Page Title Tags - SEO vs CRO ?
-
Hi everyone,
Thanks to what seems to be a recent(ish) algo change in Google, some of our more targeted deeper pages are ranking for search terms where before only our homepage would rank.
This is of course great however I am a little worried that some of the page titles of our internal pages are a little short, for example our main departments (we are an ecommerce store) are titles 'Department Name | Liberty Games' so for example 'Pool Tables | Liberty Games'.
I have heard varying reports on what to do with the title tag, I have heard to keep the most relevant keywords to the left of the tag, which we have done, I have also heard that shorter is better.
I am just a bit concerned that our tags are looking a little stumpy in the serps alongside other results which are longer (although admittedly a bit keyword stuffed).
So (eventually) my question is, will short titles harm my click-through rate ? but are shorter titles better for SEO ? If longer is better are there any recommendations about what I could add to these titles that could potentially help click-throughs and natural rankings ?
Many thanks,
Stuart
-
Awesome find on the snippet optimizer!
-
Awesome find on the snippet optimizer!
-
Thanks for the advice, that article looks great will have a good read of it over the weekend. I think it might just be down to a case of trying various things on a few different pages and see which works best.
-
On the CRO side, usability research actually suggests that (on the web) the first 2 words of a headline carry most of the weight. In SERPs, I think that's even more at play - people scan, they don't read full TITLEs. The natural assumption is that long TITLEs carry more information, but in many cases, what's good for SEO is good for users with titles and headlines.
Of course, you don't want to be too spammy, or just string keywords together - that might get someone's attention but then cost you the click. Overall, though, I wouldn't be afraid of short TITLEs.
More info here in a post from 2009 by Jakob Nielsen:
-
I would try to find a compromise between SEO and CRO. Make the title tag long enough to give the 'scent' of information specifiicty, but not SO long that its hard for the average visitor to scan and absorb.
-
For one of our clients we have purposely trimmed down the title tag two merely two words and reduced the description to a one liner thus creating lovely white space with reading clarity which makes eyes focus on it.
By doing so we've improved our click through rate by 20%.
-
I find this title almost perfect and not spamy if there is a single and a plural version in it and much more user friendly. I recognise the brand name now
I would only put the singular term at the beginning because in that case the search volume is higher with the sigular word.
--> Pool Table, buy pool tables online at Liberty Games
-
Thanks for the response, I should have mentioned "Liberty Games" is our brand term so is at the and after the | of every page on the site.
I did read that it was a good idea to try and target the singular and the plural term in the title tage, so for example 'Pool Tables, buy a pool table online at Liberty Games' - although i'm not sure if this would appear too stuffed as when you search for the singular google already highlights the plural so it clearly knows the link. That said we don't rank as well on the singular so any boost would help.
-
Hi Stuart,
title tag optimization is an important onpage ranking factor.
Just keep in mind the following items:- the title should not be longer as seventy characters in lenght (although the spiders can read them, they are not displayed with more than 70 characters and regarding usability it is best to stay below that number)
- your most prominent keyword(s) should be - as you already wrote - at the left of the title
- don't keyword stuff the title
- just explain in short terms what the visitors are going to find on that page
By the way - I love this tool here http://www.seomofo.com/snippet-optimizer.html
I would suggest to add your brand to the title - you can do that after your category page(s).
Each page should be treated as an individual (starting) page and like that your potential visitors can identify the brand, too and are more comfortable to click.I have never heard about a negative aspect regarding SEO if a title is too short. Just try to keep your title as natural as possible.
