Best title tag structure?
-
Hi,
In the below example, which one do you think would work best if any.
The website is called greatshoes.co.uk (fictitious)
The category is 'work shoes'
and a page under this cat is lets say 'Size 9 work shoes'
I tend to build my title tags like this:
size 9 work shoes, cheap size 9 work shoes | greatshoes.co.uk
BUT I have read on here it should be more like this:
size 9 work shoes < work shoes | greatshoes.co.uk
Does anyone think it would make a difference when targeting for the term 'size 9 work shoes' which title tag I use.
Cheers
-
This thread is over a year old. I'd actually suggest starting a new question, as it will get more visibility. Thanks!
-
Is there any value in adding semantically similar words in the title tag? For instance, I have an alcohol rehab website www.alcohol-rehab.ltd.uk, I offer local search pages too.
Would the title tag "Alcohol Rehab Bedfordshire | Alcoholic Rehabilitation Clinics Beds" Be more valuable than "Alcohol Rehab Clinics Bedfordshire | www.alcohol-rehab.ltd.uk"
And is is worth wile having the url in each title tag?
Also is it worth while (seo wise) writing a description tag for each page, other than for a call to action that is?
-
Title tags are important not only for SEO but also for CTR. Google doesn't care which order you put your keywords nor give any weight to repeats. As far as I am aware their is some advantage to having your main keywords at start of title tag, otherwise write a title tag attractive to humans. eg Cheap Size 9 Work shoes | greatshoes.co.uk. From this Google will extract cheap shoes, size 9 shoes, cheap work shoes are give your site relevance when any combination of these words is the search term. (The title doesn't have to include the url though is no harm for branding. Another closely linked point not to be overlooked is your meta description)
-
cabbagetoe is right, and so is Ryan:
Repeating the keywork fraces too many times will seem spammy. Personally I would go for something like:
size 9 work shoes | buy cheap work shoes at greatshoes.co.uk
or
buy cheap work shoes | greatshoes.co.uk | size 9 work shoes
all depending on if the brand name is vital. it's kinda trial and error what will work for one site might not work for another. And note that I included a call to action in the title.
Whether u use | - _ or whatever in you title will have the same effect in google. It will ignore them. you could for that matter use a . or a , whatever you chose just bare in mind that you need to make the title easy to read for the end consumer. And you should modify the page title and experiement to find out what generates the most clicks. If you notice your bounce rate jump but and your CTR do the same, then you have a title that generates allot of clicks but the content on the page isn't what the consumer expects or it a bad design or... (could be a gazillion things.)
What I'm trying to say is that there is not one winning strategy, you need to experiment and find out what works for you. -
You are correct. You would not rank as well for "cheap size 9 work shoes" if you did not include the term "cheap" in the title.
-
How about adding a call to action or site slogan in the title tag to increase the CTR?
-
Ok, im not completely clued up on the microdata front, from what I read it helps to break things up a little so indicate product titles, images, links etc.
So im guessing your saying use microdata on the breadcrumb attributes but I didnt think Google would rank for a term without it being in the title.
So 'cheap size 9 work shoes' would not show my result unless it existed in the title tag but if your saying yes you can im guessing it would not rank anywhere near as well as it being in the title tag.
Thanks for responses.
-
Have you considered alternate titles? It seems a little spammy to have the same text repeat itself in the title.
I would prefer "size 9 work shoes | greatshoes.co.uk" for the title. It doesn't include the term "cheap" but you can include that in your meta description. If you use breadcrumbs with HTML5 microdata then your breadcrumb with your categories will appear in SERPs as well. If you find an Amazon result you will see how that works.
-
I tend to use the pipe as the delimiter, but the arrow could work as well. I think that once you get the need SEO information in your title tag (which you do) the next step is to think about usability on the SERPs. I think the second example is more intuitive and visually catching to the eye which can draw you some extra clicks in itself.
Part of the SEO battle is that once you are on the SERPs, what little things can you do to capture the user's attention. I think your second example does that better than the first.
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
-
Benefits of having a Title-Tag that fits on the SERP
Has anyone seen any case studies that show that title-tags that fit on the page (http://moz.com/blog/new-title-tag-guidelines-preview-tool) have a higher ctr than title-tags that don't fit? I know it's been said that keywords past the pixel limit still matter but if there's a major benefit to ctr for title-tags that fit....Any thoughts?
