Should title contain the term Top 10?
-
One of my clients' run a hyperlocal marketplace (have different pages for each city) to hire music teachers. Should the title be "Hire Violin Teachers, Tutors from Boston"? or "Top 10 Violin Teachers of Boston".
I prefer former title as it has 2 keywords - "violin teachers", "violin tutors" than latter. But my client argues that "Top 10" has a strong affinity to attract users that would increase CTR.
Am I right? or Is he right? and Why?
-
Look at the keyword you are trying to rank for. Perform several searches and see what currently ranks in the SERPs
Two things to look at
- Are you going to look the same or different from everyone else?
If everyone who is ranking right now uses the title "Top 10 Violin Teachers of Boston" then go with something like "Hire Violin Teachers, Tutors from Boston". Likewise, if everyone else uses "Hire Violin Teachers, Tutors from Boston", then go with something like "Top 10 Violin Teachers of Boston" You get the idea. If you want to get clicks, you need to stand out from the rest a bit.
- What is the user really looking for? What is the searcher intent?
Google is big on searcher intent. Forget what you and the owners think. What is the problem that potential students are trying to solve? Have your client go ask a bunch of his students / parents of students. Are they looking for "the best"? Are they looking for "the cheapest"? Are they looking for "the most experienced"? Are they looking for "most experienced with teenagers" etc. Use that with the KW volume to drive your decision.
Here is an example.
Let's say the keywords are "violin teachers Boston". It has good search volume and goal completion rates.
You have the owner talk to clients and find they really looking for Violin instructors with the most experience.
You then see that all the pages in the serp use the listicle approach - top 10 violin teachers in Boston, the best 5 instructors for violins in Boston" etc The results seem to indicate that people are looking for the best/experienced violin teachers in Boston, but the pages that are ranking are trying to fulfill this intent by using a list approach.
Brainstorm with ideas around the keywords "experienced violin teachers in Boston", that don't include lists and try that out. You should now have the basic keywords covered for volume/conversion/ranking purposes, you have searcher intent covered, and you have something that can help you stand out a bit on page 1 among all the other titles. Make sense?
Cheers!
-
Would go with his suggestion, the top 10 keywords will make sure the title is catchier and the keywords for SEO are still in the title with that as well. You could test by looking at your data in Google Search Console if this is working for you or not.
-
That's a good question. I'm not surprised that your client really loves the good ol' "listicle" approach, a la Buzzfeed & the like. The listicle was ~the~ thing to do in 2015/2016, it seems! I almost think that "Violin Teachers, Tutors" seems _kind of, slightly _keyword stuffy. I'd encourage you to instead place one of those two words (teacher vs tutor) in the meta description to make the title tighter & cleaner if you go with your preferred title.
I say this because I try to remember to cater to my searcher/user first & foremost with compelling titles & descriptions, while still giving nods to Google with proper practices. However... When in doubt, consider A/B Testing with your different locations to see which performs best! Good luck!
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
-
Google Website title not showing correctly
Hi Im not sure what triggered this - Page title is showing up as 'Isagenix Australia' while it should be <title>Buy Isagenix with 30 Day money back guarantee & Free Shipping in June</title> Previous title was 'Isagenix Australia - Read Isagenix reviews & buy isagenix products' but now it seems to have a mind of its own. Any suggestions would be helpful
On-Page Optimization | | IsaCleanse0 -
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 -
A popular page has gone out of the top fifty what have i done wrong
Hi, we have a very popular page http://www.in2town.co.uk/Gastric-Band-Hypnotherapy and it has always done well with our readers as well as ranking with google. we were on the first page for a long time and then in january we dropped to the top of the second page in google and now we are not in the top fifty. Have i done something wrong with this page, is it under optimized. Basically i have not really thought about optimizing the page, i have always just had articles on their and having the intro with the links, i am not sure if i should just have the links on there without the intro. The keyword we have is gastric band hypnotherapy and i would have thought with all the content we have on the subject the page would still do well. It seems something is really wrong, not sure if i have to many articles on the page or not. any advice would be great.
On-Page Optimization | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Why am I not in Top 50?
I have an on-page ranking report of 'A' for my search term 'titleist pro v1' on the following page: http://www.acegolfballs.com/category/Titleist_Pro_V1___V1x/Pro_V1,i.html How is it then that I am not even found in the top 50 results? Many thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | yowossup0 -
Title tag for category page
I’d love some clarification on what would be the best title tag for a shopping category page. The category page is “prams” , the brand is Baby Huddle and the top keywords in order of importance are pushchairs, strollers and buggies. Here are the options I suggest: Buy Prams | Pushchairs, Strollers, Buggies | Baby Huddle Buy the best prams, pushchairs, strollers and buggies on Baby Huddle Buy prams with free delivery and great prices on Baby Huddle
On-Page Optimization | | walidalsaqqaf0 -
SEO Titles and Keyword Density
Hey guys, I'm doing some on page SEO for a few clients and I've always wondered about this question. I have read tons of articles on the perfect <title>tag, but they don't often mention this.</p> <p>So my titles, like most others follow this format:</p> <p>Keyword 1 | Keyword 2 - Company</p> <p>So say for example I am trying to rank for 'life insurance' and 'life insurance quote' for 'axa sunlife'.</p> <p>It's my assumption that the title should be:</p> <p>Life Insurance Quote - Axa Sunlife</p> <p>rather than:</p> <p>Life Insurance | Life Insurance Quote - Axa Sunlife</p> <p>Am I right in thinking that putting it twice has no added value, and could in fact have an adverse effect?</p> <p>Thanks,</p> <p>Lewis.</p> <p> </p></title>
On-Page Optimization | | SEOMyGod0 -
How do you see a list of URLs with duplicate page titles?
When looking at the Duplicate Page Title report, the Other URLs column has various numbers that presumably indicate the number of pages that share the same title. When I click on one of these numbers, say a URL that shows 4 in that column, the next page reports "No sample duplicate URLs to report". Why isn't it showing me the other 3 URLs with the same page title?
On-Page Optimization | | jkenyon0 -
Include the company/domain name in page titles and urls?
I know this isn't something that I would use site-wide but I'm wondering if it helps or hurts me to use my company name (also my domain name) in pages below the homepage. As an example, let's say I'm Home Depot. In the category pages off the homepage should I use Page names and urls like Home and Garden Supplies or Home and Garden Supplies at Home Depot? Or does it hurt me to reuse my company/domain name on multiple pages?
On-Page Optimization | | kdieruf0