Getting the most out of title headers

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Getting the most out of title headers

Specific over general. Using title headers properly.

jeffers

2:05 pm on Mar 3, 2004 (gmt 0)

As a non technical site owner I have had some success with good rankings. I want to improve my use of title headers. At the moment I use a group of 14 title words or so on each page. Words that, mixed up, could reflect eight or nine search terms which are then reflected in the body text of each page. Should I be more specific and just use one, small, four word pithy phrase in each title header. Will this improve my chance of improving my position for this specific phrase?

ppg

10:01 am on Mar 4, 2004 (gmt 0)

Hi Jeffers, welcome to WebmasterWorld.

There's a load of good info in this thread [webmasterworld.com] regarding titles, should help you.

jeffers

11:28 am on Mar 4, 2004 (gmt 0)

What a great resource! I must start learning your technical terms so I can get up to speed with all this. Back to the drawing Board for me!

Mohamed_E

1:56 pm on Mar 4, 2004 (gmt 0)

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, jeffers!

Since you are new here let me also suggest that you read Brett's Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone [webmasterworld.com] thread.

Please note that it is two years old, and this is a dynamic area, but general principles hold up longer than specific recommendations. Most of the former still hold good, some of the latter may have aged.

g1smd

12:02 am on Mar 5, 2004 (gmt 0)

What exactly do you mean by title headers?

Are you talking about <title> in the <head> section?

Or, about usage of <h1> to <h6> headings, in the <body> section?

stargeek

12:26 am on Mar 5, 2004 (gmt 0)

Hi Jim!, welcome to webmasterworld.

jeffers

1:09 pm on Mar 7, 2004 (gmt 0)

My definition of title headers is the blue line across the top of a web page where a description of the page goes. Does it have another name?

madman21

1:19 pm on Mar 7, 2004 (gmt 0)

No. Title works. :)

g1smd

6:10 pm on Mar 7, 2004 (gmt 0)

Along the top of the page of content (heading tag), or along the top of the browser window (<title> tag)?

stargeek

6:38 pm on Mar 7, 2004 (gmt 0)

the stuff between the <title> and the </title> tags is the "title"

stargeek

6:39 pm on Mar 7, 2004 (gmt 0)

the stuff between the <title> and the </title> tags is the "title"

jeffers

7:32 pm on Mar 8, 2004 (gmt 0)

Thanks for that. As I am writing this the "title header" as I call it is "post message:Google News::"

On the top of each of my web pages I put a series of words that I anticipate my potential clients will use in order to find my services. Hope this clears this up....so what is the official name/description for what I have just described?

stargeek

7:42 pm on Mar 8, 2004 (gmt 0)

You mean a string of keywords at the top of the visible text there for no reason other than SEO? I'd call that spam ;p
If its inside the <head> tags, you could be refering to the meta tags: description, keywords etc.

Can you see the text in a browser when you look at the page?

SyntheticUpper

8:13 pm on Mar 8, 2004 (gmt 0)

A quick check of Google serps indicates that the title is taken very seriously.

Here's an idea:

Give your page a a sensible and relevant title!

(apologies for being controversial :)

cabbie

10:06 pm on Mar 8, 2004 (gmt 0)

Here's my controversial idea.
Load up the <title>... <title> with as many keywords as there are on your site and use these keywords in the body of text in outbound link text.

Hardwood Guy

11:18 pm on Mar 8, 2004 (gmt 0)

Here's my controversial idea.
Load up the <title>... <title> with as many keywords as there are on your site and use these keywords in the body of text in outbound link text.

cabbie:

With all due respect, I see sites like that and they make me sick. It doesn't look like it works well in having a "clickable title"

I try to get a few important keywords in there and add a sensible phrase or even a question with a? mark. It sure is a change from all the other repititous stuff people use in my industry...like "green rapotoles, hard rapotoles, rapotolers, rapatole."

I don't know if that's a word but it's a change of pace from seeing widgets used in examples on WW.

Controversial? Yes:)

stargeek

6:04 am on Mar 9, 2004 (gmt 0)

page titles can be used in interesting ways, here's one example:
I optimized a page for an uncompetative niche with a title that had one non-stopword, non-keyword word, before my target keyword, and one after. This allowed my page to actually gain spots during update florida. When the algo "rolledback" and/or the niche got more competative, and i was pushed out of the top spot by another seo's competitor, I was able to remove the extra words in the title, one by one, over a period of 4 days to quickly (over-night) regain the top spot.