How to SEO test Page Titles

Improving Page Titles for SEO

Improving page titles is one of the quickest ways to get more clicks to your page from the organic search listings in Google. Crafting a page title that is more attention-grabbing to the user is an easy way to increase the click-through rate, and therefore the number of clicks, without having to improve the actual rank of the page.

So what makes the perfect page title? That is where SEO testing comes in.

How to SEO Test Page Titles to Increase Traffic

SEO testing can help you figure out the best page title for a page by tracking the results before and after your page title changes or by running SEO split tests against a group of templated page titles you changed and a group you’ve left the same.

Why Run SEO Tests on Page Titles?

There are a number of reasons why you should add page title optimization into your standard routine as an SEO professional.

The biggest reason I can give you for testing your page titles regularly is that it gives you the best chance of regularly improving your click-through rate (CTR). Your click-through rate is the percentage of people who see and click your listing in the SERPs, so it is a vital metric, and you must ensure it is in good shape. Let’s say you have 10,000 impressions and your CTR is 1%, you’re generating 100 clicks to your site. If you can improve your conversion rate and get it to just 2%, you’ve doubled the number of clicks going to your page from the SERPs.

During the recent United States Congressional Hearings involving Google, it came to light that User Intent Signals such as click-through rate, bounce rate, and time spent on the page are used in calculating where a page ranks in the search results. So if getting more clicks by improving a page’s click-through rate isn’t enough, your click-through rate is likely to indicate to Google how closely your page matches a user’s search intent. With a high click-through rate achieved, you will show the user intent and your page match, and I would be confident you’ll see an improvement in page ranking.

Secondly, SEO testing on page titles is usually quite easy. It’s normally a very simple process, no matter what CMS you’re using, to change the title tags for your pages.

How to SEO Test Page Titles

Answering this specific question really depends on a few factors. If you are running a popular CMS like WordPress, Wix, or Ghost, then you will find it is usually as simple as making a change to your page title within the CMS itself.

Tools Required

There are a few tools you will need access to if you are planning on conducting regular SEO page title testing for your business or on a client website.

The first thing you will need is access to the relevant Google Search Console site property. This is what is going to give you that sweet, sweet impression, click, and click-through rate data so you can calculate whether the page title changes give a positive result.

You will also need access to spreadsheet software such as Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, or Apple Numbers, to note down daily impressions, clicks, and click-through rate data.

Best SEO Test Types for Page Title Tests

There are two main types of SEO tests:

  1. Time-based SEO testing: Compares your page or a group of pages that have been changed, before and after, to see how the organic SEO performance has been impacted.
  2. SEO split testing: Involves splitting a number of pages into two separate groups, a control group and a test group.

Page Title Best Practices & Things to Test

When it comes to actually testing your page titles, making sure you implement some best practices is essential. Here are a few:

How to Find Page Title SEO Testing Opportunities

To find page titles with a low click-through rate that are ripe for optimization, consider:

Conclusion

You now have a comprehensive guide on SEO page title testing, enabling you to implement a testing regime that will help improve your impressions, clicks, and click-through rate.