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The Title Tag is by far the most important that you will find in the header of your page because it is given the most weight of any of them by the search engines. This tag is also the only one that is viewable by the visitors of your website. You can see a websites Title Tag by looking in the browsers title bar, which is at the very top of the browser on the left hand side right next to the browsers logo. The Title Tag is also used as the default name that is used when you bookmark a website.

Being that this is the most important Tag of all of them, it only makes sense that we should make the best use of this valuable real estate, right? Of course! Then why is it that so many websites will squander the use of this tag and not use it to its full potential? Here are a few examples of Tag Titles that are often found but rarely helpful:

Home
Using the name of the page as the title, whether it is Home, About Us, Contact, etc. doesn’t really say much about what specifically is on the page. Rarely will anyone ever search a term like the word “home” and if they did they would be staring down the barrel of about 6 Billion websites as the results of the search with your site showing up somewhere around page 500 million.

Store > Men’s > Pants
Often you may see someone use breadcrumbs as a title, especially if it is an e-commerce site with a lot of categories and sub-categories. In theory, it sounds like it would be a good idea and helpful to your visitors so they can backtrack, but honestly, no one is ever going to look to your title for help navigating your website. Besides, you are missing a great opportunity to focus your title on a more effective keyword phrase like “Mens Casual Pants.”

Bob’s Website
Who’s Bob and why does he have a website? The odds that someone who has never heard of you will do a search for “Bob’s Website” looking for Bob’s particular product or service is astronomical! Too vague!

Real Estate | NJ Real Estate | Bergen County Real Estate | Local Real Estate | Best Real Estate | Professional Real Estate | Buy Real Estate
On the other end of the spectrum is a title such as this that is blatantly stuffed with keywords. This is headed in a better direction than the others, but when you stuff a title with as many keywords as you can, it diminishes the value of each of those keywords.

Acme, Inc.
Unless you are already a household name like Gucci or Nike, using your company name may seem like a good idea, but it is not a good use of your title. It assumes that the searcher already knows who your company is, but if your goal is to attract new traffic that has never heard of you, they aren’t going to specifically search for your company name.

Untitled Document
This is a title that you see more often that you would think. Untitled Document is the default page title used by most HTML editors and is often seen when the author of the website forgets to change the page title. This mistake alone will cost you any chance of getting a decent page ranking, so make sure you name all of your pages!

Now that you know what makes a bad Title Tag, let’s talk about how to create an effective one. Here are some basic guidelines that you should follow for the Title Tag for each page of your website:

* Use 2-3 of the best keyword phrases that you assigned to that page
* Combine keywords whenever you can. For example, if your two keyword phrases are “Professional Website Design” and “Website Design in New Jersey” then you should use “Professional Website Design in New Jersey” because it utilizes both.
* Create a sentence out of your keywords if you are able to, otherwise you can separate your keyword phrases either with a comma or a pipe symbol.
* If you would like to include your company name in your title, make it last since it holds less importance than the keywords.
* Keep the title tag to 65 characters or less including spaces. That is the maximum number of characters that most search engines will show. Going over 65 will diminish the value of each of the words you are using and could also be considered abusive depending on how many characters you use.
* Make sure that you use a different Title Tag for every page on your website.

Utilizing the six guidelines above, here are some examples of good titles:

Professional Website Design in New Jersey | Sound-n-Vision
With this title we easily fit in two strong keywords for the site, plus include the company name and still keep it under the 65 character limit.

Professional Website Design and Search Engine Marketing Company
This title is clearly very descriptive, plus it uses two strong keywords. Someone searching on Google that comes across this as the title would be comfortable in click on it assuming they were looking for a Web Design or SEO Company.

Making good use of your Title tag can dramatically help your search engine ranking, so be sure to use your tag wisely!

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www.deviantart.com/resources/fonts

by admin on Mar.31, 2009, under My Work, Web/Tech

www.deviantart.com/resources/fonts

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2009Toronto2

by admin on Mar.19, 2009, under My Work

2009Toronto2
SEC-Canada 2009 Summer Camp Flyer / Poster design.

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10 Great Social Sites for Resume Building

by admin on Mar.18, 2009, under Jobs, My Work, Twitter and others, Web/Tech

10 Great Social Sites for Resume Building

March 18th, 2009 | by Dan Schawbel14 Comments

resume Dan Schawbel is the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 09), and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog.

Creating the perfect resume is not easy. Luckily, there are a number of online resources dedicated to helping you create outstanding traditional and social media resumes. Here are 10 great social sites with unique features that let you create your own resume-like profile, edit your resume online, get it reviewed by experts, print it, share it on social networks, and much more.

Remember, building a strong profile can help serve as a great marketing tool to help you get the job you’re looking for.

Have another resume building site to recommend? Tell us about it in the comments.

1. Razume

Razume is a service that enables job seekers to complete their resumes and polish them up with feedback from reviewers in the community. The resume you create using this service is exactly like traditional resumes you may have created in the past, but this service allows you to improve your resume so you’re more likely to better your chances at landing your next job. Users are able to search for jobs on Razume and will soon be able to apply for them through the site itself.

