seo: start title tags and urls with your target keyword to improve ctr
When creating content for your website or writing posts for your blog, there are mainly three things that you need to focus on. The first and foremost is probably the quality of the content. The next is the title of the page itself and then the slug (or URL) of the page. The title of the page is important for couple different reasons.
Firstly, the title defines the content of the page. It describes and summarizes what the rest of the content is and provides the user with a general idea what to expect if he or she decides to read it. It is also the first thing that the user or visitor sees on the page.
In search engine result pages, the title is displayed prominently and is one of major factors that determines whether or not the user will click on the link to visit your page. It is probably the best chance you have to entice a click from the users. Also, the title holds greater weight in most search engine indexes, so a good match with the title can ensure a better position in rankings. This can improve your CTR for the keyword.
When a user searches using the same keyword that you have on your title, the words or keywords are shown bold. This works towards attracting the user's attention and enticing a click to your webpage.
Also, it is the title that is used as headers for browser tabs or windows. Most social media websites also use the title as the anchor text when your content is shared on their platforms. That means a good title can get you more clicks.
Always try to start the title with the target keyword. It does not necessarily mean that the keyword should be the very first word of the title. The closer the target keyword is to the beginning of the title, the more weight it commands in the rankings. The first 3 to 5 words are probably the most relevant, which means if you can strategically place your keywords with in the first 5 words of your title, it will get you the best exposure in terms of SEO.
Also, be sure to use both your primary keyword as well as the secondary keywords in the title tag. The title tag can be quite lengthy or as short as you like, as long as it captures the content accurately. You have to just ensure that the keywords are clearly visible to your user when displayed across other websites and search pages.
You would have noticed that the search engine result pages shows not only the title, but also the URL to the webpage in the results. This means that you can (and should) use the keyword in the URL just as you did in the title. Remember to use the keyword closer to the start of the URL just as the title.
The trick lies in how you can get your target keyword to the beginning of the title, with out sounding or making the title look contrived. Depending on the keyword and the content, most times a good title would already have the keyword as one of the first words. Though it might not be the case always.
One option is to start with the keyword itself. When your target keyword has only one or two words and is a topic, then you might be able to insert it as the first word and follow up with the rest of title separated with a colon or hyphen. The title of this post is an example of that.
There are a couple things that you need to keep in mind when writing title, especially when trying to use the keywords towards the start of the sentence. You should not use the same keyword multiple times in the title. That could not only make the title look unnatural and you could get penalized for keyword stuffing. It is very important that you keep the title as natural sounding as possible for the human users first, before worrying about SEO.
Of course as you might know already this tip is of course not mandatory, but is still a good technique to ensure that you get the most out of your title in terms of SEO.