(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)As discussed in The Psychology of Page Titles, The Power of a Title (Tag), and Where the Title is Seen, the title is of a page is one of the most underused part of a website that can be used to improve your listings in search engines. With WordPress, the default for the title is your Blog name. It appears in the browser, every page, and other places listed in Where the Title is Seen.
On the Diabetes Weblog, I am using WordPress 2.0 (beta). The code for the title by default is the same as the one in WordPress 1.5.2:
<title><?php bloginfo(’name’); ?> <?php if ( is_single() ) { ?> » Blog Archive <?php } ?> <?php wp_title(); ?></title>
This code will produce these results ( Permalinks are also used in this Blog.)
1. For the Home Page it will show the name of the Blog in the Title:
2. For a Category, it will show the Blog Name and the Category in the Title.
3. For an Archive, it will show the Blog Name, the Year and the Month
4. For a Page, it will show the Blog Name and the Page Name:
5. For an individual Post it will show the Blog Name, "Blog Archive" and the name of the Post:
In the article Optimal Title Plugin, WordPress and SEO, I discussed how using Aaron Schaefer’s Optimal Title Plugin can help change the titles of the pages on a WordPress Blog. By downloading the plugin, uploading it and then activating it, the only thing left to do is change the headers to read :
<title><?php optimal_title(’at’); ?><?php bloginfo(’name’); ?></title>
With the Optimal Title Plugin, these will now display the title as follows:
1. The Home Page remains the same showing the Blog Name.
2. For a Category, it will show the Category and the Blog Name in the Title.
3. For an Archive, it will show the Year, the Month, and the Blog Name in the Title.
4. For a Page, it will show the Page Name and the Blog Name. :
5. For an individual Post it will show the name of the Post, and the Blog Name.
Just another reason that the title itself is so important! Make your keywords and titles come first then your blog name. This will add to the number of keyword to word ratios that search engines look for to rank in their content when searching. Kudos to Aaron Schaefer for an awsome plugin!
December 4th, 2005 at 5:37 am
[...] Die Tag Cloud war irgendwie ein ganz schöner Act, und ich versteh letztlich gar nicht genau, warum sie jetzt funktioniert. Egal. Jetzt zum SEO: Rewrite URLs, Title Plugin etc., siehe Anleitungen: Außerdem Eintragungen überall, bissl Linkspam muss schon sein. [...]
December 24th, 2005 at 6:38 am
True, it is very important to have correct and optimised titles.
For a smaller website/blog, it ought to be simpler than a plugin, like this. (Replace ” – ” with ” at ” if you like it that way
This will create a title like
“Page Name – Blog Name”
Of course the page name should be keyword rich
January 3rd, 2006 at 9:15 pm
Oops. I think the code got swallowed up in my earlier comment!
January 31st, 2006 at 3:27 am
Nice post. Coincidentally, I had just written a blog entry on optimizing page titles. The search engine advantages from this alone are ridiculous!
March 12th, 2006 at 6:40 pm
The page title is SO important! I made these changes to my blog on friday and today (two days later), I am number one on google for the phrase “aggressive skate blog“! These is a great tip, it really works.
March 25th, 2006 at 3:08 am
[...] * SEO at Aleeya Dot Net – http://www.aleeya.net/category/WordPress/seo/ * The Best WordPress SEO Possible – http://WordPress.org/support/topic/49168 * Search Engine Optimization for WordPress – http://codex.WordPress.org/Search_Engine_Optimization_for_WordPress * Search Engine Optimization for Blogs – http://www.blog-maniac.com/blog-seo.htm * DYI Search Engine Optimization – http://lorelle.WordPress.com/2006/01/15/dyi-search-engine-optimization/ [...]
October 18th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
Great article. I added the plugin to my site http://hghlook.com
October 28th, 2006 at 4:05 am
Yes, great article and SEO site. Added this and the XML sitemap to my site.
http://ofthestars.com/blog
March 18th, 2007 at 3:28 am
I had some thoughts on a similar SEO / Search Engine Optimization related topic, maybe i’ll start a new thread
April 7th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
FYI, I just released a new version of the plugin that fixes the XSS security issues it shared with WordPress version 2.1.2 and earlier. It is recommended that all users of the plugin upgrade to version 3.0.
The way in which the plugin works has also been changed in order to make it both backward and forward compatible with all versions of WordPress. As long as your WordPress installation is up to date, you won’t ever have to upgrade the plugin again.
September 30th, 2007 at 7:06 am
Nice Site!
September 16th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Great info – Why doesn’t this page title use the recommended format?
Thanks / Frank
September 16th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Thanks Frank
I just switched themes a few days ago and I am in the process of actually changing it so it does. I have a lot of tweaks to get all of those things working on this site with this theme 
September 16th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
You are welcome
September 19th, 2008 at 7:26 am
It’s Working! – Thanks for having your copy and paste header line on your site.
I see you dropped the “at” in favor of a “>>”. I used “-”
( >> draws more attention to your sites name) Is there any SEO difference between “-” and “>>”?
September 19th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
@Frank Glad you got it working
” >> draws more attention to your sites name) Is there any SEO difference between “-” and “>>”? ” Good point about the >> Frank! About the difference.. hmm another good point. Personally I think I am going to go back to the “at”. About SEO I am not sure, but I would think “at” or “-” would be more common human readable and not necessarily anything but personal choice. I could be wrong though. I once read that – instead of _ in links will make a difference with SEO as far as Search Engines – that SE’s saw – as a space and _ not as one – but then again, that could be individual search engines. I will look into that and maybe even run a test.. not sure how it will turn out. I will let you know as I do it or if I read anymore. Also, on a site note, http://www.searchengineguide.com/ has to be hands down one of the best places for search engine information. I may check that out and start a new project on the different characters between links and titles: ie: >> , – and _
October 20th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Yes,I agree. Having a good title and tags are big helped for the blogs posted and it is very important for get the higher rank.
