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
-
Photos or Video Best for Landing Pages?
My real estate brokerage firm is promoting a listing via advertising on LinkedIn. The advertising links to a landing page: http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/MidtownLawOfficeSublet3300SFBelowMarket Rather than photos, the landing page has a 1 minute video. So far we have had about 10 visits to the page. Visitors leave the landing page after a few seconds. So they are not looking at the video. Would it be better to replace the video with photos? Or is engagement generally better with video? My thinking is that business owners may not have the patience or the time for a video and they would more likely have the time and willingness to click on photos. I would be willing to test this further, but at $5/click it could get costly! Any thoughts?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Kingalan1
Thanks,
Alan Rosinsky1 -
Overlay / modal for product pages - bad or good for SEO?
Hi all, I am considering using full overlays/modals for an e-commerce site for all our product pages (category/listing pages will be "normal", the product page will come over the listing page as an overlay/modal when you click on the product). Those “product overlays” will also be accessible directly with own URL (if need to be linked to for ex.). All the literature I find out there treats overlays and modals as “marketing” ones (ads, sign-ups, etc.) and is generally critical to overlays when it comes to SEO, while also saying that an overlay that has to do with good UX should not hurt the SEO of our site. What do you think? Will all product pages as overlays be considered as good UX by the search engines and therefore not be negatively impacted, SEO speaking? Or should we stay clear of overlays and create “normal” product pages? Thanks in advance! Arnaud NB: The reason we want to create those overlays are for design and UX purposes, and try to increase our conversion rate.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Arnaud_Fo0 -
Better Conversions with Java Script Pop Up Form or with Independent Page (URL)?
Greetings MOZ Community? I manage a commercial real estate site (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com). Visitors view listings (for example:http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/listings/303-broadway-building-office-sublet-11189sf). If they want more details they click on the "Interested In This Space, Contact a Broker" button. They get directed to a contact us form like: http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/contact-us?from_listing=303-broadway-building-office-sublet-11189sf We are redesigning this form. Remove much of the text and allowing the visitor to check questions pertaining to the property, like "Schedule a Tour", "Get Floorplans", "Details on Similar Space'. Currently this conversion form is on its own URL, and as such has menus on top, which I am concerned could distract the visitor. Would we get better conversions if this form was a Java script pop up with no menus. That way there would be no distraction for the visitor and we would have a better chance of converting them. Any thoughts? Also, we are using Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics to track conversions. Would changing to a Java Script pop up form have any implications for tracking? Thanks everyone!!! Alan
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Kingalan10 -
Which rich snippet is better for SEO ?
Hello guys, I have rich snippet on my blog, actually I have 2 kinds of them... rating star and authorship... both of them apears on google when my site appears on the results... BUT.... just one of them by time. I notice that when someone rating one of my blog post, then in the google results for that post, It will show the stars and not the face of author and vice versa.. So I would like to know about your experience, wich one is better for seo and gain clicks, authorship or star rating ?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | lans27870 -
Optimising /product/ pages for our 15,000 product ecommerce store.
Hi guys! We're constantly working on evolving our /product/ pages on the site, however some times it's pretty easy to get lost in your own mess. Especially when the sites consists of 15,000+ products. So it's pretty painful to handcraft every single page. So I thought I'd jump in here to see if anyone had any suggestions for stuff we're missing, and or should improve? These are product pages: http://www.warcom.com.au/products/9954_draytek-vigor-120-single-port-adsl-122-modem http://www.warcom.com.au/products/49884_warcom-deluxe-double-lcd-monitor-stand---free-shipping There is a few issues we're aware of already.. Negatives: To many links in the left menus. To many links in the footer. Positives: We recently included rich snippets.. We're always testing out colors and styles. We're always testing meta data. Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | warcom
Paul.0 -
How to track full path of website visitors until conversion, not just landing page?
hi, This is my first question in the forums and I'm looking forward to be part of a great SEO community. I was wondering ow to track full path of website visitors until conversion, not just landing page? I've been using Wordpress jetpack site stats for while, which shows great data like keywords used in google, landing page etc. But I would like to have access to the full path for each separate visitors (including their IP address and country is possible) to improve my website and conversions. Example: step 1: Visitor X types "seo" on Google step 2: visitor lands on my homepage step 3: visitor visits to order page and buys Is there such tool available as a Wordpress plugin? Or do I have to use Google analytics for this? thank you for your help, Marc
Conversion Rate Optimization | | marcandre0 -
Google Analytics e-commerce tracking on multiple pages
Hi, I work in the airline industry and we are trying to implement Google analytics on our site. We are at the stage of getting e-commerce tracking setup. The problem we face is that we have multiple receipt pages (booking confirmation pages in our case) instead of just one as most carts would have. These are completely independent of each other. My question is can I use the same e-commerce tracking code on each page or do I need to setup multiple trackers. I reviewed the documentation here: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/ecommerce#multitracker however I'm unsure if multiple trackers are needed when using it on multiple pages or is this just for multiple trackers on the same booking confirmation page. any help on this would be greatly appreciated
Conversion Rate Optimization | | aerlingus0 -
Mile long pages with calls to action
Do these mile-long pages with a call to action at the bottom really produce more conversions? For example, see http://www.keywordelite.com/. Has anyone A/B tested this format vs. breaking up the content into tabs or some other format with multiple pages? Personally, these turn me off as they seem disorganized, they take forever to read, and they always sound like scams.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | john4math0