It's no secret that the title tag is one of the most important on-page factors when it comes to search marketing since the engines give it quite a bit of credence in their algorithms. What many people forget, however, is that a great title tag could actually help you get more traffic than the sites that rank better than you. How? Liana Evans has the scoop.

Last week while doing a lot of research for a client in a certain market space I came across a great example of when a well written title tag of a lower ranking search result brings in and pretty much "owns" the traffic for a particular key phrase. Through total "ethical" SEO means the site is ranking for a highly competitive set of key phrases and is ranking up in the top 10, and top 5 with the big players (due to confidentiality I can't name the big players). The traffic share of the lower ranking site, blew away the theory that #1 owns the traffic.

So what was the difference? The difference was a title tag and meta description that were distinctly different than what the "big boys" had. The title tag enticed the searcher to click and the meta description gave the information about the site. Compared to the #1-#4 and the #1 & #2 ranking for the keywords, the title tag stood out, it called to the searcher and it didn't create "Brand Blindness".

Yep, you read that right. Higher click thru rate even with a lower ranking. All because someone took the time to write a tag that will not only help search rankings, but will also appeal to the human beings that visually scan the listings before deciding which result to click.

Have you optimized your title tags for search engines? If so, ask yourself if they're also optimized for humans. If you fail to strike the right balance between the two, you may be giving up traffic.