Should I Change Page Titles to Include the Word "Buy"?

[Planet13]

Hi there, Everyone:

Do you have a strategy for when you should use a title (or a page name) that includes the word "buy" or "buy online"?

For example, I have lots of sites with page titles / file names like:

Spanish Widgets (mydomain.com/spanish-widgets.html)

What is the best strategy to get visitors who search for:

"buy spanish widgets" or "buy spanish widgets online" ?

1) Just change the page titles?
2) Change the page titles AND the file name / URL?
3) Add a NEW page that targets that keyword?
4) Just try to get links with the anchor text "buy spanish widgets"?
5) None / All of the above?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[whatson]

Only include buy and online if the visitor can actually buy the products online.

1) Yes
2) don't change the url, looks too spammy, and unlikely to make any difference
3) As long as you can buy online with your existing pages then just re-optimize them.
4) That will help too
5) n/a

[MrFewkes]

I had heard that the algo looks for signals on pages which indicate that the page is selling.......

If this is true AND google likes to boost sites which are selling something (its preference is to rank commerce sites over info sites where the topic is the same) - then yes - the word BUY is a strong signal.

There are many others aswell.........

Have I seen improvement in my serps by adding these signals?

NO

:/

[Planet13]

@ whatson:

3) As long as you can buy online with your existing pages then just re-optimize them.

Yes, they are ecommerce pages, so they definitely CAN / SHOULD buy from those pages.

@ MrFewkes:

Have I seen improvement in my serps by adding these signals?

NO

did you see any changes to your traffic or your conversion rate after adding the signals?

At least, were more people coming to your site using the keywords "buy widgets" (instead of just using "widgets" as the keyword)?

[Planet13]

Also, one other thing:

How about putting a self link (to the same page) with the anchor text "buy spanish widgets" ?

Again, it would be a self link to the same page (mydomain.com/spanish-widgets.html).

[MrFewkes]

Planet - I have seen others do the self link - I cant prove either way if it helps rank.

In terms of the traffic or conversion - any increase was so small as to not be noticable (or decrease for that matter on reflection) (after adding in my BUY words to the title so it showed in the serps).

My terms which are relevant to this post are small at about 50 per day exact country specific - so very very hard to tell - and I hover up and down on page 1 all over the show so again - the metrics just arent there.

I have had sites on page 3 though - which I added many signals to which are commerce relevant - "Buy Now" - "Price" - "In Stock" to name some more - no movement in serp.