How long can your header be in number of characters?
-
hey all, have hear conflicting information on how many characters in the header you are allowed? i've heard 60, 65, and 70??
what are your thoughts?
thanks!!
-
thanks steve!
-
Just a little tip: If you're planning on playing around with differing titles and character lengths, rather than "change, wait for index, google, check, repeat", you could always use something like Photoshop to check:
Take a screenshot of a SERP with a truncated title, add a guide at the trunc point, match the font in Photoshop and type away until you hit the guide.
This way you can play around with a few titles before you go live with any of them.
-
Do you mean meta description or meta keywords?
If meta description, I think it does still have a small benefit to your SEO if optimisted properly, but more importantly the call to action function of it makes it very worth-while. I'd always put a custom one in, rather than let Google/Bing pull one in for me.
As for meta keywords, I think their time has past.
Google says they do not use the tag when deciding where to rank your site. We have to take what Google says with a pinch of salt, but I believe that this is true.
Bing and Yahoo are said to still take the tags into account - although even they admit it's a very small influence to their ranking.
I think why it has been abandoned by many, many sites is because it is a pretty clear give-away to a competitor over what keywords you're trying to target. All they have to do is look at your source code, look at your meta keywords and then they can see what keywords you might be trying to target.
For me, their time has passed and I don't use them at all when working with clients or on new sites. I believe I'm in the majority, but you certainly won't harm your site by using them, provided they are not over-optimised.
-
hey tom, one other question, do you think meta tags are a dinosaur these days?
i still think the search engines peek at them if they are relevant to your content?
thoughts?
-
No problem!
As always, testing things out for yourselves will give the best results, so if you know you have titles nearing the 65-70 length, Google them for yourself to make sure the title is showing up how you like.
-
thanks tom!!!
-
The general rule of thumb is 70 characters (with spaces).
The reason why there is discrepancy is that Google truncates titles on width, not actual character length. A 'W' is wider than a 'd' and so if you were to have 70 'W's, for some strange reason, the title would be shortened earlier.
If you're feel you're using certain "wide" characters in your titles, maybe they reoccur in your brand name (eg Wesley's Wheels), then 65 characters might be a better number to aim for. Other than that, 70 characters is usually fine.
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
-
GSC Performance completely dropped off, but Google Analytics is steady. Why can't GSC track my site anymore?
Hey everyone! I'm having a weird issue that I've never experienced before. For one of my clients, GSC has a complete drop-off in the Performance section. All of the data shows that everything fell flat, or almost completely flat. But in Google Analytics, we have steady results. No huge drop-off in traffic, etc. Do any of you know why GSC would all of a sudden be unable to crawl our site? Or track this data? Let me know what you think!
Algorithm Updates | | TaylorAtVelox
Thanks!2 -
How long does Google indexes the website after algorithm update?
I've noticed that the page ranks for some queries were improved unexpectedly, without any actions from my side. Is it possible that this improvement is connected with with Google algorithm update Sep, 4-5?
Algorithm Updates | | AurigaPR0 -
Can 'Jump link'/'Anchor tag' urls rank in Google for keywords?
E.g. www.website.com/page/#keyword-anchor-text Where the part after the # is a section of the page you can jump to, and the title of that section is a secondary keyword you want the page to rank for?
Algorithm Updates | | rwat0 -
How long for google to de-index old pages on my site?
I launched my redesigned website 4 days ago. I submitted a new site map, as well as submitted it to index in search console (google webmasters). I see that when I google my site, My new open graph settings are coming up correct. Still, a lot of my old site pages are definitely still indexed within google. How long will it take for google to drop off or "de-index" my old pages? Due to the way I restructured my website, a lot of the items are no longer available on my site. This is on purpose. I'm a graphic designer, and with the new change, I removed many old portfolio items, as well as any references to web design since I will no longer offering that service. My site is the following:
Algorithm Updates | | rubennunez
http://studio35design.com0 -
Can a page be 100% topically relevant to a search query?
Today's YouMoz post, Accidental SEO Tests: When On-Page Optimization Ceases to Matter, explores the theory that there is an on-page optimization saturation point, "beyond which further on-page optimization no longer improves your ability to rank" for the keywords/keyword topics you are targeting. In other words, you can optimize your page for search to the point that it is 100% topically relevant to query and intent. Do you believe there exists such a thing as a page that is 100% topically relevant? What are your thoughts regarding there being an on-page optimization saturation point, beyond which further on-page optimization no longer improves your ability to rank? Let's discuss!
Algorithm Updates | | Christy-Correll1 -
Does Google ACTUALLY ding you for having long Meta Titles? Or do studies just suggest a lower CTR?
I do SEO in an agency and have many clients. I always get the question, "Will that hurt my SEO?". When it comes to Meta Title and even Meta Description Length, I understand Google will truncate it which may result in a lower CTR, but does it actually hurt your ranking? I see in many cases Google will find keywords within a long meta description and display those and then in other cases it will simply truncate it. Is Google doing whatever they want willy-nilly or is there data behind this? Thank you!
Algorithm Updates | | Bevelwise0 -
Can someone explain a few hopefully simple questions for me please
Hi everyone First off for local seraches I rank very well pretty much all on first page and high up too. I am also attempting to rank well for the search term 'independent mortgage advice' I currently rank third on page 2 for the above search term. I am happy with this progress as the site is only 3 months old. I am UK based, have a .co.uk domain and although my site server is located in Germany (1and1) I have changed the geographical location in webmaster tools. My competitive domain analysis gives me the follwing results: Domain Authority: 14 Domain MozRank: 2.44 Total Links: 110 Ext. Followed Links: 19 Linking root Domains: 13 Followed Linking Root Domains:9 Linking C-Blocks: 8 Compared to my competitors around me these figures are terrible so why am I doing relatively well and how can I increase some of these figures such as Domain Authority & Domain Mozrank? The page I'm referring to is http://www.keystonemortgages.co.uk I am a novice so please don't mind calling me a numpty if it appears obvious to you Jason PS is it frowned upon to post links with title keywords here?
Algorithm Updates | | JasonHegarty0 -
Can I check the rank of a keyword over time ?
Is there any tools available that allows users to track ranking of a keyword in SERP over time ? I know the question can be a bit confusing so here is an example that I hope makes it a bit easier to understand EXAMPLE : I am doing keyword research for say "iphones games" and I find out the current sites that rank for the term but If I want to see who ranked for the term 6 months ago or 1 year ago, is it possible ? Also can I get data of the SERP ranking history for "example.com" for the term "iphones games" ? eg : in jan 2011 rank 10 feb 2011 rank 7 ... sep 2011 rank 5
Algorithm Updates | | avant_seomoz0