The SEO Title is too Short

What does it mean when an SEO tool tells you the SEO title is too short? For example, in our Titles report. One of the key parts of on-page SEO is the title tag. But a common mistake amongst website owners and writers is to set the title of the web page to be too short. Don't get me wrong, there are many times when a short title is fine. Think, for example, about your privacy policy or contact us page. But you're also, generally, not interested in driving search engine traffic to those pages. They're more for the user to visit when they're already on your site. The difference is context. If the user is already on your site then they know the context. If they're coming from a search engine then a short title is a missed opportunity to provide context to search engines and visitors about the page you want them to visit.

Why the Title is so Important

While Google sometimes changes them a little bit, the title is generally the first thing that users will see about the page you want them to visit. It's right up there at the top of the block of information in your search result! There's extra focus on it because it's the clickable part of the result. A lot of a users focus and therefore decision on whether they'll visit your web page is based on that title. A well crafted title will greatly benefit you.

• Click Through Rates (CTR) - A well crafted, appealing, title is more likely to attract users to read your page. It's your opportunity to convince people to click through by telling them about the page. It's the elevator pitch of the web world. Don't waste it!
• Search Engine Rankings - You're not just telling the users about the page but you're providing search engines with a vital contextual clues to rank your web pages.
• User Expectations - A good title will convey what the page is about and set user expectations when they visit it. The users will be more targeted, happier with the web page they've visited, and more likely to visit the rest of your site.

Why a Short Title is a Problem

As indicated previously, it's not always a problem. But in most cases it is. A short title fails to take advantage of the ability to convey what the page is about to search engines and users. You miss out on opportunities.

• Keywords - A powerful ranking factor is to put keywords in the title. Why's it powerful? Because it provides the exact context to search engines and the end user. Obviously web page titles can also be too long, so you shouldn't stuff keywords in there. But if your article is written around a keyword or keyword phrase then not putting it here hides that association.
• Vagueness - Short titles tend to be vague. That's really another way to say they don't provide the contextual clues to users and search engines about what the page is about. Lots of websites have the ultimately vague short title "Home". That tells you it's the home page of a website, but are many people searching for the home page of some website? Or something more specific.
• Missed Opportunities - Titles should generally be 40 to 60 characters. Use them! You can always be more specific. This will also help your title be more impactful.

What Should a Good Title be Like?

From the above we can set some rules for what constitutes a good title.

• Length - your title should be 40 to 60 characters in length. Not too short, not too long.
• Clarity - it should clearly and accurately communicate what information a visitor will find when they visit the web page.
• Keywords - it should include the keyword(s) or keyphrase that your web page is targeting.
• Uniqueness - by definition from the above, each page should have a unique title. That said, a website's titles should also generally cluster around the same theme.