What you add to a WordPress Posts Title (on the Edit page under “Posts” > “Add New” or when editing a Post) will be used by most WordPress themes as part of the webpages title tag.
The screenshot shows this Posts title “WordPress SEO Title Tag Tutorial“, it’s essential you put some thought into what titles you give your WordPress Posts etc…
Unfortunately not all WordPress themes (or WordPress SEO plugins) use the WordPress titles in the best format.
Many WordPress themes will have one of these two title tag structures for various types of WordPress pages:
Older WordPress Themes Title Tag Format
Home Page Title : Blog Name
Static Pages Title : Blog Name | Title of Page
Single Posts Title : Blog Name | Title of Post
Categories Title : Blog Name | Category Name
Tags Title : Blog Name | Tag Name
Search Result Title Blog Name | Search Phrase
Monthly Archive Title | Blog Name | Date Archives
The above type of title tag structure is really bad, if your WordPress theme outputs this, change themes ASAP.
Newer WordPress Themes title Tag Format
Home Page Title : Blog Name
Static Pages Title : Title of Page | Blog Name
Single Posts Title : Title of Post | Blog Name
Categories Title : Category Name | Blog Name
Tags Title : Tag Name | Blog Name
Search Result Title Search Phrase | Blog Name
Monthly Archive Title Date Archives | Blog Name
This newer WordPress theme format is better, but still not the Best SEO Title Tag format.
The above is acceptable for a branded WordPress site. Look at big brands like Amazon (they don’t use WordPress, but still a good example) their title tag structure is “Title of Page | Amazon” (“Title of Page | Brand Name”).
If your WordPress site is part of a brand and brand identity is important the above (second example) is acceptable as long as you name your WordPress site as the brand name (Blog Name = Brand Name).
On the other hand if you don’t own a big brand name or using your brand name as the blog name just doesn’t work there’s a much better SEO title tag format.
Continue Reading WordPress SEO Title Tag Tutorial