Common Title Tag Mistakes

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by jamuna, May 7, 2009.

  1. #1
    Same or similar title text:
    Every page on your site should have a unique <title> tag with the target keywords in it. Many developers make the mistake of having the same or similar title tags throughout the entire site. That's like telling the search engine that EVERY page on your site refers to the same topic and one isn't any more unique than the other.

    One good example of bad Title Tag use would be the default WordPress theme. In case you didn't know, the title tag of the default WordPress theme isn't that useful: Site Name > Blog Archive > Post Title. Why isn't this search engine friendly? Because, every single blog post will have the same text "Site Name > Blog Archive >" at the beginning of the Title Tag. If you really want to include the site name in the title tag, it should be at the end: Post Title | Site Name.

    Exceeding the 65 character limit:
    Many bloggers write very long post titles. So what? In search engine result pages, your title tag is used as the link heading. You have about 65 characters (including spaces) to get your message across or risk it getting cutoff.

    Keyword stuffing the title:
    Another common mistake people tend to make is overfilling the title tag with keywords. Saying the same thing 3 times doesn't make you more relevant. Keyword stuffing in the Title Tag is looked at as search engine spam (not good). But it might be smart to repeat the same word in different ways:

    "Photo Tips & Photography Techniques for Great Pictures" "Photo" and "Photography" are the same word repeated twice but in different ways because your audience might use either one when performing a search query.

    Empty Image Alt Attribute

    You should always describe your image in the alt attribute. The alt attribute is what describes your image to a blind web user. Guess what? Search engines can't see images so your alt attribute is a factor in illustrating what your page is relevant for.

    Hint: Properly describing your images can help your ranking in the image search results. For example, Google image search brings me hundreds of referrals everyday for the search terms "abstract" and "dj".

    Unfriendly URLs

    Most blog or CMS platforms have a friendly URL feature built-in, however, not every blogger is taking advantage of this. Friendly URL's are good for both your human audience and the search engines. The URL is also an important spot where your keywords should appear.

    Example of Friendly URL: domain.com/page-title Example of Dynamic URL: domain.com/?p=12356

    These things are the pillars of Search Engine Optimization and so to your web site's success path.
     
    jamuna, May 7, 2009 IP
  2. markov

    markov Peon

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    #2
    Good points to share.

    Regarding ....Example of Friendly URL: domain.com/page-title Example of Dynamic URL: domain.com/?p=12356, This type of urls are mainly used in wordpress blogs.
     
    markov, May 7, 2009 IP
  3. charona

    charona Peon

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    #3
    For Wordpress you can set title and keywords, but how about the Blogger?
     
    charona, May 8, 2009 IP
  4. Agnel

    Agnel Banned

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    #4
    Nice I agree with all your points
     
    Agnel, May 8, 2009 IP
  5. rksy

    rksy Well-Known Member

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    #5
    Great info on SEO. Thanks for sharing. What do you think about optimizing the description? should we put the same keywords as the title tag in our description?
     
    rksy, May 8, 2009 IP
  6. edgray

    edgray Peon

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    #6
    You should have your keywords & phrases, or slight variations of them in:

    TITLE
    DESCRIPTION
    H1
    FIRST CONTENT PARAGRAPH

    But be careful not to keyword stuff! The description should be legible english. Example:

    TITLE: Company Name | Service 1, Service 2
    DESCRIPTION: Company name provides Service 1 and Service 2 to the such and such an industry at discounted rates.
    H1: Service 1, Service 2 from Company Name
     
    edgray, May 8, 2009 IP
  7. baranbuffet

    baranbuffet Peon

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    #7
    I appreciate your knowledge and i am agree with your all points but could u explain your last point..
     
    baranbuffet, May 8, 2009 IP
  8. mit

    mit Well-Known Member

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    #8
    Keyword stuffing the title is really a big mistake. It can help in short term only but for long term results we should care about it.
     
    mit, May 8, 2009 IP
  9. Grobbulus

    Grobbulus Peon

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    #9
    Thanks for the list.
     
