Page Title Tags - SEO vs CRO ?
-
Hi everyone,
Thanks to what seems to be a recent(ish) algo change in Google, some of our more targeted deeper pages are ranking for search terms where before only our homepage would rank.
This is of course great however I am a little worried that some of the page titles of our internal pages are a little short, for example our main departments (we are an ecommerce store) are titles 'Department Name | Liberty Games' so for example 'Pool Tables | Liberty Games'.
I have heard varying reports on what to do with the title tag, I have heard to keep the most relevant keywords to the left of the tag, which we have done, I have also heard that shorter is better.
I am just a bit concerned that our tags are looking a little stumpy in the serps alongside other results which are longer (although admittedly a bit keyword stuffed).
So (eventually) my question is, will short titles harm my click-through rate ? but are shorter titles better for SEO ? If longer is better are there any recommendations about what I could add to these titles that could potentially help click-throughs and natural rankings ?
Many thanks,
Stuart
-
Awesome find on the snippet optimizer!
-
Awesome find on the snippet optimizer!
-
Thanks for the advice, that article looks great will have a good read of it over the weekend. I think it might just be down to a case of trying various things on a few different pages and see which works best.
-
On the CRO side, usability research actually suggests that (on the web) the first 2 words of a headline carry most of the weight. In SERPs, I think that's even more at play - people scan, they don't read full TITLEs. The natural assumption is that long TITLEs carry more information, but in many cases, what's good for SEO is good for users with titles and headlines.
Of course, you don't want to be too spammy, or just string keywords together - that might get someone's attention but then cost you the click. Overall, though, I wouldn't be afraid of short TITLEs.
More info here in a post from 2009 by Jakob Nielsen:
-
I would try to find a compromise between SEO and CRO. Make the title tag long enough to give the 'scent' of information specifiicty, but not SO long that its hard for the average visitor to scan and absorb.
-
For one of our clients we have purposely trimmed down the title tag two merely two words and reduced the description to a one liner thus creating lovely white space with reading clarity which makes eyes focus on it.
By doing so we've improved our click through rate by 20%.
-
I find this title almost perfect and not spamy if there is a single and a plural version in it and much more user friendly. I recognise the brand name now
I would only put the singular term at the beginning because in that case the search volume is higher with the sigular word.
--> Pool Table, buy pool tables online at Liberty Games
-
Thanks for the response, I should have mentioned "Liberty Games" is our brand term so is at the and after the | of every page on the site.
I did read that it was a good idea to try and target the singular and the plural term in the title tage, so for example 'Pool Tables, buy a pool table online at Liberty Games' - although i'm not sure if this would appear too stuffed as when you search for the singular google already highlights the plural so it clearly knows the link. That said we don't rank as well on the singular so any boost would help.
-
Hi Stuart,
title tag optimization is an important onpage ranking factor.
Just keep in mind the following items:- the title should not be longer as seventy characters in lenght (although the spiders can read them, they are not displayed with more than 70 characters and regarding usability it is best to stay below that number)
- your most prominent keyword(s) should be - as you already wrote - at the left of the title
- don't keyword stuff the title
- just explain in short terms what the visitors are going to find on that page
By the way - I love this tool here http://www.seomofo.com/snippet-optimizer.html
I would suggest to add your brand to the title - you can do that after your category page(s).
Each page should be treated as an individual (starting) page and like that your potential visitors can identify the brand, too and are more comfortable to click.I have never heard about a negative aspect regarding SEO if a title is too short. Just try to keep your title as natural as possible.
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
-
Can Very High Impressions and 0% Organic CTR Impact our SEO Rankings?
I have a very strange feeling that someone bad is trying to hurt our company, but maybe I am wrong. Let me explain. In the last two month, we have seen a very significant drop in sales on our website, but we couldn't figure out why. We have looked at different metrics (Google Search Console, Moz, Google Analytics), but everything looked alright. We had 10% loss in traffic, but we didnt believe at the time that it could be the main issue. Just yesterday we've discovered the following (please see attached screenshot😞 On August 18, 2018 Google launched Search Update On the same date, we had a jump in Organic Search Impressions for one particular keyword, which we never tracked before: "free facebook login". Majority of all impressions (233,000 out of 258,000) were from Philippines. Very low total number of clicks (50 clicks) led to 0% Average CTR for this keyword. Which in return, also lowered our global CTR by 1%. One month later we had 1000's of spam emails sent to our Helpdesk from two IP addresses, also from Philippines. We blocked them of course. It could be all coincidence. I dont know. But do you think that someone can use this fraudulent tactic to lower our CTR and drop our ranking and traffic? Can this influence our SEO in any way? It's also possible that someone is attacking Facebook and we just happen to be there, on the first page, for the same keyword. Should we try to eliminate our page for this keyword and see what happens? I've checked this article from Rand Fishkin - https://moz.com/blog/impact-of-queries-and-clicks-on-googles-rankings-whiteboard-friday and it seems that CTR is an important factor. However the article is from 2015 and maybe it's no longer relevant. What should we do? Thanks! G86Nge4
Conversion Rate Optimization | | plumrocket11 -
Better Graphic Design-Impact on SEO?