2. LinkedIn

LinkedIn seems to be on all of my job lists and for good reason. LinkedIn is a combination of a resume, cover letter, reference document and a moving database of your contacts. The resume portion is quite standard, with fields asking for your education and work experience. The cover letter piece is the summary you get to have at the beginning, where you can position yourself for a particular job, based on your qualifications, awards and an explanation of what type of job you’re looking for.

As you accelerate in your career, your network can easily observe your change in jobs or positions. You can also update your status bar, just like in FacebookFacebook reviews or on TwitterTwitter reviews, with the type of job you’re looking for. Your LinkedIn “resume” will be perceived as noteworthy when you fill it out completely, acquire endorsements for your work, join groups related to your interests, and add applications (such as your blog).

3. VisualCV

VisualCV is a website that provides users with a virtual resume, as well as a database of job openings and networking opportunities. Whether you’re a job seeker, entrepreneur, consultant, student or manager, VisualCV lets you display all of your credentials in an easy to read format, with multimedia integration. For example, you can upload or embed a video resume or a podcast of you being interviewed.

The latest capabilities that they offer allow job seekers to integrate their resume with social media sites, such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, to share their qualifications with friends and colleagues. When you update your resume, it can be shared through websites such as DiggDigg reviews and StumbleUponStumbleUpon reviews. Your resume, or VisualCV, can combine other elements, such as images, charts, awards and recommendations, in addition to traditional resume fields such as “work experience.”

Disclosure: VisualCV sponsors my blog and magazine.

4. Emurse

Emurse allows you to create, share and store your resume for free online. Their resume builder is job seeker friendly, allowing you to create and maintain a professional resume which can be downloaded in any format, such as PDF. Just like LinkedIn, your resume can have a unique URL linked to your name and the ability to view employers who have seen your resume in the past.

You also get statistics and graphs to aid in resume distribution. In addition, Emurse lets you keep track of your contacts, invite contacts and always access their latest information, similar to LinkedIn. Just like GoogleGoogle reviews does with AdSense, you get job postings in your local area that are relevant to your resume. There is also a job search area and organizer, similar to Monster.com’s, where you can keep track of the resumes you submit over time.

5. Xing

Xing is a social network with over 7 million business professionals globally, and is read in 16 languages. Aside from being able to create a profile, the networking part of this site is what shines. There are over 22,000 groups and networking events from London to Beijing advertised.

Xing offers many of the same services as LinkedIn, and like LinkedIn, can serve as your online resume and cover letter. The standard service lets you create a professional profile page, search for people by name and industry, and join groups and events. When you login, you’ll see jobs that might interest you, new members, visitors to your profile and much more.

6. ResumeBucket

ResumeBucket is a service that enables you to post a resume quickly online. The site provides you with a unique URL for your resume and enables you to promote your resume on your website or blog with embeddable ResumeBucket badges. In addition, resumes are shareable via popular social bookmarking and social networking sites.

If you’re currently employed and would like to keep your resume private, you can. ResumeBucket also provides you with sample resumes and cover letters as best practices to help you when you build your own. And if you need assistance, they have a resume writing service where their professional writers can help you along the way.

7. ResumeSocial

ResumeSocial is a social resume community, where you can post your resume online and get feedback, just like Razume. Registered users can build a resume through feedback and comments from other users who have similar job experience. You can also be a resume expert and become a valuable member of the community by providing others with resume assistance.

There is also an area for sharing cover letters and follow-up letters, which are very important as well. When someone finds your resume on this site, they can print it, quote it, favorite it and email it to other people. There is also a job search area, a blog and a career area, which gives you advice for putting resumes together.

8. Gigtide

Gigtide is a website that lets you create, publish, manage and track your resumes, contacts and cover letters online. You can store unlimited resumes, contacts and cover letters and there are professional resume templates to help you. You also have the option of creating a social media resume, which includes images, video, direct links and sharing functionality. Another interesting feature is a direct employer contact form, where employers can contact you directly through your resume.

9. Howtowritearesume

Howtowritearesume gives you an easy way to build a professional resume, without being an expert. You get their phrase builder technology, which helps you build compelling headlines, qualifications, achievement statement and more. Then there is “one-click formatting,” which automatically reformats your resume and makes it easy to choose the best layout. Your resume is stored online and is accessible by potential employers. The templates are all predefined, so filling in the blanks is really easy. You can change the font and margins and preview the changes instantly before printing or saving it.

10. Ziggs

Ziggs is designed to help you market yourself and manage your personal brand on the web. The service lets you create a profile and manage your online identity, and alerts you each time a recruiter views your profile and resume. You can discuss topics, ask people for advice or referrals, and search for jobs.

More Job Resources from Mashable:

– HOW TO: Find a Job on Twitter
- 30+ Websites to Visit When You’re Laid Off
- 7 Secrets to Getting Your Next Job Using Social Media
- 10 Ning Networks to Help You Land Your Next Job
- CAREER TOOLBOX: 100+ Places to Find Jobs
- Top 10 Social Sites for Finding a Job
- Mashable’s Job Board

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, peepo

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