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.
What are best page titles for sub-folders or sub-directories? Same as website?
-
Hi all,
We always mention "brand & keyword" in every page title along with topic in the website, like "Topic | vertigo tiles".
Let's say there is a sub-directory with hundreds of pages...what will be the best page title practice in mentioning "brand & keyword" across all pages of sub-directory to benefit in-terms if SEO?
Can we add "vertigo tiles" to all pages of sub-directory? Or we must not give same phrase?
Thanks,
-
VTCRM,
Good luck!
-- Jewel
-
Thanks Jewel,
So we stick on this and get back to you for any other clarifications.
-
CTRM,
I'm glad my response helped you.
To my eyes, without looking at keyword rankings, etc., the middle one looks like the most natural language version.
Good luck, and feel free to ping me if I can provide any additional ideas.
-- Jewel
-
I think it's Okay to go with as I noticed many are practising same from our industry. And I feel like "brand & keyword" is not going to hurt; if so it must be hurting all the pages of website being with same suffix across all page titles. I think Topic name is going to play key role which we possibly do not have duplicate content issues. Our new sub directory is a help guide and I am planning to add "help" and choose one of the below format.
Topic | help - vertigo tile
Topic | vertigo tiles help
Topic | vertigo tiles - help
-
Hi Jewel,
Thanks for such descriptive answer which explains a lot. Rather than worrying about getting penalised; I would like to make sure which way of using brand and main keyword across these page titles fetch in SEO. Actually our sub-directory is all about help guides. So I decided to go with our brand name and keyword as per you suggestion with high confidence levels. Again I need to add "help" to this...So I am now in finding out the best natural looking out of below:
Topic | help - vertigo tile
Topic | vertigo tiles help
Topic | vertigo tiles - help
-
Hello VTCRM,
This is a tough call. Because it is a branding versus SEO issue. Convention is to put the website's name on all the pages. However, you are correct to be concerned about duplication and "too much".
I decided to poke around on some big websites, where I know they have usability experts and ought to have the $$$ for high quality SEO. It looks like the convention is have the name in there, either as a repeated tagline, the company name, or as part of the product.
Target uses SquareSpace AFAIK, so even with customization, that may be a requirement of the platform, to repeat the tagline. But having used SquareSpace, it is probably their choice, as they have the programmers to change that.
I looked at Home Depot, and they do use their name in the product title. I also examined Nike. They use the name integrated into the product name, so not tagged on at the end.
My advice, then, would be to follow the convention and add the name to the title. I think the Google search engine has been programmed will enough to understand the brand name versus spamming.
Nike's way of integrating the name into the product is the one that stands out to me as potential SEO buster for spam. However, again, I think search engines ought to be able to pick apart a site or product name from spamming.
I think if you stick to convention and do "Topic | vertigo tiles", you'll be all right. As don_quixote pointed out, removing the standard branding name from the title does give you more room for other keywords. I agree with him that you should think through your navigation carefully, as you are doing, and that includes the page names ==> URL/slug names (the overall Information Architecture).
To summarize, do I think you'll be penalized for following web convention of the past 20 years and tacking your brand name/website name to the title? No.
Then your question will be, do you want to do this?
It sounds like you do, but you are hesitant because of fears of a duplication penalty. I don't think you need to worry about that, especially given these big sites are doing it.
The other aspect to information retrieval, is the location of one term or phrase near another that creates associations and helps in findability. Associating "product X women's tennis shoes" with "Nike" is a genuine association.
I think you'll be fine to add that name to the title, assuming you don't want the real estate for other keywords. IOW, I see no reason why you would be penalized. (And if not, contact me, and I'll help you fix it on my time!)
Me? I tend to follow convention in that regard. I'll buck convention in other areas, but you ought to be fine. (If it matters, I started building websites in 1995, I have worked with CMS systems for years, and I have yet to be penalized.)
-- Jewel
-
Without going into how to technically achieve the outcome. It may be beneficial to go back one step and consider drawing up a the url structure. Lay out the keyword/s being targeted for the global home page and then the first sub-folders. The url structure, when laid out, with keywords, should provide guidance on the layout of Title's and H1's. We often take out the company name/brand when required and use the 600 pixels available to optimise the page. This allows more individual title tags for search and customers. ie Your client will likely rank No 1-3 for their brand and brand labelling inner pages, unless beneficial for the customer experience is unlikely to assist brand ranking...
You may only want to index some of the sub directory pages... as well. rel canonical the juice back to the header page..
Anyway I like to go back to the url structure, and find when I get that right everything flows easily from there...
So in answer to your question - No I would not recommend you put vertigo tiles on every page of the sub-folder. I would make sure each page has a unique relevant title.. and a closely though not exact matching H1... to the page content. I add I see "black vertigo tiles" as different to "white vertigo tiles"
Hope that assists.
-
Hi Jewel,
Our website is wordpress and yes it auto generates our company name and main keyword to rear of the every page title. This is good because we do have targetiitng keywords and brand on all pages.
Our sub-directory is a different CMS. It's been hosted independently with own design. This will be even auto generated. My doubt is whether repeating same "company name and keyword" in all page titles of this sub-directory good or bad? Will this be kind of duplicate look for Google? Or it'll help us in the keyword scenario?
Thanks
-
What website platform/CMS are you using? Does it auto-generate your website name to either the front or rear of the page title? For example, as WordPress does? Or, is this something you can suppress, which I believe SquareSpace allows (but don't quote me on that).
