Changing page titles and google penalties?

[A Former User]

I just recently learned that changing your page title earns you a google penalty.  Unfortunately i learned this after playing around with my page titles a bit to get the most optimal page titles.  Does anybody know how long this google penalty lasts? is it forever? or just temporary?

[EGOL]

A couple years ago I had about a hundred pages that described closely related substances.  Their title tags consisted of the name of the substance and a few other words.  I launched those pages and saw where they ranked and decided to change the words in hopes of better rankings.  It worked good but not great as I was hoping.  So I changed them again, and then again... BAM... my rankings droped big time.  Like from bottom of first page to third page.  They stayed there for a few months then moved up.  Now almost all of those pages rank near the top of the first page.

Based upon this I think that Google is tolerant of a little bit of experimentation.  But when you really go at it you might get demoted for a while.  Now I don't monkey with title tags.  I research first and then launch.

[RyanKent]

I can't speak to the author's credentials, but I can speak about the web page.

You should run as fast as you can from that type of web page. It is about as spammy as a page can get. The sidebar is full of large ads. The page is selling reports and memberships for thousands of dollars. The single page contains multiple articles covering a variety of topics, with tons of additional ads jammed between each article.

Before I joined SEOmoz I was lost in the SEO information jungle. Like you, I received a lot of bad SEO information. The best advice I can offer to you or anyone is limit your sources of SEO information. First places to look are:

• Google search "Matt Cutts" + your keyword

• Search SEOmoz

• If you need to expand further, avoid any site with an ad on the page. It's ok if the site mentions it's own SEO tool or membership, but if you see ads for other sites and items for thousands of dollars, close the page. Their interests are clearly not to offer you the information you seek, but instead to use your need for information to service their needs.

[mosaicpro]

I did it for about 2 months with my client's home page and nothing happened.

Maybe i was lucky... however i stopped now... maybe just in time

[RyanKent]

Where did you learn this information? Can you offer a URL?

How exactly did you make this determination? Can you offer the URL and the key term you are using?

[networkelites]

Page titles definitely can change rankings.  I have had mostly good experiences with optimizing my page titles for SEO, and a few bad ones, but nothing horrific.  How far did your rankings drop?