A strong SEO title tag puts your primary keyword in the first half, stays under 60 characters to avoid truncation in search results, and tells both Google and users exactly what the page delivers. Start with the keyword phrase someone would actually type into Google, then add context or a benefit, then close with your brand name separated by a pipe or dash. For a local business page, that might look like "Basement Waterproofing Ottawa | Free Quotes | YourBrand" instead of "YourBrand | We Do Waterproofing and Lots of Other Stuff". Front-load the keyword because Google weighs earlier words more heavily and users scan from left to right. If you bury "basement waterproofing" at character 45, you weaken relevance signals and risk losing the click to a competitor whose title opens with that exact phrase. The 50–60 character range isn't arbitrary—Google typically displays around 600 pixels, which translates to roughly 60 characters depending on letter width. Go longer and your message gets cut off with an ellipsis. Avoid keyword stuffing. A title like "Plumber Ottawa | Ottawa Plumber | Plumbing Ottawa | Emergency Plumber" triggers spam filters and reads terribly. One primary keyword phrase, one secondary if it fits naturally, brand name, done. Every page needs a unique title tag—duplicate titles across your site confuse Google about which page to rank for a given query and dilute your ranking potential across multiple URLs. At Ottawa SEO, we write title tags during keyword research and page planning, not as an afterthought. We map one primary keyword per page, check search volume and competition in tools like Ahrefs or Semrush, then craft a title that balances keyword placement with click appeal. For e-commerce product pages, we include the product name and one strong qualifier like size, colour, or "free shipping" if space allows. For service pages, we lead with the service plus location if targeting local search. Test your titles in Google's SERP preview tools before publishing. A technically perfect title that no one clicks is worthless—your click-through rate is a ranking factor. Write for the searcher first, optimization second, and never sacrifice clarity for keyword density.