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
-
Individual statistics (not aggregated) for 'local pack' and 'organic search results' when both on the same page
Hi, For a particular keyword combination we show up on the local pack but also on the organic search results on the 1st page. I have never been able to find out what the CTR, #clicks, conversions for this two different kinds of positions are individually. The aggregate figures I can find out in Google Search Console / Analytics, but I would like to know on an individual level as I am testing out different things. With the statistics on Google My Business I can't get along actually...no CTR as far as i know. Any hint? Cheers, Cesare
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Cesare.Marchetti1 -
Bounce rate vs main domain and subdomain
So there is a website www.domainname.com that is based on wordpress. Basically this site has 8-10 pages but it is not a blog. And it has a subdomain mystore.domainname.com which is based on magento. While developing the site the circumstances were such that we had to use a subdomain for ecommerce based on magento. So the wp site is ranking and people are landing on that site. It makes sense when it has a bounce rate of around 72% because people are actually going to the subdomain ( store ) after they land on the wp site. Because they are actually looking to buy. My question is will this bounce rate affect in ranking of the wp site ? Because for now only the wp site is ranking for most of the terms. Should i consider removing the wp site and have the whole site based on magento ? I appreciate any kind of feedback and suggestion 🙂
Conversion Rate Optimization | | MindlessWizard0 -
What is the B2B Benchmark for PPC Landing Page Conversions
I work for a B2B software company and have recently begun implementing PPC via Adwords. I was wondering what you guys use as a standard benchmark for a successful landing page, specifically conversion rate? Conversion rate being defined as someone clicking to the landing page, then clicking on a link or filling out a form on the landing page.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Manseo0 -
Contact Forms Vs Email Enquiries
This is a usability question more than SEO but I thought this community would be the one to ask. Are completed conversion rates generally higher for contact forms or email enquiries? I try to encourage our clients to have short contact forms where possible to ensure the first contact (ask questions later). Personally an email seems like a giant daunting and potentially irrelevant enquiry that could get lost in the plethora of spam emails flying around. Also half the time I start the email and then give up.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | SoundinTheory0 -
Rich Snippets on service pages and how to aggregate?
Question about rich snippets.. I want to showcase reviews of the SERVICE's offered but I am not sure if I should include them on the service page, a review page or both. For example, we offer snow plowing and lawn care services and each service has its own page. I have reviews for both services under the my "testimonials" page. So, a couple questions. 1 - Should I pace a single review marked up on each service page? 2 - Does the review need to be a google review or can I use reviews from other sites? If not, do I need to notate that somehow using the schema vocabulary? Example, I have a 5 star review from thumbtrackDOTcom, is it ok to mark up the review and include a nofollow link? (No follow because thumbtrack is actually a competitor.) 3 - When I looked into creating an aggregate rich snippet I got confused / concerned. Is it ok to list multiple services as a product? Example: <div< span="">itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Product"> <span< span="">itemprop="name">Lawn Care and Snow Removal</span<> <div< span="">itemprop="aggregateRating" itemscopeitemtype="http://schema.org/AggregateRating">
Conversion Rate Optimization | | dwallner
Rated <span< span=""> itemprop="ratingValue">4.5</span<>/5
based on <span< span=""> itemprop="reviewCount">4</span<> customer reviews</div></div<></div<> 4 - When I tested the code above, no stars showed up in the preview. Do I need to mark up products as well? Am I doing it completely wrong 🙂 Thanks for any advice!!0 -
Does the word next to domain gives more relevancy to the page of it's URL?
Whether putting a (category or brand) word next to domain is better than on the end of an URL? (i.e. domain.com/sony/tvs or domain.com/tv/sony) Which one would get higher result on SERP "tv" or "sony" in both cases? Or maybe they both serves the same?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | komeksimas0 -
Keeping pages indexed but making sure they fill out a form before access - confusing Q's
OK so let me break down this little scenario we have going on. I work for a b2b company so we have a lot of gated content that is behind a form fill out - this is how we get a lot of our lead generation. Some pages that we have behind the form are showing up in search which allows people to view the documents bypassing the form. At first I thought, well why dont we just no index that page so that it does not appear in search. But then I thought it would be smart to keep the pages indexed to keep the SEO value, Is there a way to keep these pages indexed but make sure that when they click the link in the SERPS that they need to fill out the form in order to gain access to the document? Something on the backend that checks to make sure that the referral URL was completed or something like that? Anybody deal with this before?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | PatBausemer0 -
How do I get Google to rank the right page?
My site ranks #1 for Arabic Interpreting on Google UK. This great, but it's ranking my home page rather than the my specific Arabic Interpreting page. The home page shouldn't really rank for this term as it has very little connection with this exact term. This means that while the site ranks great, the conversion is pretty much zero. How can I get Google to rank the page I've optimised for this term? I know the ranking will no doubt slip but may the conversions will be better. Can you help please?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | GlobalLingo0