Titles RULE - Title EVERY ONE of Your Website Pages Differently

Every page of your website should have a DIFFERENT title. This is called the "title tag" and looks like this <title> in the HTML of your website. On a template site, it may be a line you need to fill out.

The title of every page is basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and is very important to the success of your website.

Title tags are also the easiest SEO feature to understand and do effectively. No one knows your website, your work, and your audience better than you do!

Unfortunately, all the time I see websites for artists and makers where the title for every page says exactly the same thing...the person's name. I used my name in the example below to protect the innocent (or guilty):

<title>Harriete Estel Berman</title>

<title>Harriete Estel Berman</title>

<title>Harriete Estel Berman</title>

<title>Welcome</title> (another bad example)

Titles that are the same make it look like every page of your website is the same which isn't true. Right? Search engines think every page is exactly the same.  That's right! Every page looks exactly the same because the titles are the same. Welcome is no better. It says nothing about your site. 

Sometimes it isn't even the whole name or identity of the artist. Here is a super bad example especially since my last name is so common.

<title>Berman Jewelry</title>

<title>Berman Jewelry</title>

<title>Berman Jewelry</title>

On a practical level, this means if a person bookmarks a page of my website (because they want to come back) every page says the same thing....they can't tell which page has earrings or rings, paintings or prints, sculpture or jewelry.

What is worse?
Search engines currently use titles for finding your website pages. If you don't title the pages on your website with accurate and useful information the chances of people or search engines finding your work is less likely.

APPLY THIS INFORMATION:

If you are using a template site, change the title of every page. If you are using a website editing software look at the very top of the HTML code for the <title> tag.

Here are some guidelines for the <title> of your website.

• A UNIQUE TITLE for each page of your site.
• The first 59-60 characters will show in search results including spaces. (Updated March 2014.) You can add extra words if you want, but make sure the most important words are at the beginning of the title. Jill Whalen says, "I'm a firm believer in longer titles, rather than exact matches with just one keyword phrase. Title tags are given so much weight, in my opinion, that it's critical to have 2 or 3 keyword phrases contained within them, not just one."
• DO NOT repeat words. (Example: TIN, TIN CANS)
• Consider geographic location IF this is important to your business.
• Think like a person, not a search engine. (HINT: Search engines don't think.)
  Optimize your page for people with interesting and informative phrases. So if the page of your website is about gold rings it might be better to use the terms "gold rings" in the title instead of the name of the series.
  EXAMPLE:  <title>Gold Rings by Harriete Estel Berman</title> instead of <title>Orbit Series by Harriete Estel Berman</title>
• Your company name or artist name is important to build name recognition, but irrelevant if people don't know it.  A compromise would be including your name after important keyword phrases that would be used to look for your art or craft.

I am spending the entire day checking (or rewriting) the titles for every page on my website. As I learn more about SEO I try to improve my website, one feature at a time.

Harriete Estel Berman

PREVIOUS POSTS in this SEO series:

Your Website HOME page is Like The Front Door of Your House

Find the entire series of Search Engine Optimization for Artists and Craftspeople

This post was updated on February 17, 2022, to provide current links.