How to Write SEO Page Titles (With Real Examples)

A page title is the clickable headline that shows up in Google results, in your browser tab, and more and more often in AI answers that link to your site. The formula we use for most business pages at Geeks on the Beach is simple: What You Do + Location + Business Name. Before you write one, though, it helps to know what the page is actually for, so let’s start there.

What is an SEO title?

An SEO title (also called a title tag or page title) is the line of text in your page’s code that search engines show as the headline of your listing. It’s often confused with a couple of other things:

• Title tag, page title, SEO title: usually the same thing. In WordPress with Rank Math, you’ll find it in the Rank Math panel under Edit Snippet.
• H1: the main heading visitors see on the page itself. It should match the title closely but doesn’t have to be identical.

Google uses the title to understand what a page is about, and searchers use it to decide whether to click. So it’s doing two jobs at once.

If you’d like the longer version, Google has a good plain-language explanation of how Search works (page titles are most relevant to the indexing stage).

Start with the page’s purpose

Every page on your site should answer one specific search. Before writing a title, ask what someone typed to land here and what they want to do next.

Skipping this is how you end up with keyword cannibalization (which is less dramatic than it sounds). Your pages aren’t eating each other; they’re just competing for the same spot in Google. If several pages are all titled “Web Design in Victoria, BC | Your Company,” Google has to guess which one to show, and it can end up ranking none of them as well as one clear page would. We see this a lot on sites that copied the same title formula onto every service page.

A few ways to keep each page distinct:

• Give each page its own “what you do.” A website design page, a website redesign page and a WordPress maintenance page each serve a different search, so their titles should say so.
• Match the title to the stage the visitor is at. A service page is for someone ready to hire, while a blog post is for someone still learning.
• If two pages really do the same job, merge them and redirect the weaker one to the stronger one.

The formula: What You Do + Location + Business Name

For service and location pages, this structure covers what Google and searchers need to know:

1. What you do: the main keyword, and what people are searching for. Put it first.
2. Location (if you serve a specific area): it helps with local search engine success and tells nearby searchers you’re the right fit.
3. Business name: at the end, to build recognition. Separate it with a pipe ( | ) or a dash.

Blog posts work a little differently. Lead with the topic and what the reader gets, and keep the business name short or leave it off. This post’s title is an example: “SEO Page Titles: A Simple Formula With Real Examples | GOTB.”

SEO title examples from our clients

• Mobile & On-Site Storage in Victoria, BC | Mobox Storage
• Vacation Rentals in Parksville, BC | Beach Acres Resort
• Waxing Services in Nanaimo, BC | Foxy Box

Each one says what the page offers, where, and who’s offering it, and each would only fit one page on that site.

Should your company name be in the title?

Yes, on most pages, and usually at the end. Searchers are looking for the service, so that’s what should catch their eye first.

There are two exceptions. On your homepage, leading with your business name makes sense, since that’s the page people find when they search for you by name. And if your brand is well known enough that people search for it directly, putting it first can work on other pages too.

Tips for writing the best SEO titles

• Aim for roughly 50–60 characters. Google cuts titles off by pixel width (around 600 pixels on desktop), so that’s a guide and wider letters fill the space faster.
• Put the most important keyword near the start.
• Give every page its own title. Duplicate titles are one of the most common issues we find in site audits.
• Make sure the title matches the page. If it doesn’t, Google may rewrite it.
• Say what’s actually different about you. “Same-Day Furnace Repair” tells a searcher more than “Expert, Affordable Furnace Repair.”
• Check how titles perform in Google Search Console. A page with lots of impressions but few clicks is usually a good candidate for a new title.

Common mistakes to avoid

1. Vague titles: “Home,” “Services” or “Welcome” tell searchers and Google nothing.
2. Too long or too short: long titles get cut off, and very short ones leave out what the page offers.
3. Keyword stuffing: “Web Design Victoria | Victoria Web Design | Web Designer Victoria” reads as spam, and Google will often replace it with something else.
4. The same title on multiple pages: the cannibalization problem above.
5. Writing only for search engines: a title that ranks but doesn’t get clicks isn’t doing its job.

FAQ

Need a hand with your titles?

Page titles are one of the quickest things we review in an audit, and one of the easiest to fix. If you’d like us to take a look at yours, or look after them as part of our ongoing SEO services, feel free to reach out through our intake form or book a time below!