Website Managers

The title is also what shows up in the search engine results pages when people search for various topics. Below that will be the description you write to further explain the page or article contents.

WordPress and other blogging platforms make the page heading, page title and post slug the same automatically. These all service different purposes and can be changed.

According to the Word Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the title should be less than 64 characters. There really is no limit on the title length, but if it is longer than 64 characters, it will most likely be truncated. That is why you want to not only keep it short, but put your strongest keywords at the beginning.

When the articles are written, a post slug is also created. The post slug is the permanent link to the article or page. If it is too long, the link will break when sent in email. You can edit the post slug before publishing the blog article.

Just remember that this is the end of the link to your site. Having a post slug too long will break the link after 65 characters in email programs that use plain text for reading email. So if your domain name is long, along with a long post slug, you could end up with something like this:

http://www.your-long-domain-name.com/category/the-title-of-my-page-is-getting-a-bit-long/

The heading element is what shows at the top of your page or article. This is most commonly the same as the page title. However, keep in mind that the heading element is larger than the rest of the content, so a very long title will make the heading consume the whole top of your page. That is not very pleasing to your readers.

The title should also not be so short that it is non-descriptive. Putting simply “FAQ” in the title only tells us there are some frequently asked questions. It does not say what industry, company or product the questions and answers are about. The one-word labels should be reserved for the site menu.

Summary

TITLE : For optimum performance, keep it less than 64 characters, making it descriptive while containing your primary keywords.

HEADING : Usually the same as the title, but may be longer. A rule of thumb that I use is to keep the title no longer than the box provided in WordPress to write a post title. That box is 47 characters wide.

POST SLUG : This is the link to your page. Keep it as short as possible, while being descriptive and having 1 or 2 primary keywords.

When writing blog articles or pages in WordPress and other blogging platforms, the title is usually generated automatically. The title is the part that shows up at the top of your browser and on the browser tabs. It is not visible in the document itself.

When choosing a title, there are some things you need to keep in mind. The first one is that the title should accurately describe the page content, while making it enticing for people to read.

Now, if you are serious about building your blog, check out the WordPress For Internet Marketers book. The small cost can help make your blog more profitable.

Tags: article writing, html heading tags, wordpress blogs, WordPress seo, writing posts

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