I’m starting to see more sites1 putting the “page title” before the “site title” on their web pages.
Doing this generally goes against my hierarchical aesthetic, however I can see 3 good reasons to set up a page title in this manner:
- Seach Engine Optimization – having the “real” page title earlier in the title tag can only help.
- Tabbed Browsing – now that everyone is using a tabbed browser2, the first part of the page title (generally the first 10 characters or so) is the reliably visible portion of the tab title.
- Windows Task Bar – just like the tabbed browsing example above, the title of the button on the Windows Task Bar uses the first part of the page title.
Scott and I actually discussed this quite a bit while designing FeedLounge. We even discussed the possibility of putting the unread count at the front of the page title – but I thought it would be too weird. 
Anyone else been thinking about this?
- Yahoo! News, for example. [back]
- If you’re not, please go away. Just kidding… or maybe not.
[back]
Popularity: 3% [?]
Michael Heilemann adds this Comment:
I’ve done it at Binary Bonsai for the exact reasons you mention. When people are looking for information on what their search results are or where they are on my blog, who cares about then name of it?
That’s my philosophy anyway.
October 28th, 2005 at 12:19 am
Geof F. Morris adds this Comment:
So, just reverse the hierarchy …
Page Titles < alexking.org: Blog
I think I’m going to try this …
October 28th, 2005 at 10:29 am
Alex adds this Comment:
Exactly, perhaps need a wp_reverse_title() plugin that reverses the title order (including dates, etc.).
October 28th, 2005 at 10:38 am
luke adds this Comment:
Something else to think about is changing the H1 to be the title of the article instead of the title of the site. As the H1 should represent the most important heading on the page, it should be what that current page is about.
October 28th, 2005 at 10:53 am
Alex adds this Comment:
Good idea.
October 28th, 2005 at 11:13 am
John Beale adds this Comment:
Really interesting poin of view, Michael Heilemann. It can be true. But sometime poeple look at name.
October 30th, 2005 at 6:41 am