Changing Link Title Tags & Backlinks
-
On 4/19/12 I began changing the link title tags in an effort to further optimize my website. I thought they were excessively long and it would be beneficial to make them more concise. On 4/26/12 my website traffic began to fall drastically and I'm not sure if it is from google's penguin update or from changing the link title tags.
I started looking into the sudden drop of traffic and realized that when I run the site explorer tool on all of the pages I changed, the URL is redirecting. It appears that the backlinks are not passing through to the new URL.
Before I Changed the Link Title Tag:
**After I Changed the Link Title Tag: **
http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=www.beautystoponline.com%2FAndis-Clippers-s%2F102150.htm
So my questions are:
- The above example shows that the old title tag (www.beautystoponline.com/Andis-Professional-Hair-Clippers-s/102150.htm) has 43 backlinks and the new one (www.beautystoponline.com/Andis-Professiona-Hair-Clippers-s/102150.htm) has 0. Will the links eventually be attributed to the new URL.
- I understand that the user will still be directed to my website they click the any of the backlinks, but will the link juice pointing the old URL pass through the new one?
- Would it be better, in the long run, to continue optimizing the link title tags.
-
1. Yes, the link juice will eventually be applied to the new page. This is part of the benefit behind 301 redirect.It sometimes just takes a little time for it to process and show up in reports.
2. The link juice or link equity will eventually pass through to new url once Google has established and indexed the new page. This could take weeks to months.
3. I would continue to optimized on a regular basis. Make sure that after each 301 redirect you also adjust all internal linking to the new page, especially in your sitemaps! Other wise it could get confusing for both visitors and bots.
Hope this helps.
-
Thanks for that, I definitely will make sure to address the internal links. But what about questions 1, 2, and 3. At this point, my main concern are the backlinks that I have accumulated over the past 2 years. Will these apply to the new URL's?
-
Have you updated all internal links from old to new shortened title page? Double check that first then resubmit sitemap to see if you can get re-indexed faster.
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
-
I have updated title 4 days ago but still still showing old title and description on Google serps, How to resolve it?
I have updated the title tag but not showing, Please have look at the view source for this website- https://m.yolobus.in/ I want to show this title and description- <title>Online Bus Ticket Booking | YoloBus India</title> But showing the wrong title and description on google SERP- Title - YoloBus :: Home Description - Delhi Lucknow; Lucknow Delhi; Delhi Gorakhpur; Varanasi Lucknow; Gorakhpur Delhi; Delhi Delhi; Bangalore Bangalore; Manali Manali; Chennai Chennai 7mHsdmu
On-Page Optimization | | AnkitS.19900 -
Outbound links. External Links.
I have been reading alot on SEO and there is something confusing about having "Outbound links. External Links." on your main ranking page. Some say that We shouldn't have any out bound links. (from Random website) According to Yoast, we should have outbound links. (yoast.com) we should have outbound links but we should add the "no-follow" tag. (from Random website) Q: What should i do and follow?
On-Page Optimization | | kevinbp
If the answer is yes, how many outbound links is an appropriate amount per page?0 -
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 -
Title Tag, Internal Categories, Long tail
Hello, For internal categories - those that are not in the main navigation - we're optimizing for the long tail. How do you optimize the title tag for the long tail? For example if the internal category is about Men's shoes -> "Adidas Crosstrainers" and you already have a page in the main navigation with "Adidas Crosstrainers" in the title, what kind of title do you use for the long tail category? These categories are usually for the convenience of the user. I assume they should each have at least 500 words in them to do the best long tail searches. Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | BobGW0 -
How bad is it going over 70 character for title tag length?
I know less than 70 is recommended. I am about to run a script to create some title tags and a few will be between 71-74. Is going just the few characters over ok until I can get in there and manually do them?
On-Page Optimization | | EcommerceSite0 -
Google Results Title Tag HELP
Can anybody tell us why Google changes your title tag in the SERP? If you check out the below link or type in 'days inn', you will see the 2nd result for www.daysinnrc.co.uk just says 'Days Inn' but on the actual site the title tag for this page is 'Days Inn UK | Days Inn | Daysinnrc.co.uk' http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=days+inn&oq=days+inn&gs_l=hp.3...4110.4110.4.4297.1.1.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0...0.0...1c.1.kWVC24EnCHE&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=7680231318a44bb0&bpcl=35466521&biw=1920&bih=934 This has happened with another site too, does anybody know why? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | SEOwins0 -
Does my actual blog post title have any effect once I create a title tag for SEO purposes?
A little confused about this. Reason I ask is that using my actual title for my title tag sometimes isn't the best for getting ranked, so the title and title tag are sometimes not the same.
On-Page Optimization | | seo_f20120 -
SERPs Showing H1s Instead of Title Tags?
Hi, I'm noticing two strange things in search results recently. Often I find that if I search for a client's company name, I see just the company name in SERPs where the title tag would normally be displayed. Examples: 'aci northwest' 'lanz heating' As strange as that is, I'm tempted to assume this is just Google's way of "getting smarter" and showing more relevant results (though I'm not sure exactly where it's pulling from). But it gets stranger. For the first example, 'aci northwest', when search that key phrase on Bing/Yahoo!, etc. I'm not only not seeing the title tag where it would normally be, but I'm seeing the H1 in it's place: "When your projects demand more, demand ACI." Any idea what's happening here? Thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | VTDesignWorks0