Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Title Tag : use comma, pipe or colon (:)
-
Hi,
If Title has two and three keywords then which one is better option to separate them either with comma or pipe or colon.
Example : Arvixe Review, Coupons (Jun 2015) and Uptime Report (I used (,) as a separator)
Arvixe Review is primary keywords and Coupons and Uptime are secondary keywords. Aim is rank on keywords like Arvixe Review, Arvixe Coupons and Arvixe Uptime.
Also, including current month and year with Title tag and it will change every month. Its means every month our title is changed.
Is this effect in SEO?Suggest best possible title for keywords like Arvixe Review, Coupons (Jun 2015) and Uptime Report.
Rajiv
-
Re: pipe or hyphen in browser title, does anyone know which is the more accessible option?
GOV.UK, a leader in accessibility, uses hyphens... -
Below is a copy and paste of keywords relating to Arvixe obtained from Semrush. You should check them. Coupon is very competitive, so I have skipped that. So I would suggest:-
Arvixe Hosting Review | Arvixe Coupon | Sitegeek
or
Arvixe Hosting Review | Arvixe Uptime Report | Sitegeek
You should include your brand name as google usually will do regardless. It really is a personal decision as you know your brand / company best. Hope this helps.
Keyword Volume CPC SERP source arvixe coupon 480 18.85 arvixe web hosting 170 6.10 arvixe control panel 90 24.38 arvixe hosting review 70 11.61 arvixe cpanel login -
Page is https://www.sitegeek.com/arvixe
and want to target Arvixe Review, Arvixe Coupons and Arvixe Uptime Reportshould title ? Arvixe Review | Arvixe Coupons (Jun 2015) | Arvixe Uptime Report
or
Arvixe Review | Coupons (Jun 2015) | Uptime Report
or
Arvixe Review : Arvixe Coupons (Jun 2015) and Current Uptime Report
Arvixe Review is our primary keywords.
-
The word Arvixe - would not be highly competitive - so need to use that 3 times. Coupons is competitive.
The below is the title that appears if I google Arvixe
Web Hosting | Shared Hosting | Website Hosting by Arvixe
Are you changing the Title to the home page or is it a new page? The Coupon page? The most common search term according to Semrush is "Arvixe Coupon". The above suggestions appear to be targeting 3 different topics rather than one broadly, like your current title. Need some more info on what page you are targeting and why - otherwise could be leading you down the garden path.
-
there are lot of variations in using comma, title or colon. I do google search with following keywords :
1. hotels review
2. cheap flights
3. airlines review
4. mobile recharge
5. mobile review
-
thanks John!
As you suggested that pipe is best for both SEO and clickability. So options should be as follow:
1. Arvixe Review | Coupons (Jun 2015) | Uptime Report
Note - we should use 'Arvixe with all there keywords . Even, few SEO research shows that a keywords should not be duplicated in Title. whats your take? we can use in such cases?
2. Arvixe Review | Arvixe Coupons (Jun 2015) | Arvixe Uptime Report
3. Arvixe Review | Arvixe Discount Coupons | Arvixe Uptime Report
Please Tell us which one would be better title.
-
You are always right... so I got confused! All good...
-
Hi John
Yes, I am not disagreeing at all and sorry if that was portrayed somehow - especially if I gave a "free for all" point of view - this was not my intent. I was just referencing Matt from the perspective of "does it matter?" in Rajiv's question.
I personally like pipes in my titles. As long as it's clean, speaks to the content, and consistent across the site in format, you should be all good.
Be good!
-
Patrick
The company I work for specializes in CTR on search results - we run complex experiments on them ie 30-40 today alone. There is a difference between pipes and hyphens on CTR. It is small but it is statistically significant. Sure it is irrelevant to most but for big boys chasing keywords like "car insurance" etc it is vital as each click is has such high cost in competitive spaces.
Matt Cutts noted the CTR factor between them as well. I do not believe it makes any difference on SEO except in so far as it uses more pixels. So maybe we agree, but a clean tidy looking title that looks professional to the customer does have an impact on CTR.
-
Hi there
This is going to require some research about your audience and what they may be searching for. No one knows your audience and business better than you, so you need to make sure that whatever you are putting in the titles are both the best representations of your user's searches and your website's content. Be natural, be real, and be specific.
