Is your title tag really that important?

In a word… YES.  This is not only what searchers see in the search results, but it’s a big factor in your search engine results page (SURP) position.  Things to consider are…

- Keywords in your Title Tag that you are trying to rank for
- The “Prominence” of your most important keyword phrase you are wanting to rank for (how close it is to the start of the Title
- The Keyword Density (how often your most important keyword you are wanting to rank for is used in the Title tag)
- And Proximity (how many words there are between keywords).

Of course, there is no major formula.  The best thing to do is look at your competitors (that are ranking ahead of you) and see what they are doing.  Position your “Title” to be similar to the competitors that are ranking above you and use that as a “starting point” (front which to start testing).  Then simply test different startegies to see what causes your site to move above your next higher competitor (for a specific keyword phrase).  It’s all about trial and error at that point.  Keep in mind that the number of incoming links to your page (back links) and the quality of those back links… will have a huge impact on your ranking as well.

More about that in another post…