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
-
Would You Redirect a Page if the Parent Page was Redirected?
Hi everyone! Let's use this as an example URL: https://www.example.com/marvel/avengers/hulk/ We have done a 301 redirect for the "Avengers" page to another page on the site. Sibling pages of the "Hulk" page live off "marvel" now (ex: /marvel/thor/ and /marvel/iron-man/). Is there any benefit in doing a 301 for the "Hulk" page to live at /marvel/hulk/ like it's sibling pages? Is there any harm long-term in leaving the "Hulk" page under a permanently redirected page? Thank you! Matt
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | amag0 -
Category Page as Shopping Aggregator Page
Hi, I have been reviewing the info from Google on structured data for products and started to ponder.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Alexcox6
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/products Here is the scenario.
You have a Category Page and it lists 8 products, each products shows an image, price and review rating. As the individual products pages are already marked up they display Rich Snippets in the serps.
I wonder how do we get the rich snippets for the category page. Now Google suggest a markup for shopping aggregator pages that lists a single product, along with information about different sellers offering that product but nothing for categories. My ponder is this, Can we use the shopping aggregator markup for category pages to achieve the coveted rich results (from and to price, average reviews)? Keen to hear from anyone who has had any thoughts on the matter or had already tried this.0 -
Fresh page versus old page climbing up the rankings.
Hello, I have noticed that if publishe a webpage that google has never seen it ranks right away and usually in a descend position to start with (not great but descend). Usually top 30 to 50 and then over the months it slowly climbs up the rankings. However, if my page has been existing for let's say 3 years and I make changes to it, it takes much longer to climb up the rankings Has someone noticed that too ? and why is that ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
What are best page titles for sub-domain pages?
Hi Moz communtity, Let's say a website has multiple sub-domains with hundreds and thousands of pages. Generally we will be mentioning "primary keyword & "brand name" on every page of website. Can we do same on all pages of sub-domains to increase the authority of website for this primary keyword in Google? Or it gonna end up as negative impact if Google consider as duplicate content being mentioned same keyword and brand name on every page even on website and all pages of sub domains? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vtmoz0 -
What's the best way to noindex pages but still keep backlinks equity?
Hello everyone, Maybe it is a stupid question, but I ask to the experts... What's the best way to noindex pages but still keep backlinks equity from those noindexed pages? For example, let's say I have many pages that look similar to a "main" page which I solely want to appear on Google, so I want to noindex all pages with the exception of that "main" page... but, what if I also want to transfer any possible link equity present on the noindexed pages to the main page? The only solution I have thought is to add a canonical tag pointing to the main page on those noindexed pages... but will that work or cause wreak havoc in some way?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | fablau3 -
Is a different location in page title, h1 title, and meta description enough to avoid Duplicate Content concern?
I have a dynamic website which will have location-based internal pages that will have a <title>and <h1> title, and meta description tag that will include the subregion of a city. Each page also will have an 'info' section describing the generic product/service offered which will also include the name of the subregion. The 'specific product/service content will be dynamic but in some cases will be almost identical--ie subregion A may sometimes have the same specific content result as subregion B. Will the difference of just the location put in each of the above tags be enough for me to avoid a Duplicate Content concern?</p></title>
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | couponguy0 -
Do 404 pages pass link juice? And best practices...
Last year Google said bad links to 404 pages wouldn't hurt your site. Could that still be the case in light of recent Google updates to try and combat spammy links and negative SEO? Can links to 404 pages benefit a website and pass link juice? I'd assume at the very least that any link juice will pass through links FROM the 404 page? Many websites have great 404 pages that get linked to: http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=http%3A%2F%2Fretardzone.com%2F404 - that was the first of four I checked from the "60 Really Cool...404 Pages" that actually returned the 404 HTTP Status! So apologies if you find the word 'retard' offensive. According to Open Site Explorer it has a decent Page Authority and number of backlinks - but it doesn't show in Google's SERPs. I'd never do it, but if you have a particularly well-linked to 404 page, is there an argument for giving it 200 OK Status? Finally, what are the best practices regarding 404s and address bar links? For example, if
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Alex-Harford
www.examplesite.com/3rwdfs returns a 404 error, should I make that redirect to
www.examplesite.com/404 or leave it as is? Redirecting to www.examplesite.com/404 might not be user-friendly as people won't be able to correct the URL in the address bar. But if I have a great 404 page that people link to, I don't want links going to loads of random pages do I? Is either way considered best practice? If I did a 301 redirect I guess it would send the wrong signal to the crawlers? Should I use a 302 redirect, or even a 304 Not Modified redirect?1 -
Best practice for removing indexed internal search pages from Google?
Hi Mozzers I know that it’s best practice to block Google from indexing internal search pages, but what’s best practice when “the damage is done”? I have a project where a substantial part of our visitors and income lands on an internal search page, because Google has indexed them (about 3 %). I would like to block Google from indexing the search pages via the meta noindex,follow tag because: Google Guidelines: “Use robots.txt to prevent crawling of search results pages or other auto-generated pages that don't add much value for users coming from search engines.” http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769 Bad user experience The search pages are (probably) stealing rankings from our real landing pages Webmaster Notification: “Googlebot found an extremely high number of URLs on your site” with links to our internal search results I want to use the meta tag to keep the link juice flowing. Do you recommend using the robots.txt instead? If yes, why? Should we just go dark on the internal search pages, or how shall we proceed with blocking them? I’m looking forward to your answer! Edit: Google have currently indexed several million of our internal search pages.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | HrThomsen0