Interesting. Thanks for sharing that.

As far as the user experience goes I think you're right. I've seen some horrible examples and personally I'd avoid using them. I think you have to ask yourself what the actual benefit to the visitor is and be realistic about your answer.

The quicker you can get the information the visitor is looking for in front of them the better.

Even if you think it's the way to go It's definably worth testing to make sure you're not throwing away conversions and killing your visitor engagement.

I'm not sure how it would harm your long tail after all, the content is still there and indexed?

Don't think the space makes any difference. Take a look at this old article from google:

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/using-robots-meta-tag.html

"If you have multiple content values, you must place a comma between them, but it doesn't matter if you also include spaces. So the following meta tags are interpreted the same way:

"

You shouldn't have a problem. Google will be able to index the page just fine. Using Javascript and CSS to hide/reveal content like this is not a problem.

If you do have concerns that google might not be able to see part of a page you can always used the fetch as googlebot option in Google Webmaster Tools. (it's under Health), Once the page has been fetched you can click on the Fetch Status (normally "Success") and see the html that google saw.

In this specific case it's really not a problem for Google.

Best practice is great starting point, but you need to work out what works for your audience, your offerings and your business.

For instance, having a call to action in your title can make a positive difference ("find" is a bit generic, but things like save, download the guide, buy now, etc can work, if it connects with the searchers intent.)

Luckily page titles are pretty easy to test - you'll need to keep an eye on your rankings and traffic and measure click-throughs for a suitable period depending on the search volume and taking into account any seasonality etc. As well as the traffic you receive, also look at the conversion rate too - especially important if you're testing for intent.

You can always tried a couple of variations in Adwords to see how they perform, especially for you more important keywords / pages.

The approach you take regarding your titles also depends on the type of page, the nature of the business, your specific business goals, the strength of your brand etc.

Take a good look at the other sites appearing in the SERPS and the titles/descriptions they're using. Put yourself in the place of your audience and try to see what's going to work and what isn't and how you might be able to differentiate your page from the rest.

Also remember that titles have to work in conjunction with the description. While the description isn't used for ranking, it can take some of the load of the title when it comes to supporting click-throughs.

Another point to consider is that Titles aren't just used in search engine results, but also when the page is shared / linked to etc. Depending on your site, you may want to adopt a slightly different strategy for your blog content than you use on a product catalogue for instance.

While you obviously want to get your keywords into your title, and the general wisdom is the nearer the front, the better but it's not the whole story.

As well as optimising your titles for keyword relevancy/rankings you should also consider optimising for click-through.

The page title and the description used in the snippet in the search results are likely to be the first thing your visitors/customers are likely to see and if nobody is clicking on your entry in the search results it doesn't matter where you rank.

Think of your snippet as a small-ad or adwords snippet. It's got to provide a compelling reason for someone to click on your link. Can you find a way to differentiate yourself from your competitors and stand out? Can you do anything to give people confidence that they're going to find what they are after if they click on your link.

A well written title can punch above it's weight in the search results. (Like wise, a bad , un-engaging or spammy looking title can undermine your efforts.)

Also remember that your page may also rank for keywords that you're not optimising for, these may be long tail keywords with higher intent than the more generic keywords so make sure you look at the keywords sending traffic to each landing page (even low volumes) and look for themes/topics/intent you can optimise your pages around.

If you're targeting multiple locations (Photographers miami and photographers orlando for instance) then you'll need to make sure you avoid duplicate/thin content. How can you make these pages relevant to that location...

Think about the intent and commerciality when considering your keywords. If I'm searching for "photographers in orlando" am I looking for camera equipment or am I more likely to be looking for a photographer to take my picture and if this is the case - why would I want to buy any camera equipment!

It is confusing and it's something I was wondering when I first saw the Matt Cutts, Feb 2013 video. From what Matt says:

• We know that a link won't pass all the page rank. Some page rank disipates over each link.
• the amount of page rank that dissipates though a 301 is identical to the amount that passes through a link.

But, I guess the problem with understanding this is that you can't take 301s and links and consider them in isolation. It's not an either/or.

