what title tag content may cause duplicate filtering

should we remove domain name and generic call to action from titles

[latimer]

Trying to find the comment on how having the domain name in the meta title and description could be triggering google filtering for duplicate content.

In the past, we have watered down our keywords in the meta title tags with a call to action - "shop here we have everything..." behind the inserted product descriptions. Long tail searches usually do fairly well.

With thousands of product pages, some of them being somewhat similar, what are the opinions on removing the domain name and call to action words that appear on every page across the site to avoid filtering? Maybe replace this with some breadcrumb data from the page?

[Robert Charlton]

latimer - The company name in a title tag that includes other words will not result in any duplication filtering... at least I've never seen it nor heard of it.

On the other hand, I have seen a bunch of pages with extremely varied content but with identical titles... something like "Company Name - Archives"... get relegated to dupe results.

You are right that as you add additional vocabulary beyond your keywords, you are "watering down" your keywords, but, beyond search, titles need to prompt clickthroughs and assist in branding. Keyword Keyword Keyword titles aren't very effective marketing tools and aren't likely to get clicked.

with a call to action - "shop here we have everything..."

On the other hand, your call to action sounds excessively long, and it may be that it won't display on Google. Including both your domain name and your call to action is probably hurting more than helping. I don't know that these would get you "filtered" as dupe content, but they may put you way down in relevant results....

Here's a recent discussion on title length in Google...

Why does Google's SERP page titles truncate after 64 chars?
There's plenty of space left...
[webmasterworld.com...]

Here's a thread that discusses keyword placement and the company name in titles and descriptions....

placement of keywords
title or description
[webmasterworld.com...]

[Robert Charlton]

The company name in a title tag that includes other words will not result in any duplication filtering... at least I've never seen it nor heard of it.

Should have said, "that includes other unique word combinations." You could have a company name and an identical set of words and still have title duplication.

[Marcia]

It can be a problem when the company name includes a keyword phrase, like if it's the primary core phrase of the site. And as a side note, there are other fingerprints that can also trigger dup/similarity filtering; it isn't only the page title.

To clarify, when we're referring to the "duplicate" filter, are we referring to the same thing as the filter for clicking to see "very similar pages?"

[dibbern2]

I place the breadcrumbs from on-page content in the meta description.

Re:repeated phrases in titles; I've been burned by that, but it was 100 or so pages that all contained the same phrase. (I got bumped into supplemental land.) I now use about 10 variations of that phrase which I alternate as I build new content.

Took some thinking to come up with the 10 variations, tho.