Advice on Title please

[NileCruises]

<y website="" <a="" href="http://www.nile-cruises-4u.co.uk">www.nile-cruises-4u.co.uk was number 1 in Google.co.uk for several years for our main search term "nile cruise" until about 4 months ago when we fell to our current position of 4 or 5.</y>

I am looking at every aspect of optimising the site and wonder if I am using a good enough title for the home page? At the moment it is titled:

Nile Cruise | Nile Cruises | Nile Cruise Bargains

I wonder if I should just call it "Nile Cruise"?

I alreay have a seperat page entitled "Nile Cruise Bargains" and wonder if having that phrase in the homepage title would have any adverse affects?

Earlier this year our site was hacked and we spent 2 weeks with it being unavailable until we had rebuilt and repaired it. After that our position dipped.

We have a Blog going back to 2007 and when we repaired the site the Blog was affected in that although we managed to re-install the hundreds of posts they were without all of the SEO tags and categories, etc, etc.

I've been slowly adding those but there are still hundreds to do. Could this be affecting our page position?

Thanks,

Colin

[NileCruises]

Thanks Keri.

I'll make sure to take off the Links Exchange from the footer.

Colin

[KeriMorgret]

You wouldn't set up reciprocal links, but instead find ways to get more valuable one-way links. The links section of the blog is a good place to look for ideas on getting good links.

[NileCruises]

Regarding the Link Exchange feature which you have suggested getting rid of...if I do that and then try and build links how would I set up reciprocal links?

Colin

[NileCruises]

Thanks very much Eyepaq. That's a great help.

Cheers.

[eyepaq]

Hi Colin,

Yes, that's right.

However keep in mind that the Title tag length is also a factor.

I would keep the new Title tag and track the results: ctr, rankings and then adjust accordantly if needed.

If CTR dosen't change but you drop a few rankings I would cut down from the Title Tag a little.

Remember that it helps for the keyword to be as closest to the beginning as possibile (if it make sense) - in your case looks good and also the size of the Title Tag as far as characters.

Hope it helps.

[NileCruises]

Eyepaq, I've cahnged the Title to "Nile Cruise | 5 Star Luxury Nile Cruise with Full Excursion Programme" which now shows on the blue top line of IExplorer.

Is that where you suggested that a title with something in it (call to actions, etc) might get better CTR's?

Colin

[NileCruises]

Thanks very much Eyepaq for your suggestions.

I hadnt' thought about the spammy aspect of the current title plus the effect of already having a Nile Cruise Bargains page. I'll do as you suggest with the link from that page too.

I'll set to work on getting those posts on the blog set up as they used to be.

Thanks also for the other issues you flagged up. I'll get those sorted asap.

Much appreciated.

Colin

[eyepaq]

Hi,

There are a few issues with the site - some more important then others.

I will list a few bellow and hopefully those ideas will help you get better.

First of all "Nile Cruise | Nile Cruises | Nile Cruise Bargains" as title tag looks kind of spammy. I would just place, like you said the main one, "nile cruise" and add some call to action to increase CTR.

I alreay have a seperat page entitled "Nile Cruise Bargains" and wonder if having that phrase in the homepage title would have any adverse affects?

** That can cause canibalization issues within your site. I would focus on one page and optimize for long tail on the same page if possible.

Try linking from the page "Nile Cruise Bargains" to your home page in a predominant position or you can even set a rel canonical for this page in order to let Google know what page is your main one for that term.

We have a Blog going back to 2007 and when we repaired the site the Blog was affected in that although we managed to re-install the hundreds of posts they were without all of the SEO tags and categories, etc, etc.

** Yap. That can damage you good especially if those pages were linking to your home page.

A few other issues I am seeing:

• you have two head tags in the home page. What's up with that ?

• get rid entirely of the meta keyword tag - on all pages. Dosen't help you.

• get rid of the link exchange area in your footer - for good - that one can really hurt you.

• your main page is lacking freshness. can you add something on a ciclic basis ? Some info about your offers, news about Egipt or anything that will make sense for the user to read in correlation with the nile cruises.

There has been a lot of changes in serps in the last period of time. A lot of links were devaluated - that can also be the reason for your drop - or all those combined.

I would start reviewing the link profile very carefully and only build links that make sense - links that are not spammy in nature.

Dose it make sense ?

Hope it was helpful - at least as a start in your assessment.