What Is The Difference Between The SEO Title and H1 Heading? SEO in Houston Tips
Writers have a tendency to put a lot of thought into their titles. Titles are very important for online content for both the search engines and readers. So that is why they are doubly important! You can get assistance from Houston SEO services if you need more assistance with this topic. If you are using WordPress and certain plugins, the post titles can be inserted into the post title input field. Doing this will make your title displayed at the top of the post as an H1 heading. You can also potentially improve and edit your SEO title as separate processes. Why is this so? What is the difference between the two? And how should your SEO title be edited? In this article, I will be explaining these things. You can get help from Houston SEO services if you need more assistance with this topic.
Two Input Fields
This is very obvious for some people, however, let’s look at where the two input fields can be found to put the post title in – which is the same thing as the H1 heading – and also the SEO title. In WordPress, you can find the input field for the post title in the post editor or at the top of the page.
The SEO title input field can be found in the plugin meta box, and this is right below the post input field. If you want to edit your SEO title, click the edit snippet button. That will cause the snippet preview to open. There are three input fields offered by the snippet preview. The input field is the first one that allows you to edit the SEO title. Below the input field hopefully, there will be a green bar. If you have a well-optimized SEO title it will be green. If it is red or orange you should work to improve it. There are also lots of strange % signs in the SEO title. Don’t let that alarm you, I will be covering that later on in the article.
Purpose of the SEO title and the Post Title
It is very important for you to understand that the purpose of your SEO title doesn’t need to have the same purpose that the title of your page or post does. Your post title is intended for individuals who are on your site already. It lets them know what your page or post is all about. On the other hand, your SEO title is intended for individuals who haven’t made it to your website yet. It is displayed in the search engines for people. It is the title of the snippet that Google shows – and that is why it appears in the snippet preview. Your SEO title’s purpose is to get people to click on your snippet, visit your website and then purchase your product or read your post.
What is done automatically by these plugins? Without needing to do anything, the plugin will automatically generate an SEO title that is based on your post’s title, which is the H1 heading. Your website’s name will also be put into your SEO title. If you don’t add the name of your website into your SEO title, Google does it for you. The plugins will ensure your title is not too long – if the title is too long then you will be notified.
You are able to set how your SEO title is generated in the plugin’s meta and title sections. When you do that, it will result in all of your post titles being generated exactly the same way. However, as we discussed above, it is also possible to separately edit your SEO title for a post. We will now explain when you might want to do this.
Should your SEO title be edited?
I personally don’t ever edit a post’s SEO title. I write my post and then select a title that is suitable for individuals who are on our website already, in addition to individuals who will read in the snippet that is displayed in the search results. The settings for generating titles automatically in a majority of plugin installs are fine.
If I want to make changes to my title, because perhaps I forgot to use my main keyword in my post title, I can always change the post’s title. Then the SEO title also changes. For this type of post, it works fine. However, if you are selling a product, the page or post tile may not be the SEO title to use. Maybe you want to mention the product price in the SEO title, without having included in your page H1. You will need to edit your SEO title in those cases.
How is the SEO title edited? What are those strange %% signs that are in the input field? What do you use them for?
Houston SEO Title Template
As previously discussed, the plugin generates the SEO titles automatically for you. The title template can be adapted according to your preferences in the meta and titles section of the plugin. This is where the %% signs come in. They are %%title%% signs or magic variables. The magic variables certain pieces of information and then they are combined to form your SEO title. When you type %%title%% into the SEO template’s input field, then your page or post title appears. The %%sep%% takes the separator sign you selected and then it is placed in your SEO title.
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