Page Titles And Why You're Losing Money

Page titles: If I had a dollar for every sucky page title I've seen on a company's website, I probably wouldn't need to be writing this post. I'd be swanning it in the Caribbean.

Time and time again I get business people asking me why their site isn't ranking, and as soon as I show them their page title, they just hang their heads in shame. Because what I often see is this:

This is from an actual client site by the way, and what's even worse, is that the favicon (that little image to the left of Home) is the bog standard one provided by the page creation platform they are using.

They haven't even got one that represents their business. We'll talk about that on another post. Make sure you remind me to do that.

The main reason why this says "Home" is because when they created the page, they didn't change any of the SEO aspects of the title. This often happens when web designers build sites for people and they have no idea about SEO.

You should always have an SEO on board when building a site. Always. It'll save you buckets of money (and make you even more money) over time.

What Is A Page Title Tag?

Page titles—also known as title tags—play a key role in how your website performs in search results. They’re often the first thing users see in the search engine results pages (SERPs), and they help both users and search engines understand the content of your page.

As you can see from the image below, the SERPS show the title tag of the page, based on the key phrase you typed into Google (or any search engine).

Any website that had the page title of Home, simply woudn't get displayed, and if you were a website builder who actually had that as your page title, then it's no wonder you're broke.

Google can't find you and show your site to a searcher if it has no idea what your site is about, and the page title (second only to the url - the website name), is the MAIN thing it looks for. So don't waste it.

Why Page Titles Matter in SEO

If you're serious about driving organic traffic and improving the visibility of your business website, optimising your page titles is crucial.

The SERPS generally show the first 70 characters of a title, and I personally like to craft titles that are exactly, if possible, 70 characters long, and include every keyword That's necessary without resorting to keyword stuffing.

And of course, it has to make sense, just like the titles in the image above. Each one is easily understood. So here's why page title tags matter.

They Influence Search Rankings

Search engines like Google rely on title tags as a major signal when determining what a page is about. A well-optimised title tells search engines that your page is relevant for a given query, improving your chances of ranking higher.

They Shape User Perception

A clear, compelling title immediately tells potential visitors what they can expect. The more relevant and engaging the title, the more likely users are to click through to your site.

They Impact Click-Through Rates (CTR)

Strong page titles do more than rank—they attract attention. A persuasive title increases your CTR, which can indirectly influence rankings over time.

They Help Searchers Stay

When searchers land on a page that matches their expectations, they’re more likely to stay and explore. A misleading or vague title, on the other hand, can increase bounce rates.

They Help You Stand Out Against Your Competitors

A good, well-written and compelling page title can create the perception that you are better than your competitor. If your page is ranking higher because of the title, then that's even better.

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If you think (or know) your website titles and other factors are not that great, then get a FREE website audit to see what else you might need to do as well. At least you'll know where to start.

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Best Practices for SEO-Optimised Page Titles

Before I present the list of best practices below, I'd just like to clarify a few things. Firstly, you need to have a good understanding of your own business and how it fits into your competitive environment.

To that end, before you start working your titles, you should really spend time entering search terms (keywords and keyword phrases) into Google, based on the types of things your average potential customer might enter.

You need to get into your customer's mind. Don't search on what YOU think is appropriate, pretend you are a customer and do it that way.

The results you see will help you analyse whether your site is actually matching your potential customer's expectations. You can also see the tiles that yor competitors are using and the keywords they are including.

Secondly, write all this stuff down. Take you time. Build up a list of different keywords and potential titles and THEN start working on your own.

That way you'll get closer to the mark than if you'd just whacked away with what you THINK your business needs. I see that a lot too. Use data, not subjective perception. I went through this exercise with a client when doing a site and page redesign. Go down to the section titled SEO Reconstruction to get a better understanding.

Now, on to the best practices. And by the way, every page on your site, whether it's a menu item page or a blog post, should be put through this process.

You should also make sure the rest of the page or post has content that matches and follows on from the page title. Just like this post does. I'll do more posts on this in time.

