Let’s talk about the HTML title element within the source code of your webpage.
This is the on-page source code element that continues to be the primary element that the search engines use to determine what keywords your page is actually about—and ranks your pages accordingly. We are also talking about the descriptive element within the SERPs that people use when choosing which link to click.
So, let’s take a minute to make sure you’re getting this important element of keyword placement correct.
The best title tags focus on three characteristics.
1. They include the exact phrase the page should rank for.
2. They place that exact phrase at the very beginning of the title.
3. They repeat that phrase in some variation within the tag.
Let’s say your goal is a top ranking for the search term Dog Collars. Take a look at a couple of very good title tag examples:
good title tag
Dog Collars – Find the Best Collars for Your Dog – Doggy World
good title tag
Dog Collars – Find the Best dog collar at Doggy World
As you can see both of these title tags place the most important keyword phrase at the very beginning of the title tag. Then you want to strategically reinforce the main keyword with a closely related variation of the keyword. By doing so you are helping to boost the ranking for the closely related keyword-phrase variations. In the first example we repeat the exact phrase while the second uses a slight variation of the phrase to repeat the target keywords. Both strategies are excellent.
When deciding to target a singular or plural version, or to pursue word-order variations, you should consider two factors:
* Your keyword research — How much traffic are those related keywords getting?
* Your competitive analysis — How hard will it be to outrank the competition for those keywords?
Keep in mind that the example title tags above are kept under the 65-character limit Google uses when displaying titles in their search results. While the Google bots will spider (but not display) titles of well over 1000 characters, they will crop longer title tags off mid-sentence when displaying them to users. This will result in unattractive title tags that will lower click-through rates.
As you can also see, the company name—Doggy World is placed at the end of the title where it will interfere less with the importance of your primary keywords. It is debatable as to whether the company name belongs in the title tag at all. It is a fact that the company name does not belong at the beginning of the title unless, for some strange reason, your company name is also your target keyword.
It is usually unnecessary to put your company name in the title tag at all. This is because your company name is not a competitive keyword. Nor should it be difficult to rank for. In general, the only good reason for adding a company name to a title tag is for branding purposes. This is an important title tag fact to keep in mind.
Stay tuned for part 2 of Title Tag Do’s & Don’ts.
Duplicate Content Problem Solved?
Blessings upon us, only last week the major search engines announced that they have agreed upon a way to reduce duplicate content and make things easier for everyone. Like trademarking an invention, or signing a painting, original webpages will have the ability to claim their work. This solution… the new canonical tag!
Now a web masters can rest easier knowing that this tag will drastically reduce flagging for duplicate content.
Duplicate content comes in many different forms, one of the most popular being the use of multiple URLs pointing to the same page. This happens for lots of reasons. An online store may have various pages for multiple products sorted by different sizes, prices and so on. Another example could be a company’s affiliates using the codes at the end of the URL so they can track their own sales.
I always use “/?src=seoqueen” at the end of the URLs I’m linking to in order for the websites I’m linking to know I passed them a link. So now my website that had only 50 pages could now have 10 different URLs pointing to those pages I linked to; causing the search engine spiders to index 500 pages!
This can be a problem for a couple of reasons.
So how do we use the new canonical tag?
You simply add this <link> tag to specify your preferred version of the url:
<link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.example.com/product.php?item=dog-collars” />
inside the <head> section of the duplicate content URLs:
http://www.example.com/product.php?item=dogcollars-dog&category=designercollars
http://www.example.com/product.php?item=dogcollars&trackingid=1234&sessionid=5678
and Google will understand that the duplicates all refer to the canonical URL: http://www.example.com/product.php?item=dog-collars. Additional URL properties, like PageRank and related signals, are transferred as well.
Good luck and have fun adding the new canonical tag to your pages.
Did you know Google likes faster-loading pages! Are your pages loading fast enough?
Well, it’s true, in web-based business, less is more. If you’re a business owner with a website, it’s likely you are unaware of the way Google ranks your site. Does your page take a long time to load? Have you been waiting desperately for a page to load only to find that suddenly you have grandchildren? Many business owners do not know that the longer it takes a page to load, the higher the user turnover, and thus the lower ranking.
We all know from experience that eternal-loads kill the initial desire of the customer. It has also been scientifically shown that slow loading webpage can hurt your visitor experience. Avoid having your pages loaded with Flash. Cut down on the bells and whistles. If your pages have lots of graphics, or your server is regularly down or slow, then you have a major customer attraction and ultimately retention problem.
No one benefits from visitors promptly leaving a site. You want to keep your pages lean and mean so as to cut down on load time and keep your business pages indexed. The longer the load time, the longer it can take the search engine spiders to index them or, of course, they may not index them at all. It’s up to you to keep your pages efficient.
Slow load times is one of the 200 signals that Google uses to algorithmically rank a specific page and site within in its index. When a page loads slowly it causes Google to penalize your website thus making you go down in the rankings.
The slower your webpage loads the higher your bounce rate is going to be. The ‘bounce rate’ is determined by how many visitors come to your site and leave right away. A high bounce rate is a sign of poor page quality; most likely load time. According to Search Engine News, this policy is already in effect in Google Adwords. They state, “…site and page load times have been a factor for determining quality page scores for Adwords advertisers since March, 2008.”
It make sense then, that if Google is doing this in Adwords, they are also judging organic listings. For example, let’s apply this to a situation where a consumer is looking for dog beds. After clicking on a listing for dog beds in the organic search results, he or she sees an ad ranking at the top of the SERP’s (search engine results pages) but that URL is loading so slow time seems to stop. It happens all the time. What do you think that web surfer is going to do? Think about what YOU would do. You’re either going to get a load of laundry done (if you are patient) or like most of us you will find a page that loads right away.
When it comes down to the bottom line, load times and consumer ease of use are what makes or breaks an online venture. Google has provided a distinct advantage by allowing businesses to update, customize, and tailor their pages to the consumers, the end result is a local search engine that is accurate, easy to use, and provides the fastest, most qualified results to its audience at all times. Should you capitalize on the tools available with Google, you will receive more phone traffic and online orders.
Mr Jones will end up finding Fido’s new dog bed somewhere. You want that somewhere to be your site. Unless your page is stream-lined and fast, it will eventually drop in rankings and your competitors will jump in to provide Mr Jones with that bed and maybe even a brand new doghouse too.
To keep the Mr Joneses of the world shopping at your site, try to keep your load time down to four seconds. Every item of importance you wish to display should be up and visible with in 4 to 6 seconds of the user clicking on your webpage. If you are unsure about your page load times you can check your load time using this free tool. If you are coming up slow, you’re going to want to either optimize your pages and graphics or get a better server.
Remember! Google has lots of tools to make the most of your business. Every little bit of time you spend spiffing up your online advertising, you are investing in the future of your company. Like most good things, it works if you work it. The more you are willing to do the more you will be rewarded. There is an old adage that states Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to.
What are you willing to do to succeed?
