Wouldn't it be great if you could just make small tweaks to your website and increase your SEO traffic? Well, there are small title tag optimization tweaks that you can actually make that have a big impact. And in this article, we are going to break them down for you.
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SEO is all about marginal gains. One thing isn't going to get you that silver bullet or give you that sort of bullet so you can just beat all your competitors.
It's a lot of little things that really add up.
And title tags are one of those little things that really add up, and we are going to show you how to tweak them to get the most amount of traffic.
There was this British cycling coach named Dave Brailsford. And when people wanted to win tournaments like the Tour de France, he wouldn't just tell them to pedal faster, eat more food, train harder, because everyone really does that.
He believes that the little things are what give you the edge over your competition.
For example, if your seat's more comfortable you're going to pedal much longer. If you have a good night's sleep the day before the Tour de France, you're going to do much better than if you had a bad sleep.
So, he looks at things like your mattress, your shoes, and how comfortable they are. Also at your pillow. All these little things add up.
And the same goes with your SEO.
Now, it’s time to break down why title tags are super important. And then we are going to show you 10 tweaks that you can make with your title tag to really boost your SEO traffic.
What is the title tag?
So, Rand Fishkin did an experiment years and years ago where he told people to Google "best grill steak", click on the first result and then click the back button because then that tells Google “Hey we don't really like this first result.” And then go click on the Serious Eats result and then stick around.
And then within a matter of 70ish minutes or so, that Serious Eats results pretty much moved from number four to number one.
And that all happened from roughly 4 to 500 interactions. That moved that result. And it wasn't just the cured best-grilled steak. It was also for grilled steak, that result moved up higher.
So why is that? Google is using user metrics. It's not just about how many backlinks you have or how good your site code is. If your copy is more appealing people are going to click read through and then go to your website.
So, how do you get more clicks at scale? Because you may not have the high social media following some of the other people have, but there still must be ways.
And we’re actually going to break down 10 ways you can get more clicks through your title tags and modify them without having big social media followers, and telling people to click on your results.
This formula that we are going to give you is a long-term solution to get those clicks. So that way, you can rank higher without building more links or optimizing your code.
So let us break down 10 hacks for you.
1. Use questions
The first title change that you can make is to start making your title tags questions. Questions tend to get a 14.1% higher click-through rate.
For example, what is SEO? This is an example of a question mark that is a title.
When people read titles with questions are more likely to click. So, this is something that you want to consider when optimizing your title tags.
2. Optimize the tile length
And then you can also get an 8.6% higher click-through rate for titles that are roughly 15 to 40 characters in length.
Now, we wouldn't recommend doing 15-word title tags because that's not enough room to put in keywords.
But you can do 30, or 40 characters.
Once you start going 50, or 60 characters we actually see less click-through rate even though you can put in more keywords.
3. Use the query in your URL
We also see a 45% increase in click-through rate when the exact query is in the URL.
So, if your URL is serendipity-marketing.com/what-is-seo and the keyword that someone is Googling is “SEO”, and the word SEO is in your URL, you're going to be more likely to get clicks.
This makes it easier to Google to associate your web pages with what users are looking for, which increases your chances to be shown on the first results page.
4. Use power words
Power words increased the click-through rate by 13.9%. Power words are effortless, simple, gorgeous, anything that just describes what you're trying to get across.
And the more power words that you use or adjectives, the better off you're going to be.
5. Use emotions
You also can see a 17.3% higher click-through rate for titles that contained emotions versus ones that did not contain emotions.
So, the more emotion that you can convey, the better off you're going to do.
Think this way; there is always a reason why people decide to click on a title and not on the other ones on the results page. And this reason is that they click on the title that makes them feel the right way.
So, you’ll want to make the right emotional impact on them with your title and meta description to induce them to stop and click on yours.
Alright, now before we move on with the next title tag optimization tips, have you ever thought about how much you should invest in marketing to generate constant business growth? Click the button below to calculate the ideal marketing budget you should allocate for higher visibility, engagement, and profit.
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6. Use a meta description
And here's one of our favourite ones, a 5.8% higher CTR if you have a meta description.
This is one of our favourite ones because it's super simple. A lot of people don't add meta descriptions to their pages. Believe it or not, we know that sounds crazy but it's true.
So, adding a meta description means that Google is going to pull what you give them versus them just pulling random words from your page and making a meta description for you.
7. Use years
Also, titles with years tend to generate a 4.9% higher click-through rate. For example, if we have an article that is “how to start a blog in 2025”, assuming the year is 2025, then it can generate more clicks versus if the year's not there.
That’s because it tells people “Hey, this is more relevant. This is more up-to-date.”
8. Evoke curiosity
And evoking curiosity can increase your click-through rate by roughly 5.9%. For example, “the seven benefits of green tea. Number six will shock you.”
We know it's a little bit long but that gives you a good idea of evoking curiosity because you're like “Hold on, what is number six? Let me see.”
9. Resemble education
Titles that resemble education have 10.4% more clicks. “How to ride a bike.” Although that's probably not that educational or like “how to rank number one on Google.” “How to install a toilet.” Those are all examples of educational, informational articles.
People look for information that will help them fix their problems and educational content is the one that they are shown to prefer.
They are looking for the “how to” resolve their issues, and if you give them that “how to” and you even make it explicit in the title, it will most likely stand out and induce people to click.
10. Look at the people who are running Google ads
And our last title tag optimization tip for you is to look at the people who are running ads and look at their copy.
Because those people have to optimize for quality scores. Google wants them to have high clicks because Google makes money on the cost per click.
So, if their titles aren’t good, they don't get tons of clicks which doesn't make Google as much money.
So, learn from them because that ad copy can help you generate better titles.
Conclusion
By using these 10 title tag optimization tips, you’ll make sure you’ll quickly grow your click-through rate.
This way, Google will perceive your web pages as more valuable and will show them more often and higher when people are looking for information related to your industry.
Just remember to keep your target users at the centre of your title tag optimization process and make it more around them and persuasive to drive them to stop and click.
So, make sure you use these 10 powerful title tag tips and get a higher click-through rate and traffic to your web pages.
If you need help with optimizing your web pages and SEO to grow your business in terms of visibility, engagement, and profit, contact us today and speak with one of our digital marketing experts to see how we can build the bridge between the point you’re standing at right now and your goals.
