Title tag best practices when domain and brand are the same
-
I know the old standard for title tag optimization is to use your brand name in the title for a multitude of reasons, all of which are indisputable The most important reason being any strength and awareness can aid in click-thru. But does this hold true for exact match domains? Considering the way a search result is displayed, any awareness and strength derived from using the brand in the title is automatically included in the search result of an exact match domain without having to sacrifice valuable characters in the title. The organic value (or value beyond simply seeing the brand displayed and nothing else) can't have that much of an impact, can it?
For Example, given the result attached, is it worth it to repeat dog.com in the title if it is already showing in the result?
-
Hey guys,
My suggestion was based on an assumption that this is a title tag for a home page.
Dog Supplies | Food, Bed, Toys and Treats for Dogs | Buy Online
Main keyword for this page is "dog supplies" however the homepage also mentions what type of supplies are sold on the site so it makes sense to include them in the title tag instead of leaving it out because those are your secondary keywords. Then, as you stated the category pages should target the type of supply in this case dog food:
<title>Dog Food | Biscuits, Bones, Treats and MORE for Dogs</title>
Listed above is the secondary keyword, and tertiary keywords. Also the plural because "food for dogs" is different than "dog food"
Again simply putting <title>Dog Food | Dogs.com</title> i think is selling yourself a little short, because the title tag is extremely important to SEO as long as you have room after putting the main keyword first you should utilize that space for SEO (better chance to rank for "dog biscuits" "dog bones" and "dog treats" due to better optimization, and also for better CTR. A person looking for dog food may be like "oh this place seems to sell more than just basic dog food, or oh cool i need biscuits too i can get them all here"
That's a whole other topic though, writing and experimenting with different messaging in title tags to increase CTR through persuasive copy to make yourself stand out among the competition.
-
Both Malachi and Irving share valid points. I will agree with both of them in concept but suggest a different implementation.
The reasoning definitely holds for exact match domains. When users want SEO information most will search Google for "SEO" without thinking of "SEO.com". It is very important to brand your site at every opportunity, and the title tag is one of the most influential opportunities available to a site owner.
In the example shared, irving is right the title seems spammy. It also is targeting too many keywords. Five keywords is simply too many. One is ideal, but you can stretch to two depending on the competitiveness of the keyword. My page title recommendation is: Dog Supplies | Dogs.com
Dog Food, Dog Toys, Dog Bedding, Dog Treats would each be separate categories and/or pages within the site, and each would have the appropriate title such as Dog Food | Dogs.com.
These titles show a clear focus for your page and brands your site, all in a pleasing, non-spammy manner.
-
I can completely understand your opinion on the spam issue. I think in the particular case it wouldnt be regarded as spam (i may be wrong) Your solution is great as well. and the additional plural is great.
-
I disagree. 4 instances of DOG in the title tag and 4 instances of DOG in the meta description is way too spammy.
I would have two instances in the title tag and two in the meta tag at most.
Dog Supplies | Food, Bed, Toys and Treats for Dogs | Buy Online
Featuring a large selection of dog supplies, we carry every major brand of food, bed, toys and treats for dogs of all sizes and breeds.
don't forget using the plural
-
I think you provided a great example on describing your question. For this particular case, i think they did it absolutely correct. if the domain and branding are the same, use the domain.com and then use descriptors of the top content you want to focus on within the website. From there link or use high value assets to promote the content within the brand.
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
-
Deciding on domain
Hi, I have a company website that I have access to and it's bcannon.remax-mississippi.com. It allows you to choose a domain and have it 301 redirected so I changed it to Oxfordmissrealestate.com. I noticed that the page and domain authority for bcannon.remax-mississippi.com was pretty high so I took off the Oxfordmissrealestate.com domain and just left it as this subdomain. My question is, would you leave it how it is as the subdomain or change it? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | Veebs0 -
Unkown H1-Tag on my webshop
Dear community, I have a unknown and undetecable H1-tag on my webshop. I'm currently optimizing my webshop and get stuck by two H1-tags on every page. Does anyone know where i can remove this H1-tag? My webshop URL: www.rijwielcashencarry.nl Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | rijwielcashencarry0400 -
Best practice for Portfolio Links
I have a client with a really large project portfolio (over 500 project images), which causes their portfolio page to have well over the 100 links that are recommended. How can I reduce this without reducing the number of photos they can upload?
