Title Tag.

Whats the best format.

[Fiver_321]

We know the title tag is important, but what do people say is the best way to utilise the tag for targetting a single keyword.

Is it best - when targetting the word "Widget" to have just that word in the title, or is it best perhaps to have say "The Widget" or "Our Widget" or "New Widget".

Any advice appreciated.

[Brett_Tabke]

Seo 101:

Study what else is getting ranked.

Make yourself a spread sheet and start walking through listings. Record at what position in the title tag the keyword is located. Note how many times the kw is repeated (if at all) in the title tag.

Within 30 mins of surfing, you should be able to come back here and give us a good guestimate of how to build a good google title. Go...

[Fiver_321]

I already did that, but cannot seem to find any conclusive evidence as all permutations appear catered for.

One entry
Start and End
Widget.com in the title
Start Middle and End.
One word then Widget and other way round.

Where there are examples of listings not containing the word in the title, I assume that these are high due to inbound anchor text, and factors on the page itself.

Experimentation is difficult at the moment on G as there doesnt seem to be any new pages being crawled.

[DaveN]

try it for the top twenty in 10 competitive areas.

200 result are a good starting point.

If you know how to screen scrape or code a script then try top 20 in 1000 different keywords
DaveN

[edited by: DaveN at 12:55 pm (utc) on June 24, 2003]

[netguy]

Fiver_321...

Due to the importance of the page title, we, like many, have performed quite a bit of research in this area - monitoring various sites and keyword usage.

I beleive it all comes down to relatively short singular use, plural use, and branding.

In our case, our sites are typically 2 to 1 plural. Determine what people are searching for (using Overture or AdWord tools) to see what should be prioritized. (If you are selling scissors or pants, this determination is easy).

Title:

1). Widgets by [Company Name]
- provides 1st position keyword strength (plural), as well as branding;

OR

2). Widgets by [company name] - A Great Widget for [industry]
- provides 1st position keyword strength (plural), branding, AND singular keyword strength.

If there are different types of widgets, then target "Blue Widgets" on a separate page with that key phrase as the title.

As far as comparing what else is getting well ranked, it is Always a good idea to see what the potential competition is up to - but duplicating their titles isn't necessarily going to help.

In one case, we noticed a top #1 And #2 listing for a competitive keyword that used a rediculous title for both. After further investigation, they were (and still are) using hidden image maps cross-linked to hundreds of their other sites.

- Titles are important, but there are many other factors (good and bad) that can get a site to the top...

[mil2k]

If the competition is not tough then use your creative brains and can go for a long title. If the competetion is tough then try and limit the words in your titles. Study the top 10 results for a keyword in your industry. Put yourself in the position of a surfer to think what would attrack you most? There are some excellent articles by digitalghost in Content and Copywriting Forum [webmasterworld.com].

There are many ways to go about it and you will find your method with experience. HTH :)