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.
Company Name in Home Page Title? If and Where?
-
My guess is you want to do the {title} | {company name} format as I would suspect Google gives slightly more weight to the words at the beginning of the title? (This is assuming your company name isn't a generic word or you are specifically trying to rank your home page for your company name when it isn't ranking well already)
But what about cases where you have like 5 or 6 keywords that are really important and used in the title gives you like 50 characters and your company name pushed it up to like 65 increasing the chance Google will use some other source to list the name of your home page in the search results?
Obviously one can experiment, but wondering what the general consensus is - long keyword title, or longer title with company name? The company name can be included in the meta description and the domain name of the url displayed also gives the indication to the company. But maybe the algo "respects" long itles that have company name more than ones without as then it looks more like a keyword stuffing title? So many factors to consider. Yes - on page SEO isn't just about the title, but for this thread I'm just talking home page title.
-
So EGOL just gave the best possible response to this I can think of, and I think option #4 is what your default should be, however, you also want to maximize your meta title (which is using about 60-70 characters before trailing it off). So if your post has a short title, it doesn't usually hurt to throw your company name in there to take up more of the title tag real estate.
If you are trying to optimize a service page for a local company, it can make sense to exclude the business name as it will give you more room to include your target keyword or further describe your service (I like to try to include an LSI of the main page KW if possible). Check out https://moz.com/blog/title-tag-hacks-whiteboard-friday for some solid title tag optimization hacks!
-
We use #4 in almost every instance.
We believe that it is more valuable to optimize the title tag for ranking and for eliciting clicks. Everyone can see our domain in the URL. Our website has been online and pulling lots of traffic for over 20 years. Still most visitors are first time visitors. Anyone who knows us, knows us. Domain in the title is a waste of valuable optimization or impact space.
-
It appears Google chops the title display on the SERPs at between 55 and 70 characters depending on the word lengths near the end (it doesn't break in the middle of a word)
In our case, if we include the short version of the company name at the end, we get cut at 55 char and the company name doesn't even appear visible in the SERPS. We're a new company and no one is going to be searching for us by name so to be easily identifiable by name in the SERP titles at this point is of low importance. So I guess we put the company name at the end and realize it probably won't shot, or, since it won't show, leave it out so there are less words in the title?So I'm trying to decide between (3) and (4)
-
I think that there are many correct answers to your question... my strong bias will be shown in my response.
-
If you want a keyword optimization answer, then the keyword or keyphrase that you want to rank for should be in the title tag on the left.
-
How the company name appears is governed by marketing, ego, arrogance, and sometimes by common SEO sense. Some businesses or their owners/directors feel a need to SHOUT their company name in everyone's face. These businesses place their company name on the left of the title tag at the expense of their page optimization. Those who have it really bad got to have that company name in ALL CAPS.
-
Other business owners feel that the topic that they are publishing takes priority over the name of their company, so they place the title of the article on the left of the title tag and their business name on the right. They use UpLow or in ALL CAPS depending upon how hard they usually pound their chests.
-
Some people have "a message to get out" and that message is bigger than their egos or the amount of noise that they try to make when they pound their chests. So they use the title tag to the fullest extent possible to convey their message. They know that every person with common sense will see their URL in the SERPs and the name of their business at the top of their website.
There you have four options. Choose one that works for you.
-
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
-
Is it ok to repeat a (focus) keyword used on a previous page, on a new page?
I am cataloguing the pages on our website in terms of which focus keyword has been used with the page. I've noticed that some pages repeated the same keyword / term. I've heard that it's not really good practice, as it's like telling google conflicting information, as the pages with the same keywords will be competing against each other. Is this correct information? If so, is the alternative to use various long-winded keywords instead? If not, meaning it's ok to repeat the keyword on different pages, is there a maximum recommended number of times that we want to repeat the word? Still new-ish to SEO, so any help is much appreciated! V.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Vitzz1 -
URL structure - Page Path vs No Page Path
We are currently re building our URL structure for eccomerce websites. We have seen a lot of site removing the page path on product pages e.g. https://www.theiconic.co.nz/liberty-beach-blossom-shirt-680193.html versus what would normally be https://www.theiconic.co.nz/womens-clothing-tops/liberty-beach-blossom-shirt-680193.html Should we be removing the site page path for a product page to keep the url shorter or should we keep it? I can see that we would loose the hierarchy juice to a product page but not sure what is the right thing to do.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ashcastle0 -
Why does Google rank a product page rather than a category page?
Hi, everybody In the Moz ranking tool for one of our client's (the client sells sport equipment) account, there is a trend where more and more of their landing pages are product pages instead of category pages. The optimal landing page for the term "sleeping bag" is of course the sleeping bag category page, but Google is sending them to a product page for a specific sleeping bag.. What could be the critical factors that makes the product page more relevant than the category page as the landing page?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Inevo0 -
Sitelinks to Sister Companies
Hi We have a number of sister companies and link to them via a drop down in the footer - are these links as dangerous as anchor text links?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeckyKey0 -
Different Header on Home Page vs Sub pages
Hello, I am an SEO/PPC manager for a company that does a medical detox. You can see the site in question here: http://opiates.com. My question is, I've never heard of it specifically being a problem to have a different header on the home page of the site than on the subpages, but I rarely see it either. Most sites, if i'm not mistaken, use a consistent header across most of the site. However, a person i'm working for now said that she has had other SEO's look at the site (above) and they always say that it is a big SEO problem to have a different header on the homepage than on the subpages. Any thoughts on this subject? I've never heard of this before. Thanks, Jesse
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Waismann0 -
Blocking Pages Via Robots, Can Images On Those Pages Be Included In Image Search
Hi! I have pages within my forum where visitors can upload photos. When they upload photos they provide a simple statement about the photo but no real information about the image,definitely not enough for the page to be deemed worthy of being indexed. The industry however is one that really leans on images and having the images in Google Image search is important to us. The url structure is like such: domain.com/community/photos/~username~/picture111111.aspx I wish to block the whole folder from Googlebot to prevent these low quality pages from being added to Google's main SERP results. This would be something like this: User-agent: googlebot Disallow: /community/photos/ Can I disallow Googlebot specifically rather than just using User-agent: * which would then allow googlebot-image to pick up the photos? I plan on configuring a way to add meaningful alt attributes and image names to assist in visibility, but the actual act of blocking the pages and getting the images picked up... Is this possible? Thanks! Leona
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | HD_Leona0 -
NOINDEX listing pages: Page 2, Page 3... etc?
Would it be beneficial to NOINDEX category listing pages except for the first page. For example on this site: http://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/101/fsx-missions/ Has lots of pages such as Page 2, Page 3, Page 4... etc: http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aflyawaysimulation.com+fsx+missions Would there be any SEO benefit of NOINDEX on these pages? Of course, FOLLOW is default, so links would still be followed and juice applied. Your thoughts and suggestions are much appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Peter2640