Forum Moderators: open
<html><head><title>blablabla........
vs.
<html>
<head>
<title>blablabla......
I seem to be getting some better listings with this - however, it could be due to other factors as well.
Could reducing the amount of carriage returns improve ranking?
<html>
<head>
<title>
vs.
<html>
<head>
<meta this>
<meta that>
<title>
Many moons ago I used the second set on a dynamically generated page template and ended up having thousands of pages with no title listed! That hurt.
But, askjoe, if you've noticed some sort of difference with having these things on the same line, it is worth exploring. Can you be more specific about your findings? Like were these top level pages or deeper. Did they have external links or only internal ones? What sort of PR are we talking about? Is it possible that anything else changed such as your competitors getting banned or losing backlinks? Did you gain backlinks to these pages?
If you think title tag position is important, why not put it the 1st line and throw away the <html> and <head> tag. :)
Once it gets to the end of the line it goes to the next - and so on and so on. The faster, and higher the title is placed, the more weight it would carry.
During the last update I achieved an estimated 20% better listing then the time before - although I did some other mods to my site - I didn't expect this much of a jump in terms of listing placement.
I was just wondering if anyone else had attributed carriage returns in relationship to the title as way to improve ranking - that's all. If they had I was going to go ahead and make this mod throughout all of my websites.
Ok... Kidding aside. There is some logic to what you're proposing however I don't think it makes a difference because the amount of kb wasted within a head tag is pretty infinitesimal (like what is it? one kb for a carriage return?).
I commend your spirit of inquisitiveness and the boldness to ask the question in the first place. It's a good question.
Has anyone noticed the benefit of having your title tag
(hammering noise...sawing noise.... sound of electric drill... jackhammer pounding asphalt...)
I'll tell you the next time I get freshbotted. ;o
Never mind!
Even if a question seems on the fringe you never know if it will become next month's seo gospel because some of the things that are accepted seem outlandish if I try to explain them to a client.
But, I will tell you that I've always placed the <title> after the <head> as I'm anal. I've always been a believer of presenting your most important content first and of course we all know how important the <title> element is. My <head> usually looks like this...
<head>
<title>
<meta description>
<meta keywords>
<style>
<script>
</head>
Always in that order.
No apparent change in positioning (still #3).
