Looking for opinions on structuring meta title tags/page title/menu title/H1

[Brenda.Haines]

Hi everyone I am hoping a few of you can share your opinions. I have been having conversations (okay, healthy debates) about how to write/structure meta title tag and how to compliment them with the H1, page title, menu name. To help explain the thought processes I will use a pretend keyword. How about "screwdriver".

Case: (I made this up) we are redesigning a website for a construction tools manufacturing company (pretend name: ABC Tools) targeting OEMs who are interested in purchasing large quantities of tools. The product categories (to become main menu items) are Screwdrivers, Nails, Drills, and Hammers. (bear with me .... this is just an example I am making up on the fly)

K. Circling back to screwdrivers - let's say we have one landing page (a primary category page and in the main menu) listing products and great details about screwdrivers. Focus keywords are screwdriver manufacturer, screwdriver supplier, construction screwdrivers

Below are questions being debated. If you are willing ... how would you address these questions? And, can you explain WHY?

QUESTION ONE: How would you structure the meta title tag (feel free to write one of your own)

1. Screwdriver Manufacturer - Construction Screwdriver | ABC Tools
2. ABC Tools - US-based Screwdriver Manufacturer Supplier Near You
3. High-Quality Screwdrivers for Construction with ABC Tools

QUESTION TWO:

• how would you write the H1 on the page? Would it match the meta tag? OR, would you write something different using the primary keyword?

QUESTION THREE

• Remembering this is not a blog post ... it is a primary landing page linked to the main navigation. What would the menu title be? (remember the product categories above are how the main menu items are bucketed)

1. Screwdrivers
2. Screwdriver Manufacturer

Typically in WordPress, the H1 and the menu title is auto-populated using the page title (not the title tag)... So, if we use Screwdrivers as the page title but we want the H1 to match the meta title tag, would we manually change the H1? Or, have the page title and title tag match, but manually change the menu item?

[ClaytonJ]

Hi

Never going to disagree with Rand. The first analysis is the actual SERP you want to rank on. So audit the SERP.  What are the Title tags that are ranking? What is the content that is working? So start there on your Title tag. That should make it an easy decision.

WordPress only auto populates if you want, can set as per your requirements.

Confused on menu title.. is that the navigation?

[Brenda.Haines]

Thank you for the response! In an attempt to better explain my question I believe I overcomplicated it ...

Your response is helpful, but also triggered more questions in addition to the ones I had.

Here are questions I am still working on addressing:

1. Your title tag example struck another question for me. Currently, we use the same structure which would be summarized by "Keyword | keyword version 2 | Brand/Company Name". Based on my understanding of Rand's recent Whiteboard Friday: https://moz.com/blog/one-hour-guide-to-seo-keyword-targeting-on-page-optimization this would not be considered best practice anymore. Rather, your title would be written to say Fast Car Insurance Quotes online with Example... It's not just keywords and brand, it's compelling, etc. Here is another supporting article: https://moz.com/blog/title-tag-hacks-whiteboard-friday Thoughts on that?

2. Based on almost all guides findable and the fact that WordPress auto-populates the H1 with the page title, does the page title need (or should) to match the meta title tag?

3. Does the menu name need to match the page title? In your case - the menu name itself (assuming in the main menu) does it need to include the longtail version. In other words - how much impact does the menu title itself have on SEO? If any? And does it need to match the page title/H1?

[ClaytonJ]

Hi

I am an unclear but will frame from car insurance and hope it assists. As am not sure on which customer queries to target in your scenario - dangerous to make a suggestion without a better understanding of your business model and products highest ROI. The customer queries should be data driven, ie volume. If that is the goal. We use semrush. moz and keyword planner and a few tools.

Lets say chasing car insurance, this got a client to No 1. This is a general answer..

The url we recommend be

www.example.com/car-insurance/

The Title tag we would recommend be Car Insurance | Compare Car Insurance Quotes | Example

If not a comparison site - Car Insurance | Car Insurance Quotes | Example

Now for the H1.

It should be different from the URL and Title but contextual..

So lets say Car Insurance Quote or Car Insurance Australia

The meta description should on our view the targeted keyword once and be about clickability..  not sure if that gets you there, but hope it helps.

Go get em.