One of the most important on-page search engine optimization (SEO) variables is your page title. All other things being equal between two sites, the page title can be the reason one site out ranks another in the search results.

A good SEO optimized page title needs to be no more then 70 characters counting spaces. Since your page title is placed in the search results it is important to keep it less then 70 characters. If your page title is more then 70 characters then Google will cut it off in the search results. Titles cut off in the search results have a … at the end of the title and will result in a lower click through rate.

Your keywords are the important part of your page title. You’ll want to ensure your page title lists two or three keywords. It’s best to place the keywords in the title early versus at the end. I recommend focusing on two keywords, but you can push it to three if totally necessary.

You’ll see many sites simply place the keywords in the title with no selling. For instance, you see many titles like the following: Bad Credit Home Loans – Poor Credit Finance.

While the above title is optimized for SEO, it is important to realize that the search engines are not the only ones you need to please. You also need the searcher to click on the title. Adding a boring title like the above can influence how many clicks you get.

I highly recommend you get creative with your page title and try to make it sell. This will drive way more clicks then a boring page title and help differentiate your site from the competition. To add sales flavor to your title you’ll need to understand the mindset of the searcher.

For instance, for someone searching for bad credit home loans, the mindset of the searcher may be a little insecure. This searcher may also be frustrated with shopping from lender to lender trying to locate a lender that will approve bad credit applicants.

By understanding the above mindset of the searcher you could add some sales power to your title and still hit the necessary keywords. Perhaps you create a title, Trouble-Free Bad Credit Home Loans For Poor Credit Finance Applicants. Or even better, Guaranteed Bad Credit Home Loans For Poor Credit Finance Applicants.

The above two titles immediately solves the searchers emotional needs. This will result in a higher click rate then a generic keyword stuffed title such as Bad Credit Home Loans – Poor Credit Finance.

Here are some other tips for your site’s page titles:

1. Each page on your site should have a unique page title and be focused on different keywords. If all your pages have a page title that is too similar then your site could get caught in the Google duplicate content filter.
2. Make the keywords in your title a little different then the keyword in the meta description. For instance, if you place bad credit home loans in your title, use loans for bad credit in your meta description.
3. To maximize click through rates, always capitalize the first letter of each word in your page title. Don’t use all caps or all lower case.
4. Do not repeat the same keyword twice in the title.
5. Try to use semantic related keywords in your title. This will help with Google Latent Semantic Indexing. For instance, a semantic related word to loans, is finance. Don’t use loans twice in the title.
6. The page title should focus on the same keywords as the anchored internal links to the page. So if your page is primarily about bad credit home loans, then the internal links on your site should use the anchored text bad credit home loans.
7. For WordPress blogs the All In One SEO plugin has custom page title management to help you place a unique title on every page.

Based on my five years of testing, good on-page SEO can make a huge difference in your search ranking. Yes backlinks are more important, but don’t underrate on-page SEO. With Google filters if you don’t approach on-page SEO correct your site can disappear.