The first thing you will notice is that - after adding a Title - when someone types in your domain name the top browser bar (at least in I.E.) almost instantly publishes that title that you entered.
Why is this important IMHO?
Because almost instantly you are sending a message to the uncertain direct naviagtor that "there's something more here than just a domain name".
My title "messages" typically run something like "Blue widget resource link for buying and selling blue widgets". Tailor the message to the domain and tie the message directly to the hand optimized links.
Also, if it takes two seconds or more for the full lander frameset to load you've given the domain visitor something to occupy their mind with whilst it's loading: Read the title, fella. "Oh, yes, look at that test up there in the header, yes, that's what I came here looking for."
So, by using titles the lander begins to look like a website.
Next, as the page loads, IF you've bothered to hand optimize your lander with on-domain-topic keyword phrase links - based upon researching the frequency of searches employing the keyword AND the value of keyword phrase - THEN the appearance of those keyword phrases - looking a bit like content and a bit like navigation links - further builds confidence in the vistor that "Yes, this is something useful and directly responsive to the reason(s) why I typed in BlueWidgets.com".
It's early in the process but it appears that adding titles that reinforce "what's to be found here" for any domain may increase the CTR on your domains.
Why? Well, the adding the title line is like pre-selling.
Anyone here ever hear of the benefits of pre-selling?
Also, it's about positively reinforcing the visitors behavior: "Yes, you are not only a good guesser you are also smart and correct. You WILL find blue widget info . . . because . . 1st a header message instantly said so in the title bar . . and then the links that first appeared said so in their keyword phrases . . . so you, clever visitor, took a chance and clicked on a hand optimized link and lo-and-behold: Magically, an advertiser inventory feed (hopefully) of additional text and links to sites offering discount blue widgets appears."
Try it.
I'm simple. It works on me and for me. The title pre-sells me. The on topic links deepens my belief that I'm on to something. Then I click on a hand coded link . . . and . . . and . . Oh dang! Do NOT click on an ad! That is not fair so don't do it! (Been almost a year and don't think I've even accidently clicked on 1, so I'm hoping the angels are on my side still.)
Now, imagine how the 2-tier optimization it might work on someone really smart, savvy, . . .
I'm not saying you can do this for 1000s of domains, but you can start with a few to see what effect it has . . then . .
P.S. You owe me a beer if this works for you, improving your CTR and hopefully the ROI for the advertisers supporting the feeds.
At least give it a go on a couple dozen of your top performing domains and see if things inch up a bit. Little improvements Xs many domains can add up.
Happy domaining.
If you haven't played with your PPC company's tools that (hopefully) allow you to add a Meta-Title and Meta-Description to your domains I suggest that you do so.
Just wondering - do most of the domain parking programmes allow you to do this? 95% of my parked domains are at one company and they don't seem to provide any way of setting Meta-data. I don't think there's anything stopping me from putting everything in a frame though and thus adding Meta-data and titles, etc., to it.
