The Importance of Title Tags on a Web Page

This is a crucial point many times neglected by webmasters. Are the Title of a web page really that important, and if so, how would one optimize a title tag of a page for the search engines ?
Google and most other important search engines place a relatively high value on the "title tag" of a web page, as this normally gives a pointer or indication of what one can expect to find in the contents of that page. It is therefore very important to spend some time deciding on the best possible title for every page of your website - but stick to a title related to the contents on the specific page - failure to do so can result in that page being penalized by the search engines ! One can basically say that the title and contents need to compliment one another.

An important pointer in this regard is to have a title incorporating important keyword phrases, eg. if the contents of a page is about a Radio Controlled Car Club situated in Scotland, UK, a good title choice could be : "Scotland Radio Controlled Cars , UK Remotely Operated Car Clubs". Should you have various similar content pages on the same website, you can play around with additional synonyms, plus variations of the above title.

Stick to the focus, in this instance "Radio Controlled Cars". Do not try to optimize a title for too many different keywords / phrases at the same time. This will only be confusing for people doing a search on the search engines, for they will not know exactly what your page is about. In a way search engines can be "confused" and the indexing of your site not done correctly.

How long should the title be ? A web page title should not be longer than 10 words. Try to fit in the crux of what the page is all about, within a 10 word or less title tag. (The description tag can be a bit more explanatory)