From experience in web design and seo, the phrase Welcome to our website in web design would be my last choice for a page title. Search engines like key words in titles and “Welcome to our website” doesn’t really define what to expect when following a link to that page. Let’s have some fun.

The latest podcast episode of the Small Business Website Mailbag launched earlier entitled Website Title and Description with audio advice about web design and seo including tags for title, META description, and META keywords.

To explain effective title tags that help define a site theme and enhance search engine optimization, the podcast episode points out the phrase “Welcome to our website” as a poor choice for a page title.

For an effective page title tag in web design your choice needs to include key words about what you do because people searching online are more likely to search by product or service rather than brand name.

While it is VERY unlikely anyone would search for “Welcome to our website” looking for a product or service, I decided to test that phrase in Google enclosed in quote marks. Someone has to be #1 on page one, right? As of today’s date, the winner is the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Congratulations!

In my opinion as a specialist in custom web design, people struggle to acheive a #1 Google page one listing, so if asked I would advise the staff at the university to keep their “Welcome to our website” page title. They deserve an award!