Title tag

The title tag (also called 'meta title' or 'SEO title') is set via <title>...</title> in the HTML head. It's the single most important on-page SEO signal — both directly (Google uses the title as a ranking signal) and indirectly (CTR from the SERP, dwell time after the click).

Length: 50–60 characters is the sweet spot. Google truncates at roughly 580 pixels (varies by character width — 'i' takes less space than 'W'). Titles over 60 characters get cut mid-word; titles under 30 leave SERP space unused and look thin.

Good title tags: include the primary keyword near the front, name the brand at the end with a separator ('Best AI Website Builder for SaaS — Website Killer'), and avoid keyword stuffing ('AI Website Builder, Best AI Website Builder, AI Website Builder Tool' triggers Google's spam detection).

Pattern templates that work: [Primary keyword] — [Brand] (e.g., 'AI Website Builder — Website Killer'); [Number] [Adjective] [Primary keyword] (e.g., '12 Best AI Website Builders in 2026'); [Primary keyword]: [Differentiator] (e.g., 'AI Website Builder: Free Forever Plan, $14/mo for Custom Domains'). Each is concrete, named, and click-worthy.

Common mistakes: identical titles across many pages (forces Google to differentiate them on extracted content, which is unreliable), missing the brand (loses branded-search visibility), titles that don't match user intent (a 'how-to' query landing on a sales page mismatch hurts CTR), and titles that don't match the H1 (the page reads inconsistent to both Google and humans).