Start With Keywords: Place your most important keyword close to the beginning of the title. This tells search engines—and users—exactly what your page is about.
Be Concise: Keep your titles to 70 characters to ensure they display properly in SERPs. Anything longer may get cut off, losing impact
Use Descriptive, Clear Language: Avoid vague phrases. Instead, write titles that accurately describe the content and provide a clear reason for users to click.
Include Your Brand (When Appropriate): On core pages like your homepage or about page, consider adding your business name. It can strengthen your brand presence and help users recognise you. This can often be done easily in wordpress, within the page SEO section by adding | site title (where site title is your company).
Avoid Keyword Stuffing: Don’t overload your title with keywords. It looks unnatural and can harm your SEO. Stick to one or two focused keywords. This takes practice.
Add Power Words and Numbers: Terms like “best,” “easy,” “free,” or “2025” can catch a user’s eye. Numbers add specificity and suggest value (e.g., 7 Tips for Better SEO).
Make Each Title Unique: Duplicate titles across your site confuse search engines and dilute SEO performance. Each page should have its own distinctive title. This is SUPER important. Each page should have a "focus" keyword. Most page builders have any area when creating the page that lets you add a focus keyword.
Monitor and Refine: SEO isn’t set-and-forget. Use tools like Google Search Console to track your titles’ performance and tweak underperforming ones for better results.
Ask Your Customers: I've put this one here because hardly anyone ever does it. Ask your customer (on the phone call, when they email, whatever) how they found you AND what they typed into Google to find you. Customers are a goldmine of information for keyword search phrases. You could be missing out on a boatload of traffic simply because you are unaware of how people are actually finding you.

More About Page Title Best Practices

Observe the image below. This image shows a typical page set up (in fact, this very page/post) from an SEO perspective.

In particular, I'll be expanding on the concepts from above about including your brand and making each title unique.

My site is built on wordpress using the Thrive Themes page builder platform. Personally I think it's the best platform out there but I could be biased. Of course I am.

I also use the Yoast SEO plugin, which adds the section you see above to the backend of each page and post I create. Most SEO plugins do the same thing.

You can see at the top that it has a section for the focus keyphrase. For this post I am using "page title". Because that's what I'm focusing on. Pretty straight forward yeah?

Keep this phrase to 2 or 3 words at most. It's the "core" of the keyphrase that a searcher might type into the search engine.

Next is the SEO Title. I named the page itself, when I created it, as Page Titles For Business SEO. When I save the page, wordpress creates the "slug" as page-titles-for-business-seo. On our bad website example, this would be Home.

But Yoast, and other SEO plugins, let's me modify whatever I name the page. And you can see in the SEO Title section, that there are a number of placeholders. These are usually, Title, Page, Separator and Site Title.

I have added the words And Why You Don't Rank, after the Title placeholder.

So my page title tag and subsequent title when it is shown in the search engines will be:

Page Titles For Business SEO And Why You Don't Rank.

At the end of this title, Yoast adds the Site Title (if you want it) and within yoast's settings I said I wanted to include the site title and for my separator to be the pipe. That is, the | character.

So my full page title for this page is:

Page Titles For Business SEO And Why You Don't Rank | SEO Artillery

That's how I got the keywords (unique) and the branding into the page title.

You can see in the snippet that it creates for both mobile and desktop (just click the radio button to see each version) that I also have a description for this page and lo and behold, it uncludes the focus keyword too. The description should be no more than 155 characters.

Final Thoughts

Your page title is your first impression in search results. Get it right, and you’ll draw in more users, improve engagement, and climb the rankings.

For businesses serious about SEO, investing time in crafting thoughtful, keyword-rich, user-focused titles is a small effort with a big payoff.

The more you do this for your site, the more likely your site will be the one that Google starts preferring over all the others because it builds a profile (if that's the right word) about what your site is about.

It then uses its AI to start showing your site to people who type in keywords that are not 100% aligned with your product or industry, but have a close association. When you begin analysing the keywords your site is found for, you can then find competely new words to use (and potential product ideas), that will help you to contnually build your site authority.

And that's another post I'll do later on, because site authority should be your end goal. You want to become the definitive website that the SERPS prefer to show to their searchers.

"If I type in "red basketball shoes" into Google, then the first search return I see will be NIKE. That's site authority right there".

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About the Author

Aaron Parker

Aaron has been an SEO forever. Well, sometimes it feels like it anyway. When he's not unlocking the mysteries of SEO you can usually find him bushwalking or simply taking in the scenery.