On-Page Optimization | | HochKaren0 -
Prices in title tag
At our ecommerce site adwords ads generally perform a lot better when the product price is included in the ad title. Does anyone here have any experience and data on CTR with including product prices in title tags of product / category pages?
On-Page Optimization | | ese0 -
How long does it take Google to index new title tags and meta descriptions?
Hi, I have launched a website ( www.bookkeepingking.com )and would like Google to reflect the latest title tag changes in its results. How long does it typically take to happen? I believe this might be one reason why the site may not be generating any search traffic yet, even though I haven't yet begun any link building yet. A couple of notes: When I enter site:bookkeepingking.com in the search box, the pages show up, but with the old/default title and meta descriptions. I am using the Yoast for SEO plugin I have resubmitted the XML map - Yoast created 2... /page-sitemap.xml and /post-sitemap.xml The changes were made about 1 week ago. WMT says that there are zero errors. Is there something I may have missed? Or do I just need to give it more time? Thanks in advance for your help. Erin
On-Page Optimization | | HiddenPeak0 -
Which is Best Practice for creating URLs for subdomain?
My website is related to education. We have created sub domains for all major colleges, universities & Entrance exams like Gre, Toefl ETC. for eg: amityuniversity.abc.com (Amity is Name of University ) Now if have to mention city name in URL as well (college is located in multiple locations) amityuniversity-delhi.abc.com
On-Page Optimization | | rohanarora536
amityuniversitydelhi.abc.com Now my Q is can we use hyphens in sub domains if we have to add city name or shall we create without using any hyphens. In Directory structure we can always separate words with hyphens, can we follow same practice in subdomain as well Which is a best URL for subdomain amity-university-delhi.abc.com
amityuniversity-delhi.abc.com
or amityuniversitydelhi.abc.com0 -
Title Tag, Are the Keywords Plucked out of it?
We are working on redoing our site and I read the article from rand about how to properly format title tags, here http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tactical-seo-how-many-termsphrases-should-i-target-on-a-single-page He showed how he could take 6 keywords and use them all in the title tag: The title Tag:
On-Page Optimization | | donford
Ted Baker London - Men's Clothing Collections 2005-2008 | Sartorialmoz.org The keywords:
Ted Baker
Ted Baker London
Ted Baker Clothing
Ted Baker Mens
Ted Baker Mens Clothing
Ted Baker Mens Collection So what I am wondering is the keyword Ted Baker Mens Collection actually getting found. In this case we are dealing with a contraction (men's) and a plural form of a keyword (collections). Is it plucked out from the title tag above?
Like this? Ted Baker London - Men's Clothing Collections 2005-2008 | Sartorialmoz.org In his article he goes on to say the biggest mistake he sees is, unfortunately exactly the way our site was built 6 years ago. That is people doing this: Ted Baker, Ted Baker London, Ted Baker Clothing, Ted Baker Men's Clothing, Ted Baker Clothing Collection - Buy Online Now at Manamialameseo.com Our site does just that, while we are PR 4 and get decent traffic for the business we are in, we are doing a huge update with new pages, information, and most importantly trying to get all the SEO the best as possible. I want to make sure before we make these what could be huge impact changes that search engines do in fact Pluck the keywords from the title tag, and they are not required to be together. Thank you for any thoughts, answers and most importantly your time. Example following this formula: Our Top 3 Keywords:
Molded Rubber
Rubber Molding
Custom Molded Rubber Our Old way:
Title: Custom Molded Rubber, Rubber Molding, Molded Rubber
The new way:
Title: Custom Molded Rubber - Molding Services | OurSite.com0 -
Keyword domains
Hello, I am the proprietor of RacquetSource.com, Is there any merit to using keyword domains and have them redirect to the site, or a specific page on the site? For Example, the keyword term, Squash Racquets, if I were to purchase a domain name, squash-racquets.com and have it redirect to http://www.racquetsource.com/squash-racquets-s/95.htm will this effect positively to my search ranking of the keyword term Squash Racquets? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Cheers Geoff
On-Page Optimization | | GeoffBatterham0