When it comes to pipes and hyphens, it doesn't matter. Here's a video from Matt Cutts on the subject.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
-
We do alot of experiments for clients on the difference between pipes, colons and hyphens.
99 out of 100 the pipe is the preferred separator. Generally the pipe is best for both SEO and Clickability. This is as the pipe also uses less pixels. Recommend as follows:-
Most Important Key Word | Second Keyword | Brandname ( no more than 512 pixels in length or otherwise it truncates).
If you detail a couple of options I can probably tell you what is likely best.
-
You are fine using any of them and it's down to personal preference, although I use a pipe because it is clearer when looking at the title. It also depends on the Title as well - sometimes a pipe won't do the job and you need to use a comma.
Also, including current month and year with Title tag and it will change every month. Its means every month our title is changed
I would try to avoid this. You don't want the same page title to keep changing. By all means add something to the page that states when it was last updated, but I wouldn't use the Page Title for this.
-Andy
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
-
What if i dont use an H1, but rather, h2 with multiple keywords.
the reason i dont want to use h1 is because i can have only one h1, however if i use several h2s. is it gonna help me rank? bacause google likes h1 more than h2, is google gonna give more priority or same priority to h2., and if that priority is gonna be less, what will be the percentage of that lessness? for ex: h1 gets 90 score if my h1 is missing how much score my h2 will get out of hundred(i know there is no such metric but i am just wondering anyways)
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Sam09schulz0 -
White H1 Tag Hurting SEO?
Hi, We're having an issue with a client not wanting the H1 tag to display on their site and using an image of their logo instead. We made the H1 tag white (did not deliberately hide with CSS) and i just read an article where this is considered black hat SEO. https://www.websitemagazine.com/blog/16-faqs-of-seo The only reason we want to hide it is because it looks redundant appearing there along with the brand name logo. Does anyone have any suggestions? Would putting the brand logo image inside of an H1 tag be ok? Thanks for the help
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | AliMac261 -
Site Footer Links Used for Keyword Spam
I was on the phone with a proposed web relaunch firm for one of my clients listening to them talk about their deep SEO knowledge. I cannot believe that this wouldn’t be considered black-hat or at least very Spammy in which case a client could be in trouble. On this vendor’s site I notice that they stack the footer site map with about 50 links that are basically keywords they are trying to rank for. But here’s the kicker shown by way of example from one of the themes in the footer: 9 footer links:
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | RosemaryB
Top PR Firms
Best PR Firms
Leading PR Firms
CyberSecurity PR Firms
Cyber Security PR Firms
Technology PR Firms
PR Firm
Government PR Firms
Public Sector PR Firms Each link goes to a unique URL that is basically a knock-off of the homepage with a few words or at the most one sentences swapped out to include this footer link keyword phrase, sometimes there is a different title attribute but generally they are a close match to each other. The canonical for each page links back to itself. I simply can’t believe Google doesn’t consider this Spammy. Interested in your view.
Rosemary0 -
Can H1 and Meta title be exactly the same ?
I've heard from some SEO's that H1 and Meta Title shouldn't be exactly the same, why ? Both of them describe what is ON the page right ? Why is it Spammy? Is it ?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Tintanus2 -
A site is using their competitors names in their Meta Keywords and Descriptions
I can't imagine this is a White Hat SEO technique, but they don't seem to be punished for it by Google - yet. How does Google treat the use of your competitors names in your meta keywords/descriptions? Is it a good idea?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | PeterConnor0 -
Starting every page title with the keyword
I've read everywhere that it's vital to get your target keyword to the front of the title that you're writing up. Taking into account that Google likes things looking natural I wanted to check if my writing title's like this for example: "Photographers Miami- Find the right Equipment and Accessories" ..Repeated for every page (maybe a page on photography in miami, one on videography in Orlando etc) is a smart way to write titles or if by clearly stacking keywords at the front of every title won't be as beneficial as other ways of doing it?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | xcyte0 -
Why do websites use different URLS for mobile and desktop
Although Google and Bing have recommended that the same URL be used for serving desktop and mobile websites, portals like airbnb are using different URLS to serve mobile and web users. Does anyone know why this is being done even though it is not GOOD for SEO?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | razasaeed0 -
Does having the same descrition for different products a bad thing the titles are all differnent but but they are the same product but with different designs on them does this count as duplicate content?
does having the same description for different products a bad thing the titles are all different but but they are the same product but with different designs on them does this count as duplicate content?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Casefun1