoes running, not for running shoes.
Use keyword match types to maximize the ROI of your PPC ads.
Using the right keyword match type ensures the money you spend on Google Ad campaigns helps you bring in the right type of traffic, which makes you more likely to attract a new customer, drive a sale, and maximize ROI.

If you’re not sure what local citations are, don’t worry — you’ve probably come across them while looking for a new service-provider, brand, or company.
For example, a few weeks ago, my sister came to town and wanted to take me out to dinner. She’s unfamiliar with the area’s local spots, so my sister took to Yelp to find a restaurant we’d both love. After scrolling through Yelp, she found a Black-owned restaurant called 7th + Grove that had rave reviews.

Yelp showed 7th + Grove’s address, so we knew it was in a busy part of town and could be packed the night we wanted to visit. Fortunately, the restaurant’s phone number was listed, so my sister called and made a reservation. In this scenario, the restaurant’s listed address and phone number were their local citations — and made our visit easy and organized.

Citations can help with local SEO because they allow search engines to verify the legitimacy of your business. If the same name, address, and contact information for your brand are easily accessible throughout the web, search engines can trust that your business exists and is truthful about the service it provides.
Benefits of Local Citations
Local online searches have proven to be integral to a business’ success. According to BrightLocal’s 2022 Consumer Review survey, 99% of consumers used online searches to find local businesses in the last year. In that same survey, 78% of consumers said they searched for local businesses online more than once a week.

Types of Local Citations
There are several kinds of citations for local SEO that could work for your business. Let’s take a look at what they are:
Structured Citations
A structured citation is when the name, address, and phone number of your business are listed on relevant business directories or third party websites like Yelp or Yellow Pages. These third party websites already have huge databases of reliable information. For those reasons, search engines like Google trust them.
It’s helpful to have local citations in directories that are relevant to your industry. For more general directories, like Yellow Pages, you’ll want to ensure your business is listed in the appropriate category.
This makes it easier for Google to understand the service your business provides and connect you to your intended audience. If you’re not sure what directories you should target, our list of 50 local directories can help.
Below is an example of a structured citation on Yelp. I searched the word “cookies” and a local cookie shop was shown with its NAP listed and website linked, all in one directory.
Image source
Unstructured Citations
Unstructured citations also mention key information regarding your business, but unlike structured citations, the information isn’t grouped together. These kinds of citations are typically found on websites or apps that aren’t specifically designed as directories or business listings.
Common forms of unstructured local citations are online news articles, reviews, or blog posts that mention your business.
For example, the That’s So Tampa article below spotlights a new restaurant named Wandee opening in the city of Tampa, Florida. The name of the restaurant is mentioned in the first paragraph, while the location and link to its Facebook page (which contains contact information) is at the bottom.

There is data that supports the notion that unstructured citations, like online reviews, can be beneficial to businesses. According to a survey by Brightlocal, 77% of consumers were “always” or “regularly” reading online reviews when browsing for local businesses in 2021. This is up from 63% in 2020.
How to Build Citations for Local SEO in 4 Steps
If you want to pursue local citation building for your business, here are the simple steps you need to take:
1. Use data aggregators.
There are many online business directories that rely on business owners to submit their NAP directly to the website to be included. Business owners and marketers simply don’t have the time to submit their business’ NAP to thousands of sites. Fortunately, there is a simple way to navigate this: data aggregators.
Data aggregators are companies that collect information, including business NAPs, and distribute them to hundreds of websites, saving you time and effort.
According to CitationsCheck, the four most prominent data aggregators right now are Foursquare, Localeze, Factual, and Infogroup.
To boost your citations for local SEO, simply search for your business on these sites to see if it’s already featured. If you spot your business, claim it. If it’s not already on the site and you’ve ensured there are no duplicates, submit your business listing and its correct NAP to the website.
2. Submit your NAP to core sites.
The next step is to submit your NAP to core sites like Yellow Pages, Facebook, Yelp, Apple Maps, Yahoo Local, and Bing Places. Before submitting your NAP to these sites, make sure they are relevant to your business and worth the time and effort. This can be done by visiting the websites yourself and seeing what kinds of businesses are featured in the directories.
3. Submit your NAP to industry-specific and local websites.
After submitting to core websites, you’ll want to submit your information to directories that are specific to your kind of business. If you’re a home improvement contractor you’ll want your information on Angi, if you’re a realtor you should be on realtor.com, if you’re a hotel your information should be on TripAdvisor.
You’ll also want to be featured on hyper-local directories like the local Chamber of Commerce or other local business association websites.
3. Pursue unstructured local citations.
Unstructured citations for local SEO come in the form of blog posts, reviews, and articles about your business. Unstructured local citation building is a bit more difficult than structured local citation building because you’ll need someone to care enough about your business to write about it. But, don’t worry, it is far from impossible.
One way to pursue unstructured citations is to use Google to find supplier pages. Many businesses have supplier pages that link to the companies they supply or companies that supply them. Just make a list of suppliers and perform a site search to see if they already have mentions of your business on their website.
Another resource is HARO (Help A Reporter Out). HARO connects journalists with sources for news stories. It’s a free tool that works by sending you daily email alerts from journalists. You’ll answer the journalist’s questions or give a quote, they’ll usually cite you and your business in their upcoming article.
Local citations help your business gain visibility online, boost search engine rankings, and improve consumer discovery. Whether you’re pursuing unstructured or structured local citation building, it’s important to ensure your business’ name, address, and phone number are accurate and the same across all platforms.

