Writing a page title that survives the result list

13 August 2026 · Writing

A title element is read in a context you do not control: stacked against nine other lines, in a narrow column, by someone scanning rather than reading. It is also the tab label, the default text when someone shares the address, and the first thing a screen reader announces. One string, four jobs.

Start with the distinguishing words

Titles are read left to right and truncated from the right, so the words that distinguish this page from its neighbours belong at the front. A site name prefix on every title spends the most valuable position on information the reader already has. If the site name matters, it belongs at the end, after a separator, and it can be dropped entirely on pages where space is tight.

Length is about pixels, not characters

Result lists truncate on rendered width, so a title full of capitals and wide letters is cut sooner than a lowercase one of the same character count. Rather than counting to a supposed limit, write the title, then read only its first half and ask whether that half still identifies the page. If it does, the truncation is survivable.

Say what the page is, not what it is about

"Internal linking" is a subject. "How to find pages nothing links to" is a page. The second promises a specific outcome, which is what makes the difference between being seen and being chosen. Nouns that describe the artefact help too: a guide, a comparison, a definition, a list of steps.

Repetition across a site

Look at your titles as a column of text, sorted alphabetically. Repeated openings appear immediately, and so do the pages that have accidentally been given the same title by a template. Two pages with one title is a signal to the machine that they may be the same document, which drags you back into duplication.

What titles cannot do

A title cannot make a page relevant to a query the page does not answer. Stuffing terms into it produces a line that reads badly and gets passed over, and the words are not treated as a promise anyway. The title is a label on a box; it works when the box contains what the label says.

A small routine

Write the page. Then write the title from the finished page, not from the brief. Read it in isolation and ask what a stranger would expect to find. If your answer and the page disagree, change the title; if the page is the thing that disappoints, no title will rescue it.

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