Title tags that get clicked are written for a person

Aug 29
3 min read

Updated: 4 days ago

Introduction

A page ranks in position four and gets almost no clicks. The three listings above it are no better written and the page itself is genuinely good, so the traffic is presumed to be a ranking problem and more content is commissioned.

The listing reads with the company name first, a pipe character, and the word Services. It tells somebody scanning results nothing about whether their question is answered here. The position was never the problem.

1. Title tags that get clicked answer the search, not describe the site

The core reversal.

Somebody scanning results is deciding which link addresses their question. A title stating what the page delivers wins against one stating who published it, every time.

2. Put the important words first

Attention falls off quickly.

Truncation happens at the end, and reading stops even earlier. Leading with the company name spends the most valuable part of the line on something the searcher is not looking for and, on a phone, sometimes spends the entire visible portion of it.

3. Keep it short enough to display in full

A practical constraint.

Roughly sixty characters usually survives; beyond that it is cut off with an ellipsis. Write to be read completely rather than writing a long title and hoping the interesting part survives the cut. The exact limit varies with the width of the characters, so leave a margin rather than testing it.

4. Use the words people actually search

Match the language of the query.

If people search for a repair and your title says restoration solutions, the listing will not look like the answer. Use the plain term even when the industry prefers something more elevated, and keep the elevated version for the page itself if it matters to how the business presents itself.

5. Make every title on the site different

Duplicates waste the opportunity.

Twenty pages sharing one title tell a searcher nothing about which to choose, and give a search engine no basis to prefer one. Export the full list and check it, because platforms generate duplicates by default and nobody notices until somebody looks at all of them together in one column.

6. Give a reason to choose this result

Differentiation earns the click.

A specific detail — a timescale, a scope, a qualification, a number — separates your listing from four generic ones. It does not need to be a marketing claim of any kind, only something concrete enough that a reader can tell your listing apart from the ones above and below it.

7. Do not stuff keywords

It reads as spam and performs worse.

A title repeating a phrase in three variations separated by hyphens is unpleasant to read, and search engines frequently rewrite such titles anyway. One clear use of the term is enough.

8. Accept that your title may be rewritten

A recent and permanent reality.

Search engines sometimes display their own version, usually when the title is unclear, duplicated, or a poor match for the query. A well-written specific title is rewritten far less often than a generic one.

9. Measure by click-through rate, not by position

The right feedback loop.

Your search console reports impressions and clicks for each page and query. Pages with many impressions and few clicks are title problems rather than ranking problems, and rewriting them is the fastest improvement available on any site that already has positions worth improving.

Rewrite in small batches and observe. Changing every title at once makes the effect impossible to attribute, while ten at a time gives a readable result within a few weeks and a rule you can apply to the rest.

Conclusion

Write titles that answer the search rather than describing your company, because that is the decision the reader is making.

Put the important words first, keep the line short enough to display in full, use the plain words people actually type, make every title on the site distinct, include one concrete detail that separates you from the other results, avoid keyword stuffing because it invites rewriting, accept that some titles will be replaced anyway, and measure success by click-through rate rather than by position.