Speaker 1: 0:24

Think about when you do a Google search. Yes, how do you decide which website you are going to visit? So you do the search, the results all come up on Google. And exactly how do you decide which website looks good? Let's assume that you don't just click on the first one.

Speaker 2: 0:42

I do, the one that is most specific to what I'm looking for.

Speaker 1: 0:47

So when you say whatever looks most appropriate, how do you determine which is most appropriate? Exactly where do you look? What do you look at?

Speaker 2: 0:56

I look at the title, for example. I was looking for compression packing bags. I went to best compression traveling bags, 24.

Speaker 1: 1:09

That's the title tag. I assume you are talking about the big line of text in blue, the first text that is the title tag. So the title tag and I bring this up because I still hear sort of frequently that title tags are something you do for SEO it's not something you do for users, it's just something you plug for users, it's just something you plug in for Google, because once you get to the site, the title tag it's not on the website, you don't see it.

Speaker 2: 1:36

Oh, it's not.

Speaker 1: 1:37

But my point is, which you have helped me to demonstrate, thank you. The title tag is the single most important SEO element for users, for users. And that's why it's important for SEO.

Speaker 2: 1:50

Right, that makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 1: 1:53

Now, yes, once you get to the website, you don't know what the title tag is.

Speaker 2: 1:56

However, it gets you to the website.

Speaker 1: 2:00

Without a good title tag, nobody is going to get to that page 100%. So when you look at that title tag, what was it? You sort of recapped what it was. But what again was it in that title tag that made you think, yeah, I'm going to go look at, that's the one I want.

Speaker 2: 2:16

Clear information that was pertinent to what I was seeking.

Speaker 1: 2:20

Correct. So this is a little bit about how you want to write a title tag.

Speaker 2: 2:26

Right.

Speaker 1: 2:26

Right away. What is the absolute most important thing? Accuracy it needs, yeah, well, that is important, but to you as a user, it correlates with what you are looking for.

Speaker 2: 2:36

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:36

Essentially, essentially, I'm going to say that's the keyword or the key phrase. Right, it has what you. That is first in the title tag, first thing you see, and after that, or in addition to that, it has to be sort of enticing yeah, okay, there's, that's your title tag.

Speaker 2: 2:52

That's what you're doing for a title tag Right.

Speaker 1: 2:55

Don't write a title tag thinking you're doing it for SEO. Write it knowing that you are trying to get people to visit that specific page, not your website in general. Just that every single page needs to have a unique, its own title tag, different from every other page to appeal to people looking for it Correct, and that's why this is so important for Google, right?

Speaker 1: 3:17

Because Google knows it's so important for users. Now you mentioned accuracy. Yes, that's another consideration that you have to take into account, because Google will know if your title tag says one thing like best compression bags 2024, and your actual web page is about socks for your puppies, it's going to know that that's not accurate. You're never even going to get onto the first page of Google, so you got to avoid that. But, number one, I got three steps for you.

Speaker 2: 3:48

Number one.

Speaker 1: 3:49

Just know why you're writing, understand why you're writing and write from that perspective. That's why you're doing title tags and just keep that in mind while you're creating. Right, okay, step two figure out what all your title tags are. The easiest way to do this is just go to Google, type in site S-I-T-E, colon, and then the name of your domain. You don't need to put in the HTTPS or the www, and that's just going to show you all of the pages on your site or whatever domain you enter there. You can do this for anyone's site, but to figure out what your own titles are, this is the easiest and quickest way to do it.

Speaker 2: 4:25

Wow yeah.

Speaker 1: 4:26

So you can go see them and right away you will hopefully see. If there are any there that are not good. They're going to pop out at you. At this point You're going to be like whoa, wow, those need to be redone.

Speaker 2: 4:37

Yeah, and you can redo them.

Speaker 1: 4:39

Yes, okay, yeah. And you can redo them. Yes, okay yeah, squarespace, wordpress, every website platform out there has a way for you to adjust title tags.

Speaker 2: 4:47

And that's okay. It's not going to affect anything, except it'll further clarify.

Speaker 1: 4:53

Right. Don't change your URLs Right. That would have a big impact.

Speaker 2: 4:58

There we go.

Speaker 1: 4:59

Sometimes they're called slugs. Don't change the URLs, we're just talking about the title. They are technically called title tags. Sometimes people call them SEO titles, a name which I don't like really, because there is some confusion between title tags and headings on a page. So once you visit a site, you're likely going to see right at the top what you would normally call the title of an article.

