Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Title and Heading Tags
-
Firstly I would like to comment on how helpful this site is. I haven't posted much before but have been reading tonnes of answers for many months now and have been finding it really useful.
I used the SEOmoz scanner and the main problem highlighted was duplicate content so I started to add 'customer product reviews' I had received and unique 'further information' to each page (hopefully this was the right thing to do to solve duplicate content! : ) )
Then I looked at heading and title tags. Currently I set title tags for each product page to be "Brand Name- Product Name" but after doing some research we are thinking of putting Keyword Description of Product | Product Name | Brand Name (around 60 characters long).
So is this the advised thing to do and create unique titles that are relevant to each specific product page for over 200 pages we have?
In addition, any advice on setting optimum
tags would be great. We keep reading varying tips online. I gather ideally h1 needs to be a shorter keyword rich version of the title tag?
Many Thanks
-
Thank you for the help and advice- I really appreciate it. I still can't seem to decide the best course of action for the titles/headers.
A little background incase you can help/advise:
We sell 5 types of widgets. And each of these 5 headings have 50 or so products each. At the moment the title is Brand Name | Product name and the header is just Brand| Motto for all. The problem is making each of the 50 or so titles different as they all fit in one broad category and it is hard to define them further e.g. setting one widget as 'space saving widget' but the problem is about 10/50 products fit that description so I don't want customer thinking that particular one is the only space saving one we have (I hope you guys understand what I mean here)
In this scenario would it be advisable just to stick with product names?
-
Hi Jannkuzel - as far as duplicate content, it depends on what pages are being tagged as duplicate content as far as what you do to correct. For instance, the tools in SEOmoz tell me I have dup content for about 50-60 pages on one of my client's sites, but the reason is because each of the URL's is the same except for a product ID (&pid=540985). Each id loads slightly different content into a few areas of the page. So, the system thinks these are all the same page. These pages are not important pages on the site so I'm not that worried about them. Without knowing what is on your pages that are being tagged as duplicate content, it's hard to tell you what to do to correct it. Generally, you are on the right track in that you want to change the content on each page to be different enough (keep in mind that the info that is spiderable needs to be unique, pics, iframes, etc don't make much of a difference) that it won't get tagged as duplicate content.
As the title tag is the most important on-page ranking factor, you want your targeted keyword to be at the very beginning of the tag, with as close to an exact match of the keyword as possible. Even though it's a pain, yes, you would want to give each of your 200 pages unique title tags. It's fine to put the Brand name at the end, that's normally where I put mine.
H1 - is actually not quite as important as it used to be, but is still very important. H1 doesn't really have any relation to the Title Tag. Bottom line is that again, you want as close to an exact match of your main targeted keyword(s) in the H1 for sure. Also helps to work them into your other header tags as well (h2,3,4). Find a balance between making it legible and working in your most important targeted terms. If at all possible, use the exact term you are trying to target. Positioning (beginning or end of tag) doesn't matter as much as it does in the Title Tag.
Let me know if this helps!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Page Title versus H1 title
What's the difference between the Page Title and the H1 title? It seems like both summarize the page. Is it a wasted opportunity to make them the same? Should they be similar but slightly different?
On-Page Optimization | | amybethmegjo1 -
Commas in title tags
Hello Guys, Thanks in advance for all who can help me with this I am helping a dinnerware company with their SEO. I told them to change their ambiguous title tags for more specific ones. However, they opted to create some title tags with 2 or three keywords separated by commas. I have attached an excel image illustrating their new title tags.. My question is, will this format be a problem with Google--penalties? The questionable title tags are highlighted in light orange. Thanks! lHH92
On-Page Optimization | | HectorCortes0 -
How to separate your - keywords - and | Brand name in the Title Tag
I have traditionally used hyphens (-) and vertical bars (|) to separate out keywords/brands in title tags. A client has asked if other characters will work such as tilde (~), apersat (@), forward slash (/) etc. Are there any special characters we should steer clear of?
On-Page Optimization | | Switch_Digital0 -
Adding Tags in the blog is good or bad?
Hi Friends, In my blog I used to write unique content in between 300 to 450 words and add the related tags up to 15. When I research about adding tags in the blog I come across this video from “Matt Cutts” says Is it worth spending time on creating tags and categories? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A96yDPqa2rs Key Points from Matt Cutts Video are given below: No Need Tags - In general, Google figure out what your post is about, so don't worry too much about it. So my question is do I need to remove all tags from my blog or can I reduce the tag count to 5 alone? Currently I am using 15 tags to each post, is there any dis-advantage by adding tags like this? Let me know your suggestions? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | zco_seo0 -
Multiple Cities in Title Tag
My question is how to avoid having a spammy title. Currently I'm working on a project where a business serves four cities, but two of them are out of its home state. I'm trying to create a title tag that is appealing to the eyes, and meets what I need it to do at the same time. I was wondering what everyone though of this sample Brand X Dealer Serving Newark, DE; New Castle, DE; Glens Mills, PA; and Springfield, PA I know that too much repetition can be a bad thing, but this might not be a big deal since they are separate instances. Let me know what you all think. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | OOMDODigital0 -
Can I use Same Keyword for Multi pages Title Tags?
Hello All, I am working on client website and currently they are targeting One Keywords for multi pages. As I have search with Allintitle: Search query and Google display around 37 pages of website which carry same keyword in "Title Tags". I have told to client to change the "Title Tags" but they want that keyword for all relevant pages. So I want to know is that harm in Search Engine Ranking? Note: They have not done the link building activities for multi pages with same Keyword, they are using only in "Title Tags" only
On-Page Optimization | | jemindesai0 -
Dash or vertical bar in titles?
Hello. Should I use a dash or a vertical line in title tags? Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | nyc-seo0 -
Does it matter what text you wrap in an H1 tag?
Typically H1 tags are reserved for page headings, i.e. on a blog post the blog post title is very often the pages H1, or top-level heading as the W3C puts it. On the SEOmoz home page they currently have "SEO Software." as their H1 tag, which seems perfectly reasonable and to me fits the W3C criteria. However, what if the primary keyword for SEOmoz was "seo community" so they decided to wrap just those two words in the sentence that follows on their home page and maintain the existing style of the words "seo community" with CSS. (see attachment) Are there any arguments against doing that? Would Google be able to detect this? If so, would Google care? I do believe the overall importance of the H1 tag has lessened to a degree, however I still believe they are valuable to an extent and would love to hear anyone's thoughts. 7NZcD.png
On-Page Optimization | | TakeLessons1