Changing Link Title Tags & Backlinks
-
On 4/19/12 I began changing the link title tags in an effort to further optimize my website. I thought they were excessively long and it would be beneficial to make them more concise. On 4/26/12 my website traffic began to fall drastically and I'm not sure if it is from google's penguin update or from changing the link title tags.
I started looking into the sudden drop of traffic and realized that when I run the site explorer tool on all of the pages I changed, the URL is redirecting. It appears that the backlinks are not passing through to the new URL.
Before I Changed the Link Title Tag:
**After I Changed the Link Title Tag: **
http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=www.beautystoponline.com%2FAndis-Clippers-s%2F102150.htm
So my questions are:
- The above example shows that the old title tag (www.beautystoponline.com/Andis-Professional-Hair-Clippers-s/102150.htm) has 43 backlinks and the new one (www.beautystoponline.com/Andis-Professiona-Hair-Clippers-s/102150.htm) has 0. Will the links eventually be attributed to the new URL.
- I understand that the user will still be directed to my website they click the any of the backlinks, but will the link juice pointing the old URL pass through the new one?
- Would it be better, in the long run, to continue optimizing the link title tags.
-
1. Yes, the link juice will eventually be applied to the new page. This is part of the benefit behind 301 redirect.It sometimes just takes a little time for it to process and show up in reports.
2. The link juice or link equity will eventually pass through to new url once Google has established and indexed the new page. This could take weeks to months.
3. I would continue to optimized on a regular basis. Make sure that after each 301 redirect you also adjust all internal linking to the new page, especially in your sitemaps! Other wise it could get confusing for both visitors and bots.
Hope this helps.
-
Thanks for that, I definitely will make sure to address the internal links. But what about questions 1, 2, and 3. At this point, my main concern are the backlinks that I have accumulated over the past 2 years. Will these apply to the new URL's?
-
Have you updated all internal links from old to new shortened title page? Double check that first then resubmit sitemap to see if you can get re-indexed faster.
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
-
Brand name in title?
Hi all, I have noticed that a lot of companies put there brand/company name at the end of their page title. To me, that seems like a huge sacrifice of your limited 60 characters. Wouldn't it be better to use characters for words that people might actually be searching for?
On-Page Optimization | | RaoulWB0 -
Titles and User Intent
Hi all, Just a question re: Titles. Does adding terms like "buy online" to the title for ecommerce websites change the way Google ranks you? For example: Blue Flowers | Flower Palace Buy Blue Flowers Online | Flower Palace Would the second title appear higher for people in the buying phase of the sales funnel, and lower for people in the research phase of the buying funnel? Or will it not matter?
On-Page Optimization | | Onlineorders0 -
Two links to different page with same link label
What will be the impact in Google if I have two links in the same page pointing to different pages, but with the same label.
On-Page Optimization | | kjerstibakke0 -
Internal Links Catalog (too many links)
I have several car catalogs that I use to direct my customers to the parts for their vehicle. Example:http://www.mikesfuel.com/Acura_c_69.html My customers like the approach. They can easily find their vehicle, then scan the columns for the parts that they need. Each part number is a link and the part numbers are sometimes posted several times in one column. All of the links are internal to the web site. My fear is that this is going to be treated as a link farm. I have considered using a PDF catalog with links, but that is going to be hugely expensive. What do you think? Thanks for any help Mike
On-Page Optimization | | mikescarb0 -
Using Canonical & INDEX, FOLLOW meta tag
I am sort of new to this, and working with an overseas development team on an eCommerce site. I am curious if the Canonical tag will supersede the tag, or if it is best to remove this tag entirely for duplicate product pages?
On-Page Optimization | | BretDarby1 -
Different title tags and meta descriptions for desktop and mobile?
Is it possible to use different title tags and meta descriptions for mobile users? For Example: In the SERP for desktop you'll see the desktop title tags and meta descriptions, but in the SERP for mobile you'll the mobile versions of the webpage.
On-Page Optimization | | alex19780 -
Penalty for Changing Home Page Title Tags
Hey Mozzers I'm certain of the answer to this question, however I wanted to get some input from the experts in Moz-land to hopefully provide some additional perspective. I recently disagree with a client's assertion that there is some penalty Google levels for changing the title tags of your home page. Now, I understand changing the title tags can influence serp rankings, however, is anyone aware of some penalty Google levels for simply changing the title tags? Most of what I've read and experienced has people changing them all the time without some phantom penalty. It seems to me a problem of correlation = causality, in that people often attribute a drop to an action that may not have actually been the cause. Anyway, if you have any particular insight on this top I would appreciate it greatly. thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | BrandLabs0 -
Wordpress duplicate titles - can't find original title tags
I added new code to rewrite the page titles <title><?php wp_title(''); ?></title> But I can't find the normal title tags in the Header PHP file in editor so I now have duplicate titles tags in the source code This is the code - can't see what else would be titles? This is the website ... http://apexgenerators.co.uk/ <title><?php wp_title(''); ?></title> eFavIcon(); ?> eCSS(); ?> enabled('Theme')) { ?> http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=PT+Sans:400,700,400italic,700italic" />
On-Page Optimization | | lauratagdigital0