Title Tags For Your Vancouver Business

One of the best ways to boost traffic to your Vancouver web page is by letting people know, as concisely as possible, that:

  • You’re located near them
  • You offer the resources they’re looking for

That’s where title tags come in. You’ll see title tags in three places:

  • Search engine results pages (SERPs)
  • Web browsers (the title is listed in the tab)
  • Social networks (when the page is shared)

We’re working on a couple of assumptions in this article. First, we’re assuming that you’ve done keyword research. Second, we’re assuming that you’re looking to boost your local SEO. Not sure about these two things? Check out our comprehensive guide to local business SEO

Though this should go without saying, we’re also assuming your business has operations in Metro Vancouver. 

A brief technical note before we start. The format of title tags is as follows:

<title>The Title You Want</title>

That snippet should be located in the <head> of your code.

 

How to Craft Title Tags

Before you even begin to craft your title tags, it’s important to understand how Google processes them. When title tags are too long, your title can be truncated – users won’t see the full title.

The limit for title tags is usually somewhere between 50-60 characters, though Google actually calculates length using pixels. When you’ve crafted a title, use this pixel width checker to ensure it falls within Google’s pixel limit (generally 600 px).

A good title tag balances two things: SEO considerations, and good copy. In other words, you want to rank for keywords, but you also want to entice readers to click your link. 

Imagine a URL that reads like this:

Vancouver Plumbers, Surrey Plumbers, Vancouver Plumbing Emergencies

Would you ever click that link? No? Me neither. Keyword stuffing is not the way to craft title tags. Conversely, a URL that reads like this:

The 10 Most Common Plumbing Emergencies in Vancouver

You’d probably be much more inclined to click it (I know I would be). 

 

Keywords and Title Tags

When crafting a title tag, it’s important to have the keywords you want to rank for at the front of the title tag. That’s both better for SEO and for user experience. On the SEO side, it gives search engines a better idea of what the page is about. On the user experience side, people generally only read the first 2 words of a URL, so front-loading your most important keyword helps the user know that your webpage is what they’re looking for.

Given that information, if we’re trying to rank for Vancouver plumbing, we might instead opt for:

Vancouver Plumbing Emergencies (And How To Prevent Them)

Note that the title is never as simple as “Vancouver Plumbing”. That’s because there’s going to be a lot of competition for that keyword. Instead, we’re opting to include a longer tail keyword (Vancouver plumbing emergencies) and other information Google might recognize as being semantically related to keywords (like “preventive plumbing” or “prevent plumbing emergencies”).

 

Location Pages and Title Tags

If you’re taking our local SEO advice, you’ll be creating location pages for various neighbourhoods and cities in the Vancouver Metro area. What should the title tags for these pages look like?

While you can experiment with what works best for you, a format that seems to work well is “Location + Keyword | Company Name | Company Description”. Our plumbers, then, might have the following title for their Surrey location:

“Surrey Plumbers | Plumb Brothers | Vancouver Plumbing Services”

Your business description can certainly be a bit more flavourful than that, but keep it brief, and keep it location-based.

 

Experiment

Always save title tag creation until after you’ve completed the content, then draw from your content to determine what your title tag should be. Have you created an incredibly detailed resource? Words like “Ultimate” “Complete” and “Comprehensive” can help draw attention. Succinct and informative content? “Brief”, “Quick” and “Simple” are the way to go.

Once a piece of content is complete, write a number of different title tags, keeping keywords towards the front, and see what feels right! Want more ideas about how you can use title tags to maximize your local Vancouver SEO? Check out our guide to title tags in 2020.  

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The purpose of First Rank is to help businesses generate leads from their websites. We put a focus on SEO, because we believe it is one of the most cost effective and highest converting forms of traffic generation, however traffic alone is not enough on its own to grow your business. SEO should be combined with conversion optimization, email marketing and retargeting to maximize the ROI of your advertising dollars.