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Most entrepreneurs and small business owners are familiar with other people not understanding what the heck you do and why. Your friends ask, “You can make money doing that?” Your parents pester, “Why don’t you just get a ‘real’ job?”Well, I’ve experienced this threefold because I run three small businesses: boutique accounting firm Gratiam Consulting, content creation company The Empowered CPA, and blow dry bar GLAMbar. I get questions not only from friends and family, but also from other business owners, especially when they learn my consulting business is successful enough that I’m turning away clients. “Aren’t you leaving money on the table?” they ask. “Wouldn’t it be easier to focus on growing that one business?Maybe it would be easier, but I wouldn’t have my work life any other way. I love getting to expand my impact through my businesses, helping different types of people in different capacities. Working on a variety of project types keeps me excited about my work by ensuring that no two days are the same, and makes it feel more fulfilling because I’m impacting so many people at different stages of their lives. Plus, I love knowing that I’ve taken a very rigid industry and molded it into something that suits me.But this structure obviously doesn’t come without its challenges, especially since I’m not the type of entrepreneur who is willing to hustle for 80 hours a week. When I left corporate life, it was because I wanted to create more time for my family, my health, and my mental well-being. Even while running three businesses, keeping space for all of that is a priority.I know there are others out there like me: multi-passionate entrepreneurs who have a wealth of business ideas and are determined to find a way to make them all work together. For those people, here are a few strategies that have helped me keep my three companies running (and growing!) without sacrificing the other things I value in life.I Thought Carefully About My Business “Portfolio”I’ll start off by saying that I think the mix of different types of businesses I have—and what they each require from me—is part of what helps me succeed. For one, I didn’t launch three businesses from the get-go. Instead, I worked on my consulting business for a few years and got it to the point where it was fairly stable, with new clients coming in 100 percent from referrals and a solid waitlist, before I turned my attention to another company. I think trying to do business development for three new ventures at once would have been challenging. I also thought carefully about how much each business would need from me week to week. As a client services business in a highly regulated (and deadline-driven) industry, my consulting practice requires the most attention from me and is the least flexible on time. If I tried to take on another business with similar needs, I could see myself burning out fast. Instead, my content creation business leaves me with a lot of flexibility to adjust my schedule when urgent needs come up for my other companies. Similarly, I have a partner in the blow dry bar, which means all the responsibility isn’t on me.I Regularly Remember That Saying No to Some Things Means Saying Yes to OthersIt’s an unfortunate law of the universe that when you add on another business, you don’t get to add on more hours to your day. Instead, I have to constantly remind myself that everything I take on is going to take time away from something else, and that means making hard choices about what I’m going to cut.For instance, when I started my digital content company, I knew that I was going to need five to six hours per week to create this content. If I wanted to do that without sacrificing family or personal time (or sleep), those hours were going to have to come from somewhere else. So I made the tough decision to stop taking on any new consulting clients. That meant leaving money on the table, but I knew it was worth it to me to be able to help more people through digital content, build a more passive income stream, and do it all without working myself into the ground.When considering running multiple businesses, you have to be really, really honest about your time commitments, not only with yourself, but with anyone else relying on you, like a spouse or business partner. Understand what you can and want to bring to the table, as well as what might need to change to make that possible.I Make a Plan (With Plenty of Padding for When the Plan Goes Wrong)It probably goes without saying, but good time management is the key to making all of this work. Each week, I sit down and look at what needs to get done, prioritizing things from least to most flexible.Because they are so important to me, I always make sure I have time for my personal responsibilities first, planning out time for meals, activities with the kids, and time at the gym. Then, I’ll check if there are any tax deadlines coming up for my consulting clients or accounting deadlines for the blow dry bar and carve out the hours I’ll need to do that work. Finally, I’ll see how much time I have left to work on more flexible things, like developing my digital courses.Of course, as every business owner knows, the best laid plans never work as we want them to. So I always build in a lot of padding with the assumption that things will go wrong. I plan with my consulting clients far in advance and set deadlines far before any federal due dates. I also try to always have a few tasks on my plate that can be shifted if an emergency comes up.I Swear by Systems and DelegationThe other cornerstones of my time management are setting up systems to reduce the amount of work I need to do in the future and delegating anything I don’t really need to do myself. For instance, creating an onboarding kit for my consulting clients drastically reduced the amount of time I need to spend on that process, while still giving them the high-touch experience I aim to provide. Also, bringing on an administrative assistant this year ​​has opened up my time to tackle things more beneficial to the goals I’m trying to achieve. I made sure to find someone who was also excited about being involved in a variety of projects so they could help across all my different businesses.Whenever I find myself spending a lot of hours each week doing something, I ask myself: Is there a system I could build to simplify this? Or training documents I could make to hand this off to someone else? Often, I find just a few hours of work operationalizing something can open up tons of time to focus on more valuable things in the future.I’m Constantly Revisiting My “Why”Finally, I’m constantly revisiting my goals for each business and my motivation for building them. Even though I’m proud of the consulting firm I’ve built and the financial stability it’s given me, I know I don’t want to keep growing it right now because I’m also passionate about helping as many entrepreneurs as I can by creating content and digital courses. At the blowdry bar, I get to work with great collaborators on a brilliant business concept—I’d feel foolish walking away from such an amazing opportunity. Thinking about this helps me figure out the right balance of energy to give each company based on what it’s giving back to me.I also think that having a regular pulse on why I started each business will help me tap into the point at which my desires change. We all go through different seasons, and at some point I may decide one of my businesses isn’t for me. Or, I may decide to start yet another one! Whatever decision I make in the future, I know that these tools will help me juggle everything, including the things outside of work that matter most.

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