On-Page Optimization | | GSO0 -
Same titles in Webmasters' tools
Hello, In webmasters' tools I get a message saying I have 505 pages html improvements that are possible because 505 of my titles are used on two pages. Actually, webmasters' tools is tripping since the doubles they find are: www.example.com and www.example.com/ Anyways, I have indexation problems and I was wondering if this could be the case and how to solve that. Thanks for your help;
On-Page Optimization | | EndeR-0 -
Best Way to Use Date in Title
Hi, I do most of the current copy for our blog which you can find here http://appointedd.com/blog/ I believe having a regular blog structure with a mix of irregular ad hoc posts to go in around these. So, for this blog, I write an article on "Beauty Industry News" every week. Now, I don't want to use the same title for each post, so I've peen butting in the date after each one i.e. "Beauty Industry News - 24/04/13". Is this best practice or is there a better way of naming regular posts? Thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | LeahHutcheon0 -
How should I rephrase these pages to avoid Phrase duplication within Title Tags
How should I rephrase these pages to avoid Phrase duplication within Title Tags Duplicate Page Title Page1-http://organicfruitbasketsflorist.com/index-2.html Page2- http://organicfruitbasketsflorist.com/Fruit_Baskets_Organic_Fruit_Baskets_New_York_NY.html Page3- http://organicfruitbasketsflorist.com/Fruit_Baskets_Edible_Fruit_Baskets_New_York_NY.html Page4organicfruitbasketsflorist.com/Fruit_Baskets_Business_Fruit_Baskets_New_York_NY.html Page5-http://organicfruitbasketsflorist.com/Fruit_Baskets_Fresh_Flowers_Delivered_New_York_NY.html Page6-http://organicfruitbasketsflorist.com/Coupons.htmlAmi
On-Page Optimization | | amydiamond0 -
Google Results Title Tag HELP
Can anybody tell us why Google changes your title tag in the SERP? If you check out the below link or type in 'days inn', you will see the 2nd result for www.daysinnrc.co.uk just says 'Days Inn' but on the actual site the title tag for this page is 'Days Inn UK | Days Inn | Daysinnrc.co.uk' http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=days+inn&oq=days+inn&gs_l=hp.3...4110.4110.4.4297.1.1.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0...0.0...1c.1.kWVC24EnCHE&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=7680231318a44bb0&bpcl=35466521&biw=1920&bih=934 This has happened with another site too, does anybody know why? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | SEOwins0 -
Page Title
My website was hacked last November and then again last week. Prior to the hacking we were at number one in Google.co.uk for our main search term "nile cruises' for years. After last November's hacking we dropped to about position 4 and after last week we are at position 7. Ima rebuilding the lost data and I am having to create new Title and Description meta data for each of the indexed pages. I am taking the opportunity to try and ensure my titles and descriptions are good and the correct length, etc but wondered about the best title format. I set our home page title over the weekend as: Nile Cruise | Leading ABTA & ATOL Bonded UK Nile Cruise Specialist I was going to try and cover 3 keyphrases in the title like this: Nile Cruise | Nile Cruises | Nile Cruise Bargains But I thought that might look a bit spammy because the 3 phrases are very similar. I wondered what anyone else might suggest? Thanks, Colin
On-Page Optimization | | NileCruises0 -
Alt tag matching product titles - e-commerce
Hey all, Just wondering if it is ok to match the alt tag to product titles. Imagine an e-commerce site that lists a whole lot of products on any one page for any one category. Each product listing has a thumbnail image beside it. The easiest way to implement this dynamically is to use the product title for the alt tag. Anyone had any experience with this? Is it overkill / spam of keywords - given that the product title is repeated. Our current situation is that our alt tags are simply blank or say 'photo' which is no good, and we have hundreds of thousands of pages. Cheers, Croozie
On-Page Optimization | | sichristie0 -
Opinions on Alt tags
Reading around the web, there are many sources that suggest all images should have an Alt tag attributed to them. This is good for accessibility etc, however there appears to be conflicting interests between this and what works for SEO. Hence many other sources suggest that you include a keyphrase or two in 1 image Alt tag, and then leave the rest blank so as not to dilute the alts on the page. In my experience, the latter appears to be true. However this seems wrong when the Alt attribute really should be used for accessibility reasons and not for SEO - why would the search engines encourage us to provide poorer quality information by harming our rankings if we try to make a website accessible? Interested to hear your opinions and experiences on this subject. Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | RiceMedia0