Can you see if you have a penalty / downgrading for a keyword stuffed title tag ?

[mike878]

We’ve recently seen a gradual drop in organic listings for a site, the site has according to OSE the highest stats when compared to all its competitors.

Im beginning to think the site may be being penalised for an unnatural title tag. The title tag for the site is as follows :

[Service] [City] - [Company Name] - [Neighborhood] - West [City]

An example of the above <title>pattern would be :</p> <p><strong>Garden Design London - Acme Design - Chelsea - West London  </strong></p> <p>The other sites that are outranking this site have title tags like :</p> <ul> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr"><span data-mce-mark="1">#1 (INDUSTRY SITE)</span></p> </li> </ul> <ul> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">#2 James Davidson Design, London</p> </li> </ul> <ul> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">#3 Jane Smith : Luxury Garden Design | London | Garden Landscaping</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">#4 Garden Designers London: BWI London Luxury Garden Design …</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">#5 (NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ARTICLE)</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">#6 Keers | High End Luxury Garden Designers in London</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">#7 Garden Design London - Acme Design - Chelsea - West London (The site in question)</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">#8 Sarah Franklin | Luxury Garden Design | London</p> </li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>Looking down the list they all seem to be using less keyword stuffed <title> tags than our the site sitting in #7. Bearing in mind that the site in #7 out ranks in terms of stats all other sites apart from #1 and #4 (which aren't competitors) in OSE</p> <p>Is it possible to if the site in #7 was given a penalty for the <title> tag ?</p> <p><br />(please note that the <title> tags ive listed above are representative of what the other sites are using, but ive changed the service and city to obfuscate the sites)</p></title>

[MattRoney]

I'm not sure if Eric meant more than the title tags, but personally I'd start with that.

[mike878]

Thanks eric, just to be clear when you say : "title tag (and updating the page)" do you mean updating the onpage content (eg. H1,

text etc) at the same time ?

[GlobeRunner]

Looking down the list they all seem to be using less keyword stuffed <title>tags than our the site sitting in #7</p> <p>If that's the case, then you should update your title tag(s), one page at a time, and then wait a few days after you update each one. You may see changes to rankings. It's worth testing. If you lose rankings, which I don't think you will, then you can always switch the title tag(s) back.</p> <p>But just updating the title tag (and updating the page) should give you a boost.</p></title>