Every search engine has it's differences, but one similarity between them all is they consider the title tag as primary text when it ranks your site. Not only does your title tag help your ranking, it is also included in the Search Engine Results Pages.

The title is enclosed by <title> and </title> and is very important in terms of both search engine visibility and search engine ranking. Because of the nature of Title tags, search engines expect each title to be unique, as it is the title of your page, which too should be unique. Titles should also be useful to the page visitor. Many unethical SEO consultants use the title tag for keyword stuffing. This is not recommended, and will most often result in your site being banned by the search engines. One of the weaknesses of Content Management Systems (CMS) is they by default use the same title for each page. This hurts positioning as the search engine recognizes the pages as being very similar to the other pages.

Efficient Title Tags should contain 5 to 10 words, with the most important words and phrases being first, and removing as many filler words as possible. As I've said before, each title tag should be unique, as each of your pages is unique. Many companies choose to have their company name first in their title tags, this is not recommended unless your company name is very recognized. The company name belongs either at the end of the title tag, or not in it at all, depending on personal preference.

An example of this is imagine your company is 'Example Hosting, Inc', commonly the title would be 'Example Hosting, Inc.'. To a user who may have this title saved in their favorite folders, a title of 'Affordable Windows Webhosting - Example hosting' is much more useful, and also helps you focus on your keyword usage.

There are many strategies to making the best title tags, however a very popular one, by Shari Thurow, is to use the 'Power Combo'. This strategy says that the first three words in your title tag should be able to be arranged as search keywords. However, it should be considered that your visitors will be the one's to see the titles, because of this, the PowerCombo may not always work.

Now, don't confuse the HTML title tag with other titles. There is a title attribute for image tags, and the title is also commonly asked for when it's time submit your site to directories. Neither of these should be your HTML tag.