Will improving our site's graphic design but keeping identical structure, tags and text result in better Google? Are lower bounce rates greater time spent on a site by visitors rewarded by Google n the form of higher ranking? We are a commercial real estate brokerage firm in Manhattan and plan on making the following changes: -Much larger photos for listings
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Kingalan1
-Lighter cleaner design with more open white areas
-Use of more visible fonts
-Better forms
-Potentially less text and more emphasis on product, which in our case are real estate listints. Our existing site: w w w . m e t r o - m a n h a t t a n . com is a bit ordinary and uninviting. The redesign will have a concept similar to
http://www.dernieretage-paris.com/
The theme behind this real estate site is the city itself, which is quite clever and applicable to Manhattan. Our home page as well as other URLs use lots of text. If we reduce text and use more images to make the pages more engaging, will our organic ranking decline? If we reduce text can we compensate by fuller completion of meta tags? Any thoughts???0 -
Individual statistics (not aggregated) for 'local pack' and 'organic search results' when both on the same page
Hi, For a particular keyword combination we show up on the local pack but also on the organic search results on the 1st page. I have never been able to find out what the CTR, #clicks, conversions for this two different kinds of positions are individually. The aggregate figures I can find out in Google Search Console / Analytics, but I would like to know on an individual level as I am testing out different things. With the statistics on Google My Business I can't get along actually...no CTR as far as i know. Any hint? Cheers, Cesare
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Cesare.Marchetti1 -
Web Overlays - Region Specific Offers - SEO Implemention & Considerations
Hi all, I'm currently considering implementing some overlays on a site. They're likely to be time-specific (so running only on certain hours and days), visitors will only see it once and content will also be slightly different based upon the region of the visitor (US, Non-US). They will be marketing-based messages tailored to the visitor based on where they are visiting from, I was thinking about putting the content of the overlay in an <iframe>and blocking it from being crawled/indexed by bots.<br /><br />Would this approach set-off any alarms with Google in terms of cloaking or any other nasty things? To clarify, they'll be as unobtrusive as possible to the visitor.<br /><br />Based on the above approach, bots will see that an iframe is being called, but with more or less no content - would this be a problem too?<br /><br />Another approach i thought about would be to dynamically serve different images based on the region...<br /><br />Lastly, assuming correct and safe implementation from a technical perspective, as a generality, have people seen better results from capturing exit traffic, timed overlays or when people first land?<br />Any advice appreciated!</p></iframe>
Conversion Rate Optimization | | ElNino0 -
Rich Snippets on service pages and how to aggregate?
Question about rich snippets.. I want to showcase reviews of the SERVICE's offered but I am not sure if I should include them on the service page, a review page or both. For example, we offer snow plowing and lawn care services and each service has its own page. I have reviews for both services under the my "testimonials" page. So, a couple questions. 1 - Should I pace a single review marked up on each service page? 2 - Does the review need to be a google review or can I use reviews from other sites? If not, do I need to notate that somehow using the schema vocabulary? Example, I have a 5 star review from thumbtrackDOTcom, is it ok to mark up the review and include a nofollow link? (No follow because thumbtrack is actually a competitor.) 3 - When I looked into creating an aggregate rich snippet I got confused / concerned. Is it ok to list multiple services as a product? Example: <div< span="">itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Product"> <span< span="">itemprop="name">Lawn Care and Snow Removal</span<> <div< span="">itemprop="aggregateRating" itemscopeitemtype="http://schema.org/AggregateRating">
Conversion Rate Optimization | | dwallner
Rated <span< span=""> itemprop="ratingValue">4.5</span<>/5
based on <span< span=""> itemprop="reviewCount">4</span<> customer reviews</div></div<></div<> 4 - When I tested the code above, no stars showed up in the preview. Do I need to mark up products as well? Am I doing it completely wrong 🙂 Thanks for any advice!!0 -
Page URL - Hyphens or Underscores?
What's better for SEO and why? (any references would be greatly appreciated) For the purpose of a URL of a page is it better to use: Hyphens Underscores Would hyphens or underscores be better for Google Adwords?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | HMCOE0 -
What company/person do you recommend for improving conversion rates on landing pages?
Hello! I'm looking for specific recommendations of companies with whom you have been "Tickled pink at fantastic conversion improvement results!" I'm the customer for this service. 🙂 I seek a page-level review of a specific area of my site. I'm looking for output of specific recommendations for improving conversion rates. I want to avoid paying for a "generic best practices report" with one or two ideas for my site sprinkled in. I realize that I will be called to complete proper input into the process. I am ready to do my share with the level of detail required. So, if you have an enthusiastic recommendation, please share. Details are appreciated. Most important, please tell me why this company made you very happy. I sincerely look forward to SEOMozzer input. Thank you kindly, Loren
Conversion Rate Optimization | | groovykarma0 -
Ideal product page conversion/retention rate for eCommerce sites
Hi SEOmoz-ers, I was wondering if anyone has data regarding product page abandonment rate (% of potential customers that leave the site after seeing product pages) for websites like Overstock, REI or Zappos? As you may know the above mentioned sites do an exceptional job with product pages. It would be helpful to know what some of the leaders in this space are achieving in terms of conversion rate. What is your personal opinion about this? Thanks,
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Kush_VMI
Kush0