The Value of a Title Tag

Google recently announced an increased emphasis on HTML page title tags. “Title elements are now used around 87% of the time, rather than around 80% before,” according to Google. They emphasized this further by saying, “Focus on creating great HTML title elements. Those are by far what we use the most.”

Hopefully, their intent to improve search results by aligning them closer to the users’ search queries plays out. The reality is that the importance of title tags is often overlooked, as many are left empty, are inaccurate, obsolete or repeated across several pages.

Imagine title tags as GPS coordinates to a specific location. The more accurate the latitude and longitude, the more likely your intended audience will arrive at that location. Google provides a great resource on best practices for writing title tags, even though it’s on their site for developers.

This change aligns with their broader focus on mobile — simplifying content, navigation and ultimately improving the user experience. I think we all agree that we’d like to have better user experiences.

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