23 replies to this topic

[chrishirst]

You're looking at things and expecting to find exact answers and precise numbers. It really doesn't work like that at all!

1 word, 12 words, 25 words it really makes little difference, it's a SINGLE factor out of at least 100 factors. It is the combination of getting various things right that can make page 'A' rank better than page 'B'.

It could be that changing one word on a page could launch it into stardom or oblivion, there is no "do A,B & C then Z will be the effect".
If that is what you are hoping for, you may want to find a new career.

[Jill]

Exactly. Your title tag is just one thing. It depends on everything else you're doing, and in many cases it doesn't even matter what you're doing on the page, it's all in the links.

[Catz]

I'm being told here to try to fit the most keywords in the title tage and when I do that my ranking suffers and it appears those that target only a few keywords in the title tag seem to do better. Might not always be the case, but that's what I'm seeing in my situation.

Where do you get this? I don't think anyone here has told you to fit the most keywords in the title tag. I believe what they are saying is use whatever is appropriate for each site/page rather than looking for some special formula.

In some pages you might just use a couple, some pages you might use more. It also depends on your website, what it is about and who you are trying to attract. As they said, this is one factor among many.

Ultimately, you want your page titles to relate to the actual site/page content, and sound natural when a human visitor reads them, so they will click them to find out more.

[SteelersFan]

Where do you get this? I don't think anyone here has told you to fit the most keywords in the title tag. I believe what they are saying is use whatever is appropriate for each site/page rather than looking for some special formula.

In some pages you might just use a couple, some pages you might use more. It also depends on your website, what it is about and who you are trying to attract. As they said, this is one factor among many.

Ultimately, you want your page titles to relate to the actual site/page content, and sound natural when a human visitor reads them, so they will click them to find out more.

I'm sorry if there is a misunderstanding here, what I was trying to say was that in one thread I started I asked what the ideal number of words was for a page title. I think the broad spectrum response was from 10-13. What I was trying to say was that some have suggested trying to fit as many keywords and/or keyword combinations in as possible within that allotment of words. Yet what I was trying to say was that when I do that with my three primary keywords I get worse rankings. Yet, my competitor only uses two keywords and gets a much better ranking. Page 1 to be exact. But the interesting thing was with one of my experiments was that a 25+ word title tag did better than my other attempts of using 10-13 words. Kind of strange how that happened. It's confusing.

[Jill]

Then keep the 25 word one that did better. All we can do is guess for your site you can experiment. Sounds like you ready know what works for your site. What makes you think we would know better when we are not even looking at it?

[SteelersFan]

Then keep the 25 word one that did better. All we can do is guess for your site you can experiment. Sounds like you ready know what works for your site. What makes you think we would know better when we are not even looking at it?

It ranked better for a bit, then the site slipped like it did with the other shorter titles. It didn't stay up in the search engines. Perhaps I didn't leave it up there long enough and instead changed the title again. I've been guilty of changing my titles too much. :doh

But the only reason I went with the longer title is because two other similar sites ranked high using a really long title like that for two of my three prized keywords. I never achieved the rank they did for the keywords but some of my highest rankings came with that setup before they eventually slipped again. It's just strange to me. I don't know.

[Jill]

I've been guilty of changing my titles too much.

It's likely you really don't have any idea of what's working and what isn't then.

Do something that makes sense to you and then keep it up for 3 months or so.

[SteelersFan]

It's likely you really don't have any idea of what's working and what isn't then.

Do something that makes sense to you and then keep it up for 3 months or so.

Yeah, at times I feel like nothing is working. LOL

I'll try to stick at it for a while longer. I do believe I've been too eager to pull the trigger so to speak on changing titles. My bad. :-(

[VinceSutton]

If you look only from on-site point of view, then every added targeted keyword phrase will be harder to optimize. If you choose 10 keywords to put in your title tag then it will be really hard to optimize your webpage and many other on-page factors for that 10 keywords. Will you put 10 different pictures for that purpose? h1 also, will you stuff it with the same keywords? content? internal links ?

From off-site point of view, you can even target keywords that you do not have in your title tag. Incoming links will do that.

so, like others said, that is just one of many factors and you should make a complete overview and strategy and then begin with seo.