Are descriptive titles better?
-
I'm thinking about changing the page titles on my website and wanted to know if it is a good idea to help improve SEO!
Using a page 'training and engagement' as an example (as is on the dropdown), the page title itself is actually 'Providing the skills to make the change stick.'
Is that long descriptive title negatively effecting me? Or should I change it to 'Training and Engagement'?
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Sam
-
Hi @sammecooper, it is definitely a good idea to optimise your page titles to improve SEO. These can have a great impact on SERP ranking as well as CTR.
Firstly as has been mentioned by others here, it is very important to include your target keyword in the title "Training and Engagement" it is also then good to follow up with a more engaging phrase that will encourage people to click on your page. Something like you have already as a combination of both "Training and Engagement: Providing skills to make the change stick" (don't be scared to use longer titles but keep the URL as short as possible (also including the target keywords)).
It may also be useful to have a read of this post about stop words that are ignored by search engines https://www.semrush.com/blog/seo-stop-words/
Other points to test out for increased CTR (which can lead to better ranking in SERP) is to use emotional SEO power words, emoji and even [brackets] in your title. These have been shown to increase CTR in many cases.
Also worth mentioning this recent update by Google where HTML title tags are being replaced by the H1 of the page for SERP listings https://www.seroundtable.com/semrush-data-titles-google-32004.html
Good luck with your optimisation, it is an ongoing process so don't give up if you don't see immediate results!
-
Use the keyword always, that the most important part.
-
@nozzle Thank you! I'll get testing. Thanks again.
-
@sammecooper I'm a huge fan of testing several different Title Tags for each important page.
The first thing you need to, if you haven't done so already, is to create a keyword map. This map will tell everyone on your team which page is going to be optimized for which keywords.
Then, you take the most important phrases that have been mapped or assigned to a specific URL and try and figure out how to get them in the title tag while still writing something catchy that someone will click on.
Don't be afraid to test longer title tags that are even more than 65 characters; just keep in mind that humans will only see and read what's in the first 65 characters when looking at your listing in the SERPs so that part is the most important.
So change your title tag, wait until Google comes to recrawl the page and the changes have been cached, then check your rankings to see if you moved up or down for all the keywords in the keyword map for that page. If you are on page 1, you can monitor the CTR of that listing in Google Search Console to get an idea if your click through rate moved up or down as well.
Then every so often test another title tag variation for that page and rinse and repeat until you find the best title tag that results in the best rankings for the mapped keywords with the highest CTR.
-Boyd
-
@martijn_scheijbeler Thank you Martjn, that's very helpful!
-
@sammecooper If you're trying to rank for: Training and Engagement then you likely want to include that in the title tag instead of making it too descriptive. Google does put still quite some value in it. In this case, I'd try to find a way to make it both descriptive as well as enticing to click.
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
-
Wordpress 'Hide Title' Feature, does this help shorten title length
Im wondering if anyone with some Wordpress experience can help me. I am using Yoast to create my page titles, but yet Moz tells me that my page titles including my actual page title tag which is 'dumfries wedding photography | Hemera Visuals' by clicking on the 'hide title' feature in wordpress will this in turn stop wordpress from automatically adding my page title and therfor bring my title length down drastically? And if so will I have to wait till google next crawls my page to see if this works? Kind Regards Cameron.
