Colons in title tag?
-
Does Google view the colon as a keyword separator like it does with the pipe (|) character?
Currently, our site automatically constructs the title tag based on the page name given by the user. Long ago, we started using the colon character to visually separate the brand & model of the product from the size, and as a result, all of our title tags have been constructed this way. This was done more to make it easier to read for humans than for search engines. My question is - should I consider getting rid of the colon from our title tags?
To give more info, our website sells tires. So, for any given model of tire, there might be 25-100 different individual sizes. The tags are constructed as follows: (brand)(model) : (size). Here's an example from our site:
GENERAL ALTIMAX ARCTIC : 225/45R17 91Q
The brand is General Tire, the model is the Altimax Arctic and the size is 225/45R17 91Q
Since this entire string really constitutes the full product name, should I remove the colon so that Google views it that way? Or, since I have used a colon instead of a pipe, will Google simply ignore it and treat the entire string as one keyword phrase?
-
Thank you for asking this question, kcourtem ,and thank you for answering, Federico. I had the same question about using colons in title tags and this helped me confirm that it was OK.
-
Federico, thanks so much for the reply. I guess it's good to know that having the colon in our title tags all this time hasn't necessarily hurt us.
-
Colons are seen by search engines as what they are. You say something, a word, then a colon, and then comes an explanation or enumeration.
In your example, you did it right, perhaps you should move the colon to where they belong, right next to the last letter of the brand, so it reads: GENERAL ALTIMAX ARCTIC: 225/45R17 91Q
The idea you mentioned, building titles for users, not for engines, is the way to go. However, there are some tweaks you can make to make it easier for both.
As in your example, the title could become: GENERAL TIRE: ALTIMAX ARCTIC 225/45R17 91Q - YOURSITENAME (personally I would put the colon next to the brand, and then comes the rest of the product name + you end up with " - YOURSITENAME" to help build YOUR brand.
Hope that 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 -
How should a ALT TAG Be?
Hi All, Can a ALT Tag have special characters? Can i have my ALT Tag as Image-explained-with-what-it-is? Can i have - hyphens as this? Thanks I have a 2nd question I have 100's of videos which has a ALT tag as Tumbnail link to video How can i deal with them? Can i add the Video title as ALT Tag? thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Nettv0 -
Regarding Google Title 'Width' and changing Meta Titles w/o Penalty?
A vast majority of pages on my site are now too wide (the character count was fine prior to the March update). I want to go through and update them so they display properly and are not too wide.However, I am concerned, as my understanding was that changing Meta Titles is dangerous and can have a negative effect on your rankings and can cause real issues. Is this an opportunity to change my Titles all-together without any kind of penalty? Or can I only trim the end part? In summary: 1. Can I edit all of my Meta Titles without affecting my rankings? 2. If no, how do I edit them properly to fit within the proper width and not cause any issues? 3. If yes, I can go through and change all my Meta Titles to whatever extent and optimize them to reflect latest best practices? There are changes I wanted to make to all my meta titles but I've been afraid to... due to fear of rankings drops etc Any help with this would be greatly appreciated
On-Page Optimization | | lawfirm0 -
Product titles
Hi guys, I'm starting to sell sofas and furniture online in Australia. Many USA companies just use the key ranking words as the Product Title i.e. "Ultra -Modern black leather sectional sofa with bookcase". Even if they have 100s of products. But in Australia they just use the model name, such as "The York", "The Boston", etc. Cause it does create a nicer picture and a neater look on the main page. I was wondering how important this practice is in improving search ranking? is it spammy? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | cowhidesdirect0 -
Title Tag
Is there any value in adding semantically similar words in the title tag? For instance, I have an alcohol rehab website www.alcohol-rehab.ltd.uk, I offer local search pages too. Would the title tag "Alcohol Rehab Bedfordshire | Alcoholic Rehabilitation Clinics Beds" Be more valuable than "Alcohol Rehab Clinics Bedfordshire | www.alcohol-rehab.ltd.uk" And is is worth while having the url in each title tag? Also is it worth while (seo wise) writing a description tag for each page, other than for a call to action that is?
On-Page Optimization | | Tiedoctor0 -
The actual title tag is different from the one showing in SEOmoz
Hello all I was looking at the crawling report for my project, I have noticed that there are so many duplicate titles in the "Duplicate Page Title" report, I checked the title tag for one of the titles (for this page) manually (in the page code), and it was showing like this: <title></span><span>Interviews | TechSparks</span><span></title> where it's showing in the "Duplicate Page Title" report like this: Interviews | TechSparksEasyRotator Preview Hovering over the tab in the browser shows the title as I mentioned first, and searching Google for this page shows the title like the first one I mentioned too. Do you any clue why that is happening? fUbtXe6 fUbtXe6.png
On-Page Optimization | | MHD0 -
Wordpress Title Element tag too long?
So apparently when I add the name of the blog within Wordpress, the name of the blog shows up after the the main title of each blog post and page. So trying to keep the title element >70 characters, how does one name the Wordpress blog as mine is/was: Lake Tahoe wedding photographer / Heidi Huber Photography and keep that only on the intro page and leave each page of the blog and the titles of the blog posts to not have "Lake Tahoe wedding photographer added to the end of the Title Element? Anyone have any idea? I also had gone in at one point and updated every single Title on each page/post using Yoast's SEO and the SEOMOZ crawl is still coming up with over 216 caution errors for the title page. Thank you so much for any advice! Heidi
On-Page Optimization | | hmhuber0 -
Wordpress categories tags and robots.txt
I am relatively new at this and see a variety of people that seem to disagree on if you should block google from indexing category and tag pages through robot.txt or no-follow because of google viewing it as duplicate content. I tryst this communities answers over the web at large obviosly, so what do you all think? Thanks, Steven
On-Page Optimization | | sfmatthews0