What is a title tag?
A title tag is the HTML element declaring a page's name, shown as the clickable link in search results and often used as the label an assistant attaches to a page it cites.
It is not the same element as the visible H1 on the page, though the two are often written identically and search engines have historically preferred it when they match. A page can have a title tag and no H1 at all, or several headings and only ever one title tag.
Google rewrites titles in its results more often than most site owners realise, substituting its own generated version when the declared one is judged too long, too vague, or stuffed with keywords rather than descriptive. There's no public data on how AI engines choose the label they attach to a citation, but the safest assumption is the same one: write a title that accurately names the page on its own, since it may end up standing alone as the only description a reader ever sees.
Related
- Heading hierarchyHeading hierarchy is the nested structure of a page's H1 through H6 tags, used to mark which sections a page contains and how they relate, rather than to make text visually larger.
- Meta descriptionA meta description is the short summary in a page's head that search engines often, but not always, use as the snippet shown under the title in results.
- CitationA citation is a source an AI assistant links or refers to in support of an answer it has given.
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