Write a compelling title tag

Title tags are often the main piece of information used to decide which search result to click on. More often than not, that hinges on having a great title.

Google rewrites title tags 61.6% of the time (most often for titles that are very short or very long). But these are usually small changes, so it’s worth spending time making your title as compelling as possible.

Here are a few tips for writing titles:

• Keep them short—under 70 characters is best to avoid truncation.
• Match search intent – tell searchers you have what they want.
• Harness the curiosity gap—but don’t create misleading clickbait that isn’t reflective of the article’s contents.
• Include the keyword—or a close variation if it makes more sense.
• Include the year for topics that demand freshness—like tax allowance 2024.
• Do something to stand out—show a sense of humour, or respond to other articles in the SERP.
• If in doubt, use the ABC formula—adjective, benefit, confidence booster.

You should set a title tag on every indexable page. If you like, you can use Ahrefs’ Site Audit to find pages with title tag issues like being empty or too long. Once you’ve signed up and crawled your site (it’s free), go to the Content report to check for issues.

Here we can see 226 page titles that are too long, and at risk of getting truncated: