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  4. Is it damaging to have TOO long a title tag these days? i.e. well over character limit

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Is it damaging to have TOO long a title tag these days? i.e. well over character limit

On-Page Optimization
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  • cschwartzel
    cschwartzel last edited by Jun 20, 2012, 5:05 PM

    Is it damaging to have TOO long a title tag these days? i.e. well over character limit. I learned that title tags should be around 70 characters. I am new at this, but have a client that has three times that, with the same three keyword phrases repeating 3-4 times. And then NO h1's or h2's in the text......advice? Rookie here 🙂

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • icecarats
      icecarats @cschwartzel last edited by Jun 20, 2012, 6:29 PM Jun 20, 2012, 6:29 PM

      Basically the same as above; the description has almost no SEO effect apparently any more, but does have a measurable human effect since it will usually be displayed under your title in a search result. I've seen what you describe on my own pages, where Google will sometimes select part of the body instead of the Metatag, but I'm not sure if that's because they found an 'exact match' in the body text, they think it's better, or what.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • cschwartzel
        cschwartzel last edited by Jun 20, 2012, 5:41 PM Jun 20, 2012, 5:41 PM

        How about TOO long a meta description tag? The Meta is way too long. Google isn't even pulling it on some pages, just skipping over the meta that is called out in code, and using the first line or 2 of the body text. I can see the google meta tag when I search, then I view the source code and the meta is different. They don't match!

        I have read that maybe google is doing this because the meta doesn't match the rest of the page? So they decide which meta to use? Ever heard of such a thing. And yes, I see no H1 or H2 in the content....going to fix that too.....

        icecarats 1 Reply Last reply Jun 20, 2012, 6:29 PM Reply Quote 0
        • icecarats
          icecarats last edited by Jun 20, 2012, 5:38 PM Jun 20, 2012, 5:36 PM

          I would agree, but not necessarily from an SEO/'Google will downgrade you' perspective. It's not exactly clear what effect the title has, though it very obviously does have an effect. However the title is often the first thing a searcher sees when they are presented with your link as a search result, which means to me that making them as 'human' readable friendly is as important as having keyword prominence. Mind you I'm coming from an ecommerce angle, where information about the product has to be communicated clearly in those 70 characters, it may be different in other categories.

          As for the keyword stuffing and H1, yes those are definitely onpage elements that you should get sorted out.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • NakulGoyal
            NakulGoyal last edited by Jun 20, 2012, 5:38 PM Jun 20, 2012, 5:29 PM

            Sounds like your client clearly needs the SEO / Webmaster Best Practices cleared out and taken care of. Help the Search Engines Rank your website. Provide them enough information that they can rank you. Too little or Too much, both can lead to "no benefits".

            So yes, I would optimize those page titles to both SEO and User Friendly. If nobody is able to see those 210 characters, why have them. Also work on a SEO and User Friendly Description as well as H tags if and as needed.

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