Your Crappy Title Tag Is Costing You Money - Are You On My List?
By Ryan · Print This Article
SEO Help - Hot Tip -After checking out one of my favorite lists in the blogosphere, the Top 100 Money Making Blogs list, over at 45n5.com, I had a sudden brainstorming session that almost literally blew my mind. I had been thinking about what to write on today, and I decided that it would be best to touch on the importance of having a good title tag for proper search engine optimization. So many experienced webmasters and bloggers do not have a clue at how well they could be ranking if they took the time to change their title tag to something that Google and friends would actually pay attention to. So I went on the hunt for crappy title tags, and boy, was I surprised…
Before I name the blogs I found that didn’t make the cut, I would like to tell you how important it is to have a proper title tag, whether it be for your blog or regular website.
Pay attention to the following sentence:
Title tags are one of the most important aspects of your site, to search engines and visitors.
Yes, it’s true. It has been confirmed many times over, and more so, it’s basically common sense that the first thing search engines see on your site is your title tag. So using that knowledge, don’t you think it would be a good idea to include something in your title tag that would make the search engines want to rank you for? Of course! You see, your first chance at telling Google or any other search engine (because they all rely on title tags) that you are an authority figure on a subject is that little bit of text that you have in between your <title></title >. Why not capitalize on this?
I’m not blaming you, it’s probably because you didn’t know, or didn’t pay attention when someone told you about it. No worries though…that’s why there are people like me to drill it into your head! If you’re ranking for a decent keyword (say you’re on the 3rd or 4th page) - just optimizing your title tag could be the key to moving up significantly in the search results, and fast.
You’re probably wondering what a good title tag looks like, right? Here are some tips to having the best possible title tag for your site:
1. Use page related, relevant keywords in your title.
2. If possible (and most of the time it is), use the keyword near the beginning.
3. Avoid using a keyword phrase as your entire title , (Or just your site name, it’s lame and hurts you!)
4. Don’t use your keyword phrase more then once in your title - it looks like spam, and it won’t help much.
5. Don’t use ALL CAPS in your title, it’s very tacky, and the search engine’s don’t really like it.
6. Keep it around 50-60 characters for best results.
7. Capitalize the beginning of each word in your title.
I’m not bragging, but as an example of a good title tag, take a look at mine for this homepage. “SEO Help And Tools For New Webmasters | SEONoobs.Com” - So it contains 52 characters, has a nice keyword towards the beginning, and I managed to squeeze the name of my blog (which coincidentally has SEO in it) at the end. This is absolutely ideal, and with time, you’ll see that my rankings for targeted terms have a great start because of this.
So, keeping all of that in mind, it’s really all to easy to have a great title tag that will have you ranking for your targeted terms. I’ll give a pass to newer bloggers and webmasters, but for the people in the list below, you have no excuse!!!! I still love ya, but I truly hope you take my advice. Being in the top 100 means you’re probably ranking for some nice keywords already, but with what you just learned, you could be doing so, so much better.
The dreaded list:
ReveNews - current title “ReveNews” (Fix now!)
Daily Blog Tips - current title ” Daily Blog Tips” (Could be worse, since “blog tips” is in there. My opinion, lengthen it, and you’ll see a difference, Daniel!)
Ades Blog - current title “AdesBlog.com” (Ade, please, for the love of all that’s holy in SEO, fix your title, you could be ranking like a maniac if you do! I had the pleasure of interviewing Ade on my other blog, and he’s a cool dude.)
Jim Kukral - current title “Jim Kukral - Marketing Ideas Online” (Not terrible, but needs work. Try reversing the order on that where the key phrase comes first, and lengthen it a bit.)
Shoemoney - current title “Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills” (Shoemoney, as famous as you are, I know you already rank great for many keywords, and although the title sounds good, why not optimize it and cash in on more visitors? Come on, dude!)
Caroline Middlebrook - current title “Caroline Middlebrook | Making A Living Online” (not bad at all, but try reversing the order, and watch the traffic poor in!)
Tyler Cruz - current title “TylerCruz.Com: An Internet Entrepreneur’s Journey” (Yo, Tyler, I know your blog is hot, but that title isn’t so hot. Read above and rearrange it for maximum SEO benefit.)
Freelance Folder - current title “Freelance Folder” (After reading the above comments, do I even have to tell you what’s wrong with that? Trust me, optimize that bad boy, and you’ll be ranking a lot better for your niche in no time! No one is searching for “freelance folder” out of the blue!)
Self Made Minds - current title “Self Made Minds” (My god, your rankings are being wasted. Read the above tips in the article, and optimize immediatley!!)
Net Business Blog - current title is entirely too long, and totally mis formatted. Shorten this up, a lot, and capitalize each letter of every word!
WhoIsAndrewWee - current title is longer than a school bus. Andrew, you desperatley need to shorten that thing up, you’ll see a drastic improvement by keeping it 50-60 characters, instead of 400. Trust me.
UberAffiliate - current title “Uber Affiliate”. (Again, I shouldn’t need to explain what’s wrong with this, read above, and take notes, fast.)
CPA Affiliates - current title ” CPA AFFILIATES” (ALL CAPS is bad, as well as the actual words, and the length is terrible. You have work to do!)
Googlelady - current title “Googlelady” (Wow, being the Googlelady, I figured you would know better…fix this fast girl!)