    Grobbulus, May 8, 2009 IP
  10. charona

    charona Peon

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    #10
    For edgray's
    Thanks for that information, I often forget about the H1 and H2 tags
     
    charona, May 8, 2009 IP
  11. chandi786

    chandi786 Peon

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    #11
    I appreciate your knowledge but how about Free Ecommerce Website and Free Ecommerce Template, it does contain the word free and Ecommerce twice, does it come under keywords stuffing category too ?
     
    chandi786, May 8, 2009 IP
  12. sebau

    sebau Peon

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    #12
    In my opinion twice reapeat keyword it is not a problem in title tag - google is smart and know webmasters mistakes, but maybe better way is optimize this.

    Great title is short and the most important word/s are on first position in title tag but of course subpages title must be in "title article - title blog" format and title must have sense.
     
    sebau, May 8, 2009 IP
  13. charona

    charona Peon

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    #13
    I agree with you sebau, I use "title article - title blog" for my blog and many webmaster suggest this format.
     
    charona, May 8, 2009 IP
  14. jimmy03

    jimmy03 Well-Known Member

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    #14
    jimmy03, May 8, 2009 IP
  15. ravont

    ravont Peon

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    #15
    Title tag optimization is very important and have worth in SERP. Actually title give explanation to Google. Title tag tells to search engine what is your site about. 2nd main point ...title is your indexing phrase in search terms, so it should be specific and vise and should be optimize well.
     
    ravont, May 8, 2009 IP
  16. John peterr

    John peterr Peon

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    #16
    Hi,
    really very good information to share with us.its really very useful information for those who want to be a good webmaster
     
    John peterr, May 8, 2009 IP
  17. petes1980

    petes1980 Peon

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    #17
    You mention about search engine friendly URL's. We have a module on our website that converts the product titles or category titles to the URL. However it also adds the category and product ID on too e.g:

    your-product-title-c-1-p-14923.html

    instead of

    your-product-title.html

    Is there a major disadvantage of the first format over the second?
     
    petes1980, May 8, 2009 IP
  18. vinnu

    vinnu Peon

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    #18
    I agree with your all points
     
    vinnu, May 12, 2009 IP
  19. stechweb

    stechweb Active Member

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    #19
    For blogger you can use :

    <title>
    <MainPage>YOUR MAIN PAGE TITLE</MainPage>
    <ArchivePage><blogger>YOUR ARCHIVE PAGE TITLE</blogger></ArchivePage>
    <ItemPage><blogger>YOUR ITEM PAGE TITLE</blogger></ItemPage>
    </title>
     
    stechweb, May 12, 2009 IP
  20. Canonical

    Canonical Well-Known Member

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    #20
    IMO the biggest mistake most people make with <title> is putting their domain name in the <title>. Yeah, it may look cool to see your web site's name "in lights" but including your web site name reduces your ability to rank for the other keyword phrases in the <title> because it reduces the keyword density of those other keywords withing the <title>.

    To make things worse, people tend to include their site name at the begining of the <title>. This tells the search engines that the most important keyword phrases you want the page to rank for is web site name. Terrible IMO. If you're going to make the mistake of including your site name in the <title> at LEAST put it at the end.

    I think SEOs are doing others a disservice when they hand out advice that your <title> should be of the form "Website: Category - Product"... If only they understood how the engines see that <title>... They see it as, "Oh... this page is MOSTLY about "Website"... next most important is "Category"... then least important is "product"... when really what should be the MOST important keyword phrase that a product page is trying to rank for is "Product". The category page itself should be trying to rank for "Category"... and the ONLY pages that should have "Website" in the <title> IMO are pages that are truely about the company such as the "About Us" page and "Contact Us" page (not even the home page which should automatically rank well if someone searches for the site name simply because the domain is an exact match).
     
    Canonical, May 12, 2009 IP