Consider the following:

1. Page 1 -[link to]-> Page 2

Nice and simple, page 2 gets it's full entitlement of page rank ( taking into account share/link and dissipation)

2. Page 1 -[link to]-> 301 -> Page 3

Now I've got an extra step. Does this mean that the page rank that Page 3 inherits is affected by both the link and then the 301? Does the page rank dissipation happen twice?

If, say 50% (not real numbers!) of page rank value is lost for each link/301, then the original link to the 301 would lose %50 and the 301 would lose the same, (50% of the 50%) which means that page 3 get's just 25%

What if I end up in the horrible situation of having

3. Page 1 -[link to]-> 301 -> 301 -> 301 -> Page 3

Does page rank decay happen on every redirect?

Personally, I've only used redirects where necessary and, where I can, I've tried to get inbound links updated to point to the correct page.

Slow loading pages (even with a loading animation) can frustrate visitors and cause them to bounce. If people are clicking on your site in the SERPS and then bouncing straight back to the search results again, picking another result, then this could be a signal to google that your site isn't relevant to the searcher..

How big an impact this might have, I don't know.

Do you get much search traffic to this one page site? How many search terms are you getting traffic from? There aren't a lot of words on the page...

From a user experience point of view, it may be worth looking at the impact the loading animation is having on your site. Can you track the bounce rate? (Are you capturing the visit before the page loads?)

Can you find a way to remove the need to have a loading animation? Is it something you can test?

As a side note - your text is unreadable! You might also want to look at what happens when someone visits without javascript enabled, and with css disabled (javascript enabled, using firefox) I can't scroll down the page  - which may indicate some accessibility issues.

There's no absolutely perfect way to prioritise the order to review/update the existing product pages. You've just got to determine which products matter the most to you.

As we've mentioned you want to think about prioritising the products with the most sales, products with the highest margin, new products, hot products (ones that have a social buzz about them!) etc.

You may want to rule out products that are near end of life and will be removed from your catalogue soon or products that have low sales and low margin (think about the ROI of your time/cost)

As for how many you do - you'll need to go with what you're comfortable with. The problem with trying to do too many is that it becomes increasingly hard to create great content the more you do. You're better off writing a few great ones than forcing yourself to churn through loads. You want to sound unique/fresh/natural. Hard to do when you're tired!

When it comes to writing the descriptions, comments/feedback is a good place to find out what really matters to people, the concerns people have, the suitability for a particular audience etc.  (Tip: You don't have to look at the comments on your own site.)

If you've got a great social following, then you may be able to think of an interesting/creative way to utilise that to help you out.

Of course, before you start working your way through the list, make sure you create a checklist/process for adding new products so that the problem doesn't get any worse while you're working your way through!

If the user needs to read the title text to understand the link then you've probably got your anchor text and context wrong. Using them just to get a few additional keywords in your copy isn't going to help and might actually act as a distraction/source of confusion for users...

... and touch screen device users find it hard to hover.

Looking at which products have the highest value to you (margin) is a good place to start, but you also need to consider which products matter most to your customers.

Take a look at which of your products are getting the highest search volume. Can you see why? Is it the uniqueness of the product, the great product descriptions capturing long tail traffic or a lack of competition in the market place?

Which of your product pages are are actually generating sales? Can you establish why? Are there opportunities to up sell your higher margin items rather than just a random related items list produced by your ecommerce platform.

The key for me though is understanding your customers. It's a lot easier to build a strategy to reach and attract more customers - once you've established who your customers really are. I've seen many people fall into the trap of thinking that "the internet is their customer".

What are their needs, their motivations? What language does you customer use when talking about your products? A great place to look is at any customer feedback, testimonials and comments etc.

What information do they need when they consider buying your products. Why problems do your products solve. Would how-to guides, frequently asked questions content help attract people who know they have a problem or a need, but don't know what the solution to that problem is?

Even if your products pages face strong competition from other sites, you can still win by becoming the prospects trusted guide/authority earlier on in the buying cycle.

Absolutely agree with EGOLs advice. Don't use manufacturer supplied product descriptions or generic, bland copy uninspiring copy.