Speaker 2: 5:27

Okay, right.

Speaker 1: 5:28

Yeah, but that's the heading. That is not the title. That is the heading. It's an H we call it an H1 tag and it's probably going to be very similar to your title. Right, because people, there needs to be consistency. If you click on something that says compression bags and land on a page that says pet socks, you're going to be like what? So they're probably going to be very similar but not identical. And so when people are talking, like when I'm giving a tip about how to handle your titles, you want to know that that's the title tag, it's not the heading. Just try to keep those two. This is a tip in itself. Try to avoid confusing those, because I have seen people giving out advice about how to handle your titles and they're talking about the wrong thing. They're talking about headings. So hopefully you will avoid some future frustration.

Speaker 2: 6:19

Yeah, number two.

Speaker 1: 6:22

Okay, step number three.

Speaker 2: 6:23

Oh three.

Speaker 1: 6:24

I have a cheat sheet on how to do this. Oh, what you want. There's some more things that there's some more best practices that you want to do with, like you know, character length and some words that you want to avoid, and things like that. I will link it below.

Speaker 2: 6:36

OK.

Speaker 1: 6:37

But a few of those details are. Like I said, every page needs a unique title tag.

Speaker 2: 6:41

Right.

Speaker 1: 6:42

They have to be different. You're talking about a specific page. Yeah, with every title tag, not just your website.

Speaker 2: 6:47

Is it kind of like you want to make a sign for you know when you're driving and people have signs on the side of the road like turn here for blah blah?

Speaker 1: 6:59

No, I would say it would be more like the signage above the door of a shop. Okay, you go by a deli and it's. It says what it is and what they sell.

Speaker 2: 7:10

Bagel and tea shop.

Speaker 1: 7:12

Yeah, that's basically what it is. In fact, this is weird, but you can. We live in Brooklyn so these are really common. But walking down the street, if you look at the signs above shops, they would have in big, huge letters what I would probably call is the title tag and then the meta description beneath it, all the little things that they sell Ice, cold beer, whatever. I don't know what else a deli would sell besides ice cold beer, but sandwiches, flowers. Oh God, I'm such an American. You also want to be aware of the length of title tags.

Speaker 2: 7:43

Okay, is this number three?

Speaker 1: 7:45

This is part of number three is the cheat sheet.

Speaker 1: 7:48

Okay, I'm just giving you some things as an example of what is on the cheat sheet the length. You don't want it to be too long because Google is going to cut it off Now. There is no penalty for having a title tag that's too long. That's kind of a common myth. Is that if your title tag is too long, it's a penalty, and this is something that is reported in SEMrush as being an issue, but it is a warning. It as being an issue, but it is a warning. It's not an error. The problem with having title tags that are too long is you're not conveying a complete thought to people.

Speaker 1: 8:15

That's what I was going to say. You're saying your title tag would be best compression bags of 2024 and why you need, and then a dot dot dot. Right, it needs to be short enough so that you can finish a thought.

Speaker 2: 8:28

Right, it's just better for users. Yeah, yeah, it is. Yeah, you kind of want to go, oh, that's it, yes, and have every just make it easy for people to find it.

Speaker 1: 8:37

It's much nicer to have a full thought rather than a thought fragment, tangent, let's say. And then dot, dot, dot, yeah. So the cheat sheet has instructions or tips like this and a few more. I will link that below. Excellent, but this is something I recommend, if you've never done it, if you've never used the site command to look at all the title tags of your site.

Speaker 2: 8:57

I recommend doing it. Yes, I see why.

Speaker 1: 9:00

It can be insightful.

Speaker 2: 9:02

Learn a little about yourself.

Speaker 1: 9:05

This will be brief. I might put it in the end or something.

Speaker 2: 9:08

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:09

I don't know how was your Tonga trip.

Speaker 2: 9:11

This will be brief. I might put it in the end or something. I don't know. How was your Tonga trip?

Speaker 1: 9:20

It's more than you can fathom and after the first day I couldn't even you can't comprehend what is actually happening in front of your eyes. I do, or I did check out Cassie's Instagram her stories while you were there, and in one of them she was photographing a whale and the noise in the background was somebody with a snorkel in her mouth saying this oh my. God oh my. God, oh my God, oh my God, that was me.