What is the best way to handle e-commerce Product title names?
-
Hello,
I'm having a little bit of a conundrum, and I'm hoping someone will be able to help!
We have an ecommerce site, and were trying to figure out what is the most SEO friendly way to handle product titles. With our ecommerce software, it currently sets the Product title as the H1 tag (which could be changed if needed). In addition, the product title is what is used as anchor text for any built in links that the ecommerce software builds from the category pages, etc (just like any other ecommerce site). Here's where I'm stuck. I'm trying to determine if it makes sense to use the specific keyword we are aiming for as the product title, or to put variations of the title that would be more descriptive. Here is an example:
We have a Wizard of Oz Dorothy Deluxe Girls Shoes. According to all accounts, the best keyword to attack for this would be "dorothy shoes". However, it loses the more accurate description of "Wizard of Oz Dorothy Deluxe Girl Shoes". But, my thinking is that the H1 tag and anchor text would make more sense to use the term "Dorothy Shoes".
The title tag could go something like this: "Wizard of Oz Dorothy Deluxe Girls Shoes | Dorothy Shoes"
In a situation like this, what do you think would be the "best" way to handle the title tag, product name, H1 tag, and anchor text? I'm sure there will be many different opinions, so I would like to hear what you think is best - and why.
-
People SCAN the SERPs. They don't read every single word of each and every title.
So, if you want them to read yours you better make it something other than a reallylongtonguetwisterwithapipeandcaboose
If I thought that most people are searchin' for "Dorothy Shoes" ... and some might include "Wizard of Oz" then I would have those in the title and not much else.
You don't need "girls" because very few boys are searching. And very few people are going to use "deluxe". Drop the pipe and the repetition.
... and if these shoes are the "ruby slippers" you better get that in there...
Dorothy Shoes: Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz
-
Chris,
There are many factors to consider that would go into a decision here. On the one hand, if "dorothy shoes" is truly the best phrase to use to describe the products AND happens to be the best from an SEO search volume perspective, then yes, that's the way to go.
Here's a question though - could such a short phrase actually be searched by people on a large enough volume who are NOT looking to buy those? That question would need to be asked about every product. It's not just enough to base the decision on search volume. Intent is critical.
Also, if you do enough other SEO, it could be just as valid to use a longer, more descriptive title. That scenario allows you to reach a much more diverse group of people searching than that limited to a very short phrase. You'd need to have quality unique content built up to drive the importance of the shorter phrase, for example. Then again, the opposite can be achieved - using the short phrase as the product title, then building up the long tail through content and other links, for example.
What I have found personally is product titles should as a general rule, be based on what the product actually is, then using other SEO means to build focus around alternate phrase variations. So whether that's "Dorothy Shoes" or "Wizard of Oz Dorothy Shoes" (seemingly to me on first pass, the best two alternatives), that just comes across less spammy as "Wizard of Oz Dorothy Deluxe Girls Shoes | Dorothy Shoes".
Given how we need to find balance while avoiding the potential "over-optimization" now more than ever, that's my recommendation.
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
-
Will it upset Google if I aggregate product page reviews up into a product category page?
We have reviews on our product pages and we are considering averaging those reviews out and putting them on specific category pages in order for the average product ratings to be displayed in search results. Each averaged category review would be only for the products within it's category, and all reviews are from users of the site, no 3rd party reviews. For example, averaging the reviews from all of our boxes products pages, and listing that average review on the boxes category page. My question is, will this be doing anything wrong in the eyes of Google, and if so how so? -Derick
On-Page Optimization | | Deluxe0 -
Writing unique meta titles for canonicalised products or not?
Hi all, I have a question (duh): I have like 10 colours of the same product. I will make one colour the canonical, do I still need to write unique meta titles for the others? I am almost certain it doesn't add value at all, but wanted to double check since I couldn't find it anywhere. Thanks a lot in advance and have a great day!
On-Page Optimization | | TheOnlineWarp0 -
How does Google treat Dynamic Titles?
Let's say my website can be accessed in only 3 states Colorado, Arizona and Ohio. I want to display different information to each visitor based on where they are located. For this I would also like the title to change based on their location. Not quite sure how Google we treat the title and rank the site.... Any resources you can provide would be helpful. Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Firestarter-SEO0 -
Should we add our company's name in page title tag or not?
We have been adding our company (Townscript) name in all the page titles. For example, in an event page of Lucknow Conclave: www.townscript.com/lucknowconclave the page title is Lucknow Conclave | Alexis Society | Townscript I read somewhere that it's not necessary to put your company's name in the title tag. Is it right? Please help!
On-Page Optimization | | sanchitmalik0 -
Can you see multiple title elements
This came back in my on page grade for this url. http://www.towelsrus.co.uk/blog/choosing-the-right-towels.aspx Avoid Multiple Page Title Elements Web pages are meant to have a single title, and for both accessibility and search engine optimization reasons, we strongly recommend following this practice. Recommendation: Remove all but a single page title element. I can't see it, can you?
On-Page Optimization | | Towelsrus0 -
Duplicate Page Titles
I have over 200 duplicate page titles on a site that I am working on. Does putting a date at the end of some of them make it a unique enough title?
On-Page Optimization | | SavingSense0 -
product links
If you sell a range of products say 3 at the most, all on their own pages, is it ok to link to the other products within the range from each page? I have tried this and it eventually leads back to the same page is this a good, bad or doesn't really matter thing? Also is the anchor text still important?
On-Page Optimization | | LadyApollo0 -
Best title tag structure?
Hi, In the below example, which one do you think would work best if any. The website is called greatshoes.co.uk (fictitious) The category is 'work shoes' and a page under this cat is lets say 'Size 9 work shoes' I tend to build my title tags like this: size 9 work shoes, cheap size 9 work shoes | greatshoes.co.uk BUT I have read on here it should be more like this: size 9 work shoes < work shoes | greatshoes.co.uk Does anyone think it would make a difference when targeting for the term 'size 9 work shoes' which title tag I use. Cheers
On-Page Optimization | | activitysuper0