Help needed with <TITLE> tags to maximise search rankings

Does order make a difference?

[sleepy]

Im presently working through the title tags <TITLE> <TITLE> for a site of mine that includes data-based generated pages (PHP).

And have the following questions...

1. How important is it that each page has a DIFFERENT title?

2. Which is BETTER (or does it not matter) ...
Webmasterworld.com - Best forum on web
or ... Best forum on web - Webmasterworld.com

3. Should I include site name (eg., Webmasterworld.com) in the title of EVERY page

Thanks,
Sleepy

[robotsdobetter]

3. Should I include site name (eg., Webmasterworld.com) in the title of EVERY page

Yes, I do on all my sites.

1. How important is it that each page has a DIFFERENT title?

When it comes to SEO I don't think it helps, but you should for your visitors, so they know where they are at.

2. Which is BETTER (or does it not matter) ...
Webmasterworld.com - Best forum on web
or ... Best forum on web - Webmasterworld.com

Does not Matter.

[ken_b]

>>> 1. How important is it that each page has a DIFFERENT title? <<<

Very important. Each page title should concisely describe that specific page.

>>> 2. Which is BETTER (or does it not matter) ... Webmasterworld.com - Best forum on web
or ... Best forum on web - Webmasterworld.com <<<

Try to get the keyowrds as close to the beginning of the title as possible.

>>> 3. Should I include site name (eg., Webmasterworld.com) in the title of EVERY page <<<

Site names in the title may help with branding. But titles are limited in effective length so I would go for the keywords for that page first and branding with the site name second, if there is room left.

[CygnusX1]

I agree with you whole heartly ken_b. On our website, we have been in the top 10 of 90% of our keyword phrases for the last 4 years. We use the title to the best degree we can. After all it is the most valuable property on a webpage.

CygnusX1

[piskie]

I am convinced that the first 3 words in the HTML Title earn the most points in the whole Google Algorithm. (Duck)

[robotsdobetter]

I am convinced that the first 3 words in the HTML Title earn the most points in the whole Google Algorithm.

I disagree, I think Links are the most important thing of SEO.

[piskie]

I meant within the page itself.

[chokan]

hi,everybody!

my question is what the size of every pharse is the best?
thanks!

[CygnusX1]

On the title, I don't exceed 67 characters with my good keyword phrases in the title meta tags. I can usually get several keyword phrases in the title with this amount of characters. Goggle will cut off the title display in the search listings at 67 characters, but the title will still be counting. Although I’m not sure how much each keyword after 67 characters is worth.

Now on other search engines like MSN, you can get more characters to show up in the results. Even though this is true, I still try my best to limit my title to 67 characters or under.

CygnusX1

[Robert Charlton]

[webmasterworld.com...]

[bekyed]

We have good results with titles of 15 or 20 keywords on our mature sites, google obviously cuts the title short but the keywords are still counting even at the very end as long as it appears in the body of the text as well.

Bek.

[bekyed]

I also agree with piskie that the first 3 keywords are important on a PAGE title, try moving them around and watch what happens, especially in a competitive industry.

Bek.

[bekyed]

Cygnus. You may be missing out on a few keywords, you can quite easily, without spamming use lots more natural phrases and keywords in the title to describe your page and these will still count.
We do this all the time and have had no problems.
Long titles are the best.

Bek.

[Robert Charlton]

Long titles are the best.

I think this is way oversimplified and generally not true.

Longer titles mean less focus. In competitive areas, focus may be important.

Proximity of words in a title, and on a page, is also important, again more so for competitive phrases than for less competitive phrases. Adding extra words might space out some phrases you're targeting too much.

For example... if you're targeting big widgets, inserting "red, blue, and green" in your title, as in "big red, blue, and green widgets," might hurt you for searches on big widgets, even though it might help you on green widgets. Depending on how competitive red widgets is, this longer title may or may not achieve what you want on this phrase. Ditto with blue.

On the other hand, if big widgets is not supercompetitive, and if you have good inbound links and good on-page content, you might end up ranking on a variety of phrases... ie, big widgets, red widgets, blue widgets, green widgets, and the latter three with big as an additional modifier.

I've seen titles that are lists of phrases, and I suppose if you're targeting your pages that way, it's better to have a phrase in the title than not... but this is often not a very strategic way to target a page because it doesn't make the most efficient use of inbound anchor text.

And yes, order does make a difference.

[pageoneresults]

Here's more information from Search Engine World...

• Webpage Title for High Search Engine Rankings [searchengineworld.com]
  
• Google Research Project [searchengineworld.com]

[ken_b]

Webpage Title for High Search Engine Rankings

That article, by Brett Tabbke, mentions keeping titles to 50 characters. I thought 63 characters was the more commonly mentioned limit.

[CygnusX1]

bekyed

I have wondered if I should add more keywords beyond the 67 characters that goggle will should. I just may try it.

Thanks,