On-Page Optimization | | hemeravisuals120 -
Titles
Our site http://villasdini.com is offering beach villas on sunny Diani beach in Kenya. I have a category with beach villas in Diani beach which I want to be shown in serp if somebody search for Diani beach villas, or Diani beach hotels, Diani beach accommodation etc. I have also category with small boutique hotels, which I want to be shown in serp if somebody search for Diani beach villas, or Diani beach hotels, Diani beach accommodation etc. Should I also include Diani beach in titles? Will that not be too much of Diani bech in titles? I am afraid I have anyway already too much of "Diani beach" keyword and perhaps I am even punished for it as I can't rank for this keyword at all almost a year:-( I also want to rank on Diani beach itself and I have created Diani beach page which I want to be shown in serp when somebody search for Diani beach. I am kind of getting crazy of this:-( Any advice what I am doing wrong and what strategy I should rather do? Thank you very much, Iris
On-Page Optimization | | Rebeca10 -
The effect of having CR LF HT commands in a <title>tag</title>
Hello. I am looking at a customer site with a CMS system that is controlling the population of the meta TITLE Currently it has the TITLE set as this <title>(CR)(LF)<br />(HT)Site Details REMOVED - Customer name REMOVED(CR)(LF)<br /></title> Naturally, we would prefer it to be <title>Site Details REMOVED - Customer name REMOVED</title> What affect would these commands have in the title! Google shows their title when you Google the company website... so I guess it can see it .... but GA "Top Site Content" widget shows it as blank ? Any ideas? Cheers
On-Page Optimization | | BinaryTris0 -
Meta Title Pipes and Spacing
I've been doing optimization on a clients website and want to make sure I'm maximizing my characters. Does anyone have any feedback on the spacing in between the pipes ( | ) ? IE: Internet Marketing Company | Denver SEO | Brand Name Do the spaces before and after the pipes play a role in whether the search engines can distinguish the keyword or is it all considered one word if there is no spaces such as: IE: Internet Marketing Company|Denver SEO|Brand Name Any information will be super helpful. Thanks for your help!
On-Page Optimization | | RezStreamSEO0 -
Can I use Same Keyword for Multi pages Title Tags?
Hello All, I am working on client website and currently they are targeting One Keywords for multi pages. As I have search with Allintitle: Search query and Google display around 37 pages of website which carry same keyword in "Title Tags". I have told to client to change the "Title Tags" but they want that keyword for all relevant pages. So I want to know is that harm in Search Engine Ranking? Note: They have not done the link building activities for multi pages with same Keyword, they are using only in "Title Tags" only
On-Page Optimization | | jemindesai0 -
How often should ecommerce category and product descriptions be rewritten?
We are a 15 year old ecommerce company. Most of our category descriptions are about 3 years old. Our product descriptions are 5-8 years old. While our category pages still rank well in Google our product pages have dropped significantly over time. How often should product page descriptions be rewritten so they do not become stale to Google? We have about 1,000 products on the site. If we rewrite them we are thinking about 250 words each. Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | SLINC0 -
Meta Description Question
Is it ok to put your domain name in the meta description if that is the name of your company? so if my company name is BlaBla.com and I want to have a meta description like Shop for your next Widget at BlaBla.com. We have Widget in 30 colors. Free shipping for orders over $50. and I am obviosuly promoting the widget page is this ok. I am concerned that Google will not like the domain name in the meta description. After Peguin I am paranoid about my shadow.....LOL
On-Page Optimization | | freestone0 -
A good title for each page on my website.
Dear SEOs, I know these facts: a) not more than 70 chars b) relevant to the page subject - probably best keyword at the beginning My problem - should I rebuild the current structure of my titles which is: Main Page keywords (in my case 4) | domain name - Main Page Sub-page - one click from main page keywords (again same 4) | domain name - Sub Page Name (or as you like Category Name) Specific page with an article / content keywords (again same 4 as on any other) | domain name - category name - title of article same as used in tag To be more precise, should this title be changed for following pages: Sub Page - where really it's page that let's you chose particular subjects (there will be few article for each subjects) so should the keywords be changed to - "chose your category" Specific page with an article - should the category name - title of article be completely removed and first part of title which at the moment contains same 4 keywords used on main page be replaced with keywords specific for the content ? To be honest I find those titles at the moment bit confusing and sort of illogical. But since I can't really change anything in the code I would like to know what's the right way before I keep pressing on the programmer 🙂 Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | lolskizz0