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Thanks for posting, definitely going to subscribe!See you on my reader.
November 16th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Thank you for the post!
November 17th, 2008 at 10:32 am
You’ve written a splendid post!
Keep up a good work!
December 11th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Thank you for this information.
December 13th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Thanks!,
December 17th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Very usefull post.
Thanks.
P.S. I like your writing style.
December 17th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
This information was really helpful.
December 18th, 2008 at 6:18 am
First of all congratulation for such a great site. I learned a lot reading article here today. I will make sure i visit this site once a day so i can learn more.
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Very usefull post.
Thanks.
December 27th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Thanks for the very informative post that helped us in step by step format with even pictures! I have heard really good things about wordpress lately and the vareity of plugins that wordpress has and perhaps I might switch over from blogger to wordpress. I have lots to think about now. Thanks!
Albert’s last blog post..Promote Your Blogs Even More For Free
December 30th, 2008 at 10:27 am
nice tips….tanks
graha’s last blog post..BLACK HAT SEO II
January 2nd, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I really liked this post. Can I copy it to my blog?
Thank in advance.
Sincerely, Timur Alhimenkov.
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Thank you. You are more than welcome to post a link to it, but I do prefer not to have my articles copied.
January 10th, 2009 at 2:52 am
Hello,
Thanks for this. Totally apart from SEO, this is rally useful. Sometime you just want to use that “catchy” title in the h1 tag, but then it becomes the page title and so in RSS feeds and SERPS it becomes a meaningless thing that the human reader (forget about search engines) can’t understand. I think of this as a basic usability enhancement as much as anything else.
January 10th, 2009 at 8:08 am
Very useful SEO plugin for wordpress weblogs! Thanks very much!
I will test it and upgrade soon
January 12th, 2009 at 7:50 am
Excellent! Thanks for doing this…it’s really nice to know that I’m not alone on a lot of these things.
January 13th, 2009 at 6:27 am
Such a grate advice for seo’ing wordpress blogs, thanks for sharing dude
January 14th, 2009 at 4:56 am
Great article, though should you not remove the categories listing from the sidebar? I found it only confuses google and they either won’t rank the page as a duplicate , or rank the home page insted , and not the one that should be targeted
Rob
Guru assassin review’s last blog post..Rob Benwell
January 14th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
I have those on the side since some of the categories have sub categories and are not listed on the top
January 16th, 2009 at 8:14 am
I use headspace2 and format my titles like “%postname% | %blogname%”. It looks nice and efficient for google listings.
emrinho’s last blog post..Ve finaller de biter
January 16th, 2009 at 11:44 am
I Thank You very love wordpressi now.2.7 an edition of the information.to thank you
January 17th, 2009 at 12:42 am
I think that this mixed with good content is really what makes the bots go crazy.
Also, its worth noting, that I have had great luck with keywords in the domains themselves.
Great Post!
Cheers,
Michael
Free WebSite Themes’s last blog post..Mortgage Rates Set a Record Low in 38 Years!
January 17th, 2009 at 5:39 am
I can strongly recommend All in one SEO pack for WP.
Sokmotorkonsult’s last blog post..Populäraste sökningarna 2008
January 18th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I just changed my wp blog title using your tip..its too easy to do
January 21st, 2009 at 10:10 am
I think, using SEO tips for word press blogs are very helpful, If you are reluctant to use any plug in you can use the option ’show post title’ in the blog setting to work it out a little bit. Though there are many SEO plug ins available already. I have recently i used this thing and m getting increased response both from visitors and the engines.
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:19 am
Nice post. I would agree that this should be the number one point when creating an exclusive web-based business. Keyword discovery and popularity are critically important. Once this is identifie, then the domain name can be chosen. SE’s like Google, Yahoo, MSN thrive on this kind of success. What you shared with WordPress certainly is correct.
Demetri’s last blog post..Prison Break Crew
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:38 pm
the post is excellent and i have followed some of the advise. the problem is that when i run the same site through different seo tools to check how well my site is put together, they always differ. one will say its top and the other will say its just ok? is there a definitive tool you are aware of that can tell me i am using my title most effectively?
January 27th, 2009 at 8:09 am
Hello,
So you have no Ideer when you are going to release your mailing list plugin ? I know we are a lot of people waiting for it.
February 8th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Thank you for your help!
February 10th, 2009 at 1:25 am
Hi,
Nice one.Setting up my first Wordpress integration and these tips should be helpful.
SEO Services’s last blog post..SEO Website Development India, SEO Website Development Company India
February 10th, 2009 at 11:15 am
Titles itself are very important. thank you so much for sharing this. It is a very useful post-
February 25th, 2009 at 2:54 am
That’s a really useful article. Great job. Titles are really important aspects need to be looked in to while writing articles. Most people ignore that fact. Anyway, goo job with the article. Keep it up. Cheers
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:33 pm
great stuff. thx
March 25th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Thanks a lot
Sandy’s last blog post..Sponsored-Blogs: NEWS
April 17th, 2009 at 5:07 am
Its a wonderful post, Thanks for the information. Really good keep posting.
April 27th, 2009 at 5:42 am
A SUPPORTED BY THE DEVELOPER TOOLS? It was interesting. You seem very knowledgeable in ypour field.
June 16th, 2009 (3 weeks ago) at 12:47 am
What is captcha code?, pls provide me captcha code codes or plugin, Thanks in advance.
June 16th, 2009 (3 weeks ago) at 5:36 am
haha the one who is posting the comments