Title Tag - Best Practices
-
I'm pretty new to seo but think I'm starting to get a decent grasp on it. One thing I'm really struggling with is how to organize the meta title tags on my website. I work in real estate and I'm noticing a lot of my local competitors that are ranking for the top keywords seem to using that particular keyword on every title tag within their website.
An example would be www.paranych.com. Many of his internal pages have the word "Edmonton Real Estate" in the meta title tag, yet his home page is the page that is ranking for that particular keyword. It doesn't seem logical to have every one of my pages featuring the same keyword, but there are many examples within my industry of this working.
Is the best practice with meta title tags to have your keyword on every title tag of your site or just the home page?
Thx, Barry
-
This may be that they do not know better or have limited resources. It doesn't matter what a competitor is doing as you can always do better.
More than often the reason is because that is the default value for their meta tags.
Meta descriptions and meta tags in general are for as you would say it "sales pitch". Meta data holds little to no weight in ranking as mentioned before.
-
A lot of SEO clients we have are real estate agencies. We always recommend that you diversify this information so as not to canibalize your own keywords. We generally suggest location (such as Edmonton) and then other top keywords for your area, usually stuff like
Edmonton Real Estate
Edmonton Homes for Sale
Edmonton Property Listings
etc.
We also suggest that you really take advantage of specific location searches, so if you have a property listing page in a specific area, it is a good idea to include the zip code. This is where keyword data provided usually fails and you need an intimate knowledge of your area/industry because people often perform searches based on yard signs they have seen - and there will be no keyword data for this.
-
I do realize that the meta description is more of your sales pitch that shows up in the serps but am still curious why my competition would use the same keyword in all of their title tags. Would this not diminish your ability the ability to rank on that keyword?
-
There is <title>which is important both for ranking and is the headline used in the serps and then there is the <meta name="description" title="title that is display below the title in the serps"/> this is not a factor in the ranking algo, but is important as a creative.</p></title>
-
Yes, my answer was assuming yo uare talking about meta title tag.
-
Hi William, I am referring to the meta title tag. Sorry if that confused your answer. Would you answer be the same knowing this information?
-
This happens often because a lot of platforms that sites run don't allow you to manipulate every single page. It is sometimes automated.
However, most sites allow you to pick from pages and posts, which is usually what is most important. Best practice title tags are generally to create a good CTR. Title tags have really little to no weight on SEO.
Meta tags are more for CTR and attracting the right user.
Let's say you have evaluations of real estate, you target is not to sell real estate but to provide reviews. You would gear your meta tags towards evaluations and reviews and not buy and sell. Attracting the right user will give you better numbers and actual conversions. You don't want someone visiting your site if they have no chance of converting in the first place anyway.
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
-
Mass Change of Title Tags
Hi All, Does anyone have insight on any repercussions from Google if many title tags are changed at once on a site (we're talking 500 to several thousand)? Appreciate any input. Thanks!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | AliMac260 -
Site Scraping and Canonical Tags
Hi, So I recently found a site (actually just one page) that has scraped my homepage. All the links to my site have been removed except the canonical tag, should this be disavowed through WMT or reported through WMT's Spam Report? Thanks in advance for any feedback.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | APFM0 -
Alt tag best practices for a mutli gallery site with hundreds of images
I have neglected to add alt tags to one of my sites, and am ready to tackle the project. I want to make sure I do not do something that will have a negative impact on rankings....and I have not been able to find info that fits my situation. The pics are all about a product I make and sell through the site. I have a free gallery section that has about 10 galleries with about 20 pics each. Each gallery page has a different model and/or context of how the product. might be used. These are not sales pages directly just thumbnail galleries linked to larger images for the viewers enjoyment. I have 10 or so keyword phrases that would be good to use, with the intent to start getting listed in google images and other rank enhancements. Can I choose one keyword phrase as my alt tag choice for a whole gallery and give each individual large pic in the gallery that same alt tag, And use a different phrase for the next gallery's pics etc.? Or is that thought of as stuffing, and I would have to come up with a different keyword phrase for each pic? I hope that makes sense. Thanks Galen
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Tetruss0 -
Would having a + plus sign between keywords in meta title have an effect on SEO?
I have seen one of my clients' competitors do this in their meta title and it got me a little intrigued... I understand that google uses the + sign as an operator in adwords, and to a certain extent, as a search tool, but would it help or make any difference to the SEO in the meta title/data (eg. 'SEO+Marketing+Services')? Thanks
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | LexisClick10 -
Best Website Security Service
Having been hacked twice and, it seems, still suffering from problems as a result (file changes and alterations, etc) I'm wondering if there is a good paid service that provides security for websites? I'm an online travel agent so our websites "up-time" and search engine position is vital but I'm spending more time trying sort out our websites' security than selling travel. It would be sensible to pay for a service that would ensure, as much as possible, that our site is secure and any optimisation we do is not cancelled out by hacking and security problems. If anyone could recommend a good company I would be very grateful. Colin
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | NileCruises0 -
Geotag city different from postal address. Can I mention both cities together in title tags?
This boundary thing seems to be haunting me at the mo. Oh what I'd give for somewhere within a defined boundary! Anyway, just noticed a client has one city in its official postal address, and another city under its geotag. So I'm looking at the title tags and I'm thinking of mentioning both cities on the main entry pages (6 of them) then dividing mention in sub pages. Is this acceptable to Google? Might they see mention of both cities in homepage title tag (and other entry pages) as spammy. I don't want to upset Google!!! PS. Both cities are core markets. I would say they're of equal importance in terms of current business bookings and business potential.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | McTaggart0 -
Best use of domains with keywords
I own a domain with just the company name in it (no keywords) that I use as main domain. I also own some other domain with keywords inside that right now I redirect all to the main domain with a 301 redirect. What is the best use for these domains? Should I use them when I do link building or is better to use just the main domain? Can they be useful to increase the main domain link juice/page rank? If yes, how? Thanks
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | darkanweb0 -
Retail Site and Internal Linking Best Practices
I am in the process of recreating my company's website and, in addition to the normal retail pages, we are adding a "learn" section with user manuals, reviews, manufacturer info, etc. etc. It's going to be a lot of content and there will be linking to these "learn" pages from both products and other "learn" pages. I read on a SEOmoz blog post that too much internal linking with optimized anchor text can trigger down-rankings from Google as a penalty. Well, we're talking about having 6-8 links to "learn" pages from product pages and interlinking many times within the "learn" pages like Wikipedia does. And I figured they would all have optimized text because I think that is usually best for the end user (I personally like to know that I am clicking on "A Review of the Samsung XRK1234" rather than just "A Review of Televisions"). What is best practice for this? Is there a suggested limit to the number of links or how many of them should have optimized text for a retail site with thousands of products? Any help is greatly appreciated!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Marketing.SCG0