Remember you're writing your product descriptions for people and not search engines. As well as attracting the traffic, the descriptions have to sell the product's value/benefits. Don't just list features, tell people why these features matter - what are the benefits to them. Eg: 5 point locking mechanism to ensure the safety of your valuables.

I'd also add some research upfront...

You and your business - What are your business goals and how are you going to measure the success of your campaign. It's not just about the #1 rankings or even the traffic, you'll want to be looking at sales or business leads etc. Once you know what you're trying to achieve you can start to work on a strategic plan to achieve them!

The greatest template in the world isn't going to tell you what your goals are or how to achieve them!

You mention brand, so you'll need to figure out how you'll measure brand influence (searches for your brand and/or direct traffic can be one indicator, as well as mentions of your brand in social) but look at how this branded traffic is converting.

You need to understand the market your operating in and watch out for any seasonal variations or any external factors (economy, competition, policy/law) that may influence your business.

What's your budget and what resources (esp. people) do you have available. Are you going to do this internally, with help from a consultant or with the involvement of an agency.

And you can't forget your customers...

Your Customers - Who are your customers, what are their needs/problems and motivations. What are they trying to do (their intent) when they visit your site. How does this affect their choice of keywords when searching (and remember that the same people with the same problem may use different keywords when they have a different level of awareness of their problem and the solutions that exist. Don't be afraid to talk to existing customers. Discovering the language they use can be enlightening and will help you avoid industry jargon etc.

Your Competitors - You need to take a good look at your competitors, and not just their link metrics. Look at their websites, social, customer services from a customers point of view. Be realistic about their strengths and weaknesses. What are they doing wrong, what are they doing right and how can you beat them!

Your content - What assets / content do you already have that you can exploit. Once you know what your customers goals are, and how they are searching how can you build content that helps them achieve their goals. How can you optimise your content so that you're not covering too many topics on a single page - keep your content specific and relevant.

Make sure you've got your analytics and reporting set up. Make sure you've got your goals set up correctly. You'll need to know how your website is performing today before you start working on your strategic plan. Make sure you're happy segmenting your audience to reveal the different behaviours of these segments and specific opportunities.

Audit your website - Carry out a full audit of your website.There may be some quick fixes/wins that you can easily make straight away. It's important to know if you have any technical problems or limitations that your campaign is going to have to work with.

Here's a good site audit article: http://moz.com/blog/how-to-perform-the-worlds-greatest-seo-audit

There's no point optimising your titles if your pages aren't being indexed!

Planning - When you start looking at the tactical actions you can take, make sure you understand their cost and commitment, the difficulty and likely impact. You'll need to prioritise. I don't know how big your team is, but trying to do everything at the same is likely to be a nightmare, especially if you've got some of the more challenging things to do such as changing the culture of the business to provide more/richer content and increase customer engagement on social platforms etc.

Also make sure you understand any risks. Make sure you're aware of search engines policies and any governance/guidelines you're going to need when you start doing your social outreach. One badly written email,tweet or a poor customer review can undermine months of effort. For the risks you can anticipate, plan a suitable response.

Review - Make sure you set up regular reviews to look at the results of your campaign and evaluate how well your metrics and tactics continue to be relevant to your business goals. Don't be afraid to ditch metrics that don't provide actionable insight and avoid death by metrics! Don't fall into the trap of tracking too much!

Good luck!

Add a benefit, make your titles compelling and give people a reason to click on them - don't make them harder to read!

I'd echo Tom's response. Allowing your content to reported does expose you to risk.

Chances are these outlets have much stronger sites. How much traffic is landing on your blog articles? Is there a likelihood that you might start competing against your own content in the SERPS?

I would look at the the publications concerned and try to understand what matters to their readership, what kind of demographic do they have and then rewrite you articles (or create new content) specifically targeted to their audience.

If you've got a nice library of old blog posts then it might be worth creating an ebook of the very best content and using that as a link building or lean-gen asset.

You might also want to put the form at the appropriate place in the content where asking people to complete the form is the logical next step for them to take.

However, you can never guess sure which combination is going to work best with your product, for your users - any conversion optimiser will tell you that you must test... split test the various positions, the value propositions, the benefits and compelling copy on the button / call to action.