Title Tags and Over Optimization Penalty
-
In the past, it was always a good thing to put your most important keyword or phrase at the beginning of the Title Tag with the company name at the end. Now according to the over optimization penalty in the Whiteboard Friday video, it seems to be better to be more human and put the company name at the beginning with the keyword or phrase following. Am I understanding this correctly?
-
Over optimizing is having an [Exact keyword] all over a page.
If you url is http://url.keyword
If your title is - keyword
H1- Keyword
decription - keyword
body - keyword... most people who overstuff will add a ton of words just so they can include there keywords many times. 1 keyword per 100 words is a good number to go by... so they add 10000 words and 100o keywords
image - keyword
footer - keyword
When everything on the page is designed for a bot the bot will know. The best practice to avoid over opting is to include your [Exact] key in some places where it would make sense.
To avoid over optimizing use broad for some keywords and exact for some.. Mix it up and focus on where things will be best suitable for your users.
-
to add to the question, some people say that this is only affecting low quality sites, if your site is a well established site then you don't have to worry about this.
- Define established site
- Is this true?
Im freaking about this over optimization thing. I don't list keywords with commas I generally do (keyword) - (keyword) and only 2, and I avoid putting the company at the end...seems that now it has to be there....
-
I think a lot depends on the strength of the brand/Company name. If you've got a well established reputation in your niche then having your company name in a prominent position is more than likely going to be beneficial.
I'm also wondering what affect this might have on brand related searches in the future. Be interesting to take a look at branded vs non-branded traffic and how the positioning of brand/company names affects things...
Also, what kind of searches are we talking about (navigational, transactional, and informational.)?
-
There are many ranking factors and yes, having keyword placement first in a title is great from a SERP perspective. The user typed "keyword" they will most likely click on "keyword" when its the first thing in your title it is more likely to get clicked on.
This should help you understand more about all the factors and how much they really matter.
http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#metrics-6
-
Thanks for the response RankSurge.
I am torn on this as I was raised on implementing keywords first and the brand second. I was also raised on left to right reading for importance of keywords that described the page you were about to visit. Visitors (to my site anyway) search for products first, not brand names.
Specifically, I rank #2 for "outdoor enclosures" (L-com.com). So, you're saying I should reverse the order and I might see an increase in daily clicks?
Thanks!
-
I recently went through this with a client of mine. Previously, they had their top 2 keywords first, then the company name.
They were ranked #2 in Google for both of their terms.
We made the switch last Monday, placing the company name first, then the keywords.
The other sites in the top 5 with them all have their keywords listed first.
Impact?
Since we made the title switch, they are still in the second position, but they are now averaging 15 more clicks per day!
I know some will say it's because the company name stands out from the clutter - and I agree on some levels. But as Doug mentioned, the title is phrased in a way that we humans like to read, so I think that helps too.
-
You don't need to put the company name at the beginning, just write your titles in a way that would make sense to a normal person reading them. Make sure they correctly describe the page content in natural language (that includes your keywords).
One of the big problems comes about when you're trying to target multiple keywords and have title tags that are just a comma separated list of keywords.
Rand's recent Whiteboard Friday covered this: 6 Changes Every SEO Should Make BEFORE the Over-Optimization Penalty Hits - Whiteboard Friday
Also think about how to make these compelling for someone looking at the title in the SERPS. Can you give the reader a reason to click though on your entry?
Hope 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
-
Do header tags impact the rankings much?
Hi all, I have gone through some posts and comments where it's been mentioned that header tags will be considered as any other content on page. Is that really true? Writing up more relevant header tags as per the page topics doesn't have any impact? I would like to know the updated importance of header tags in today's SEO. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Why Google changed our page-title suddenly which has been same for years
Hi all, I know Google shows a different page titles. Happens when over optimised or when we copied competitors page title. But we did neither. Suddenly Google changed our homepage page title in search results. Our page title suffix "brand name" has been moved to beginning. Our page title is still for years.
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz1 -
Do we need to maintain consistency in page titles suffix?
Hi all, We usually give "brand & primary keyword" across all pages in website like "vertigo tiles". Do we need to maintain this suffix across all page titles? What if we change according to the page? Will Google downlook for not maintaining these page titles suffix like I mentioned? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Numbers vs #'s For Blog Titles
For your blog post titles, is it "better" to use numbers or write them out? For example, 3 Things I love About People Answering My Constant Questions or Three Things I Love About People Answering My Constant Questions? I could see this being like the attorney/lawyer, ecommerce/e-commerce and therefore not a big deal. But, I also thought you should avoid using #'s in your url's. Any thoughts, Ruben
Algorithm Updates | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
ALT TAGS for SEO - whats the latest recommendation?
ALT Tags used strategically have always been a part of my SEO recommendations (relevant, under 7 words, not keyword stuffed but focused on primary page keyword). I have been getting mixed views on updates that search engines don't use them anymore in ranking determination. The Q&A on this subject was last addressed in 2011, what is the most recent approach on this?
Algorithm Updates | | MikeSEOTruven0 -
Meta keywords tag?
Because Google is cracking on spammy keywords should I remove my meta keywords tag altogether? I hear they dont factor it in anyway?
Algorithm Updates | | dfwgolfer0 -
HTML Not Validating META Title??!!
This seems pretty odd to me. HTML 5 is not validating lots of the typical META content - including, amongst others, the META title. This is typically seen as a standard 'must-have' for many SEOs, including the check-list on SEOmoz. Has anybody else had this issue? And of course, did you find a solution? Thanks, Mark
Algorithm Updates | | RiceMedia0