Creating a Title

Each (X)HTML page must have a title element. A title should be short and descriptive. In most browsers, the title appears in the title bar of the window (Figure 3.7). Perhaps even more importantly, the title is used by search indexes like Yahoo and Google as well as in your visitors' browsers' history lists and bookmarks.

Figure 3.6. The title element should be placed in the head section. It is required.

Figure 3.7. The title of a Web page is shown in the title bar of the window.

To create a title:

1.	Place the cursor between the opening and closing head tags (see page 58).
2.	Type <title>.
3.	Enter the title of your Web page.
4.	Type </title>.

Tips

• The title element is required.

• A title cannot contain any formatting, images, or links to other pages.

• A page's title directly affects its ranking in many search engines. The closer a title is to the exact words that a potential visitor typeswithout any extra wordsthe higher up it will appear in the listings. It is also used to identify your page in the search results (Figure 3.8).

  Figure 3.8. Perhaps most importantly, the title is used to describe your page in search results from Google and others. In addition, it's purportedly one of the more important factors for determining a page's relevance and rank in search results.

  

• The title is also used in History lists, Favorites lists, and Bookmarks menus to identify your page (Figure 3.9).

  Figure 3.9. The title also appears in your visitor's History pane (shown), Favorites list, and Bookmarks list.

  

• If your title contains special characters like accents or some symbols, they'll either have to be part of your encoding (see page 59) or you'll have to write them with references (see page 336).