Getting started with SEO

Titles and H1 tags are number one on our list for a very good reason – they play such a significant role in SEO, for a variety of reasons. They are the most prominent single parts of HTML that can indicate to the search engine what the main focus of the page in question is. Including relevant keywords in titles and headings, provides the search engine with a clear indication on what the subject matter is which will help your ranking for those keywords. For clarity: the title tag appears on the search engine results page. The H1 tag is commonly the biggest most prominent on-site heading.

More importantly than simplifying things for search engine crawlers, clear titles and H1 tags enhance the user experience too. They serve as headings for your content and create a clear structure for the page. In turn, this makes it easier for site visitors to consume and understand the content, which should reduce bounce rates and improve overall user satisfaction which will indirectly affect the SEO.

In addition, title tags (which look likein the code) are particularly important for how your content is displayed in search engine results pages (SERPs). The title of your page appears as the clickable link in search results (assuming the search engines don’t think they have found a better one, which is usually an indication that your content isn’t aligned with the title you have chosen). When you have a clear and well-optimised title, it should attract more clicks, increasing your click-through rate (CTR) which is another factor considered by search engines in their algorithms.

As an aside, deciding what the main subject of a page is in general is a good idea. It can help you to focus your creative efforts. In choosing the subject matter and thereby title/H1 you should consider:

• Is this something somebody would actually search for? If not, what purpose does it serve? Consider whether someone is going to look for your “Services” page, or whether you should break that services page down into its constituent parts, that people might actually search for (e.g. “SEO”, “PPC”)
• Does the H1 version of this subject look natural on the page? Does it do your brand justice? Consider “Cheapest SEO Company” compared to “Expert SEO Services For All Budgets” — you don’t have to be so aligned around a specific target keyword that you look bad. The search engines are smart enough to understand what you mean without ruining the experience for your visitors. TLDR; you don’t need H1/title to match, in fact some SEOs would advise against it because it looks like over-engineering.
• Front-load your title tags with the key information you want to convey on the SERP. Many sites will automatically append your site name so you end up with something like “Waste Paper Removal | Shredzilla Inc.” for this reason. Because of this you may not want to go over about 50-70 characters total for the title in case the end of your title is abridged by the search engines.

Don’t be afraid to review your titles/H1s periodically. Check out Google Search Console to see what queries your page is appearing for (more on this in a later piece) — it might be that with a minor tweak you can push up a few places for long-tail queries, or get over the line for a higher volume one you hadn’t considered.

• Bonus tip: use related H2 tags to break up your content further on the same page. If the page is about (say) bananas, use H2s to talk about their history, varieties, uses, what the future holds.