Staying competitive as a Toronto business is no easy task. You want to increase your visibility in search results, but you’re in a highly-populated city where everyone wants to rank on top. How do you set yourself apart and rise above the competition? Search engine optimization (SEO) is the art of ranking websites higher in Google’s search engine algorithm. It results in higher traffic on your website, more conversions, and greater brand recognition. Your title tags play an important role in your rankings, so if you want to surpass your competitors in Toronto, it’s a good place to start. Let’s get into it:
What is a title tag?
A title tag is what you see in search results above the description of a website—it’s the phrase in blue text that turns purple when you click it. You also see the title tag along the tab at the top of the page. When a page from your website is shared on social media, the title tag appears in the post.
A title tag can give your customers vital information about your business, the services you provide, and your location. It’s an important piece of contextual information for Google. When it crawls the text on your website to rank its relevance, the title tag informs Google on what your page is about. Considering how visible title tags are, you must write them correctly. When Google is determining whether your page is relevant to a search query, it relies on title data for context.
The other purpose of a title tag is to tell readers what your content is about. When they make a query like “best dentists in Toronto”, they see a list of websites in their search results. A title tag distinguishes one site from the next and helps consumers find exactly what they’re looking for.
Why does your business need them?
Websites without title tags would be confusing to readers; each time they clicked a site, it’d be a wild gamble in terms of what results would appear. The title tag is the first piece of information that a customer reads about your website. It informs them of what to expect from the page. Title tags help organize the information on your website so that it makes sense to both Google and your customers.
When you’re a Toronto-based business, there are specific keywords that you want to target. You’ve got dozens of competitors in this city of roughly 6 million people. The financial sector is a big industry in Toronto since it is home to the Toronto Dominion Bank, Royal Bank, and Scotiabank. If you’re a financial advisor, then you’ll want to tap into this industry. Some industry-specific keywords you can include are “financial planning Toronto” or “debt consolidation Toronto”—when people search these terms, your website may appear.
Title tags are an important aspect of on-page SEO. The goal of a title tag is to summarize your page content, include relevant keywords, and interest your reader. They increase the click-through rate by enticing customers to click on your website because of the captivating language and relevant keywords.
How do you create a good title tag?
Not all title tags are created equally; the most creative and enticing ones rise to the top of SERPs. If you want your business to compete with the top dogs in Toronto, you’ll need to hone your writing skills. Here are a few tips:
For starters, you need to be mindful of the character limit imposed by Google. If your title tag is too long, it will get cut off, and your creative thinking will be for naught. There is a limit of ~60 characters for a title tag, but some characters take up more width than others. To check if your title tag is too long, use this pixel width checker.
The next step is adding your targeted keywords. This involves a bit of research; you’ll need to find the terms with the highest search volume in your industry. You might include terms like “Toronto Financial Advice” or “How to Save Money in Toronto”. Be careful not to stuff your title with keywords, though. It will look like spam and deter people from clicking your page. Your title needs to be more than relevant—it has to be interesting. People want to be informed and entertained. A few ways to grab their attention is to break your content into lists; try out “Top Ten Ways to Save Money in Toronto”.
Another consideration is to make sure you don’t have duplicate title tags across your website. If you have two pages about the HVAC services you offer in Toronto, but both of them are called “Toronto Heating and Cooling Repair”, then you’ll run into a problem with the Google algorithm, and your rankings will be hurt as a result. Try to distinguish the pages by calling one a repair page and the other a maintenance page. You should also stay away from clickbait, which is using a title that doesn’t accurately reflect your content. Consumers will get annoyed by this, and click back to the search engine if they don’t find what they’re looking for.
If you use a title tag that isn’t getting clicks, you can always change it later. This process requires some trial and error before you decide on one that’s perfect for your website.
In some cases, Google decides to change title tags. There isn’t always a clear reason as to why it does this; it may happen if it contains too many keywords, if it doesn’t align with search intent, or if it’s too long.
One more thing to consider is your page’s meta description. The title tag and meta description go hand in hand. For help optimizing your meta description read this post!
Need help with Toronto SEO? It’s not a one-person job. At First Rank, we have a team of SEO experts. If you want to optimize every page on your website with relevant title tags, our technical SEO specialists can help with that to get you ranking higher.
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