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Around 50% of web traffic starts with organic search. And you likely already know that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the key tool in organic search.

Many website owners get bogged down with on-page and off-page SEO. But what is the first thing users see in organic search?

Your page titles.

Page titles hold all the power. They are the main factor that decides whether a user clicks on your web page or another.

Not sure how you can create better page titles to increase traffic? These tips will get you started.

1. Insert Your Keyword in Your Page Titles

All good page titles start with a great target keyword. If you have an SEO strategy, you no doubt know about keyword planning.

When writing for SEO, your keyword should appear in the following places:

• Page title
• URL
• Text body
• Headings (H1, H2, etc.)
• Meta description

So, you need to put that keyword in the page title. This helps search engines like Google (and the user!) understand the purpose of your web content.

Most page titles have the “title tag” and the “H1” tag. In that case, do not put another H1 tag within your content. If you are unsure, your eCommerce website design and development company will be able to help you figure out if your page title has both tags.

You should also try and put the keyword as close to the beginning of the page title as possible. This is another good SEO practice.

2. Optimize Your Page Title Length

Type any search term into Google and look at the generated SERP (search engine results page). Some of the page titles trail off with “…” because they are too long to feature in their entirety.

Do not let your page titles do this!

Instead, write page titles optimized for the length Google allows. You can write your “full” title on your website, but write an “SEO” title for Google as a compromise.

3. Use Numbers in a Strategic Way

Ask yourself this question. Which article would you prefer to read by looking at these page titles?

• Top 10 Biggest Scandals of the Century
• Top 13 Biggest Scandals of the Century

Most people would choose the latter. Why? Because it has more than its competitor so offers more information and entertainment.

Numbers imply that the content is in an easy-to-digest list format as opposed to a wall of text. Odd numbers like 13 also imply the content creator found 13 great scandals and included them all.

Whereas 10 is a common and arbitrary number and implies the creator may have scraped the bottom of the barrel to find 10 though only seven were great. Or, they cut out some great scandals to stick to 10.

Paying Attention to Page Titles

Page titles are a vital part of good SEO. And the better your SEO practices, the higher your rankings in SERPs. And if your page titles adhere to SEO best practices, the more traffic you receive.

As long as you focus on creating great page titles as much as your other SEO practices, you will see great results.

Want to learn more about SEO? Browse our website for more great tech tips!