The <title> element sits inside the <head> of an HTML page and is one of the most important on-page SEO elements. Google uses the title tag as the primary signal for understanding what a page is about and typically displays it as the blue clickable headline in search results.
Recommended length: 30–60 characters. Titles shorter than 30 characters underuse the available signal. Titles longer than 60 characters are often truncated in search results, and Google may rewrite them entirely if deemed too long, keyword-stuffed, or misrepresentative.
Best practices:
- Include the primary keyword close to the beginning
- Make each page's title unique across the site
- Write for the user first — the title should accurately describe the page
- Include the brand name at the end:
Target Keyword | Brand Name
Common mistakes: Duplicate titles across pages, titles that are pure keyword lists, or titles left at CMS defaults.
What SearchVitals checks: The On-page SEO audit checks every crawled page for missing, duplicate, too-short, or too-long titles and reports count and severity as part of the TDK (Title, Description, Keywords) finding.