Folks, that was only from the top 50 or so blogs…and I honestly couldn’t go on. It almost made me sick to my stomach that these great blogs have such unbelievably horrible title tags. But once again, I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt, and I hope after reading my advice, that you’ll fix it ASAP. ALSO, before you say something like “I do just fine with how it is…“(which all SEO’s laugh at), you could be doing 20x better organic traffic wise with an optimized title. If you need examples of a hot site with a good title, just look up the keyphrase “Make Money Online”. Carlocab.Com comes up, and he’s living proof that should convince you of the importance of a good title tag =D
So what are you waiting for? It literally takes maybe, maybe 30 seconds of your time to log in and fix your problems. If you were to pay an SEO for the advice I just gave you, it would cost a hell of a lot more than - free. However, If you feel that I’ve helped you (and trust me, I have), then by all means, donate to my cause! (I’m not shy.)
Exploit the backlink power of blogs! Get your site onto the most popular content sites in your niche!
Okay I changed it to “Making a Living Online with Caroline MiddlebrooK”. I expect the traffic to roll in now :p
OK I am not sure about the situation of the other blogs mentioned, but I strongly disagree with you for my specific case.
My title is “Daily Blog Tips” only to the homepage of my blog. I don’t target any specific keyword for the homepage, given that the content there changes once or twice a day. I decided to leave the blog name there to strengthen the value of the words “blog” and “tips” which are more or less consistent throughout the blog.
As you probably know, the fewer keywords you have on the title tag the higher their relative value, so adding more keywords would just work against me.
Secondly, on every single post page of my blog the title reflects exactly the title of the post, which is also the H1 tag on the page. From previous experience this is the optimal you can do.
I am eager to hear your reasoning for saying that my was a crap title though :).
Daniel! I’m a huge fan, so don’t get the wrong impression! I understand that you do everything right for your post pages, which is great. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t target anything a bit more specific for your homepage, because even if the content changes, you pretty much have a relative theme (meaning most of your posts deal with related subjects). I’m also not saying to add more keywords to your title, but ask any SEO in the world, and they would probably suggest that you add a bit length wise to it. Hey, it’s not our rules, it’s the search engines, and why not make them happy?
Again, don’t get me wrong, you can obviously do whatever you want, but having a title tag the same as your site/blog name is…sort of a waste of optimized text :\ Also, try titling up your static pages (about, resources etc…it’s worth it for you, trust me!!!)
Caroline - Give it some time, and you’ll see a difference
Hello,
I do normally capitilise every word as I am anal about this, but I decided not too this time around.
It will not make a huge difference on the length and to be honest it’s not always about Google - remember that.
The visitor wants to be informed in the lines Google allow so you need to try and squeeze in your key phrases and then a brief but informative description of what your website is about.
Catherine will not have traffic pooring in by doing what you said. There are lots of other parameters to consider more than just a homepage title tag.
sorry for getting your name wrong - Caroline.
Adie, I understand that no one wants to be told that something they did is not the best…and yes, I know it’s not all about Google, but like I said in my post, MOST (that’s alot) major search engines place the utmost importance on your title tag. To be honest…yours is just a bit sloppy. Why wouldn’t you tidy it up if you’re usually “anal” about it?
Also, what you said in your 3rd paragraph is basically what I said throughout the article…so you must have not read it. Anyway, good luck to you…
As far as Caroline, there was a little smiley face by her comment for a reason. Not only was hers the best out of the worst…but I put a smiley by “watch the traffic poor in” because there was just a tad bit of sarcasm there. It will help her, but obviously not overnight.
To all - take my advice or leave it…doesn’t matter to me. I’m only trying to help. If you think “yours is fine how it is”, that’s equivalent to saying “I have enough money, I don’t need anymore”. Honestly, it is.
I would also like to add a shining example to this (that I almost forgot about). A friend/client of mine has a big Britney Spears fan site. When he came to me, it was towards the bottom of page 2 for keyword “Britney Spears”. His title tag consisted of “Britney Spears”.
I told him to optimize it, and do it quick, because he stands a good chance at page 1 in no time at all.
That was 3 days ago.
Google “Britney Spears”, and on page 2, hovering at the top, there sits his site. Moved up to the top of page 2 in 3 days after ONLY changing his title tag. I expect he’ll be on the bottom of page 1 in another week or two.
I didn’t write this article for nothing people….
Ryan thanks for the suggestion.
Actually, each individual post page on my blog has its own custom title (post title is shown as the page title). AdesBlog dot com is only for the main page. I could change it to something descriptive and not URL, but then again it’s about branding. I like it that way for the time being.
And there is always description tag for more info about the blog.
P.S It’s Ades and not Ade, I get that a lot…
Doesn’t quality and wit matter in the title tag? Not everyone comes from search engines. Most traffic on blogs come from other blog, social networks, directories, and direct traffic.
Come on, there are far better ways to SEO your site without compromising the quality of the user experience. What does it matter if people find you on a search engine and never come back?
Ades, sorry for the “Ade”, I think I’ve done that before..and I apologize! Anyway, nice work with the post titles, I noticed that, but in my personal opinion (which we’re all entitled to), you can still brand your blog’s homepage while maintaining a proper seo’d tag. To each his own though. Thanks for the comment!
Warren - Quality and wit. Sure it matters, but it doesn’t matter to every single search engine in the world. Your second misunderstanding is about where blog traffic comes from - sure, a lot of it comes from the new, trendy social media networds, little from directories, and from “type-in”. But if this is what you think should be the bread and butter of your traffic, then I feel bad for you, as you’ll never, ever, be number one in your niche. I guess your okay with that, right?
Far better ways to seo your site? Dude, you make no sense!! You can have an outstanding title, and it doesn’t compromise the user experience AT ALL! Seriously dude, before you try to criticize me here, or over at Shoemoney, do a little research, and come up with a better response. I’m not claiming to be the almighty SEO, but at least give me something to argue about!!!
Ok, I’ll bite.. where did you get this number?
6. Keep it around 50-60 characters for best results.
Hey
Here are a few authoritative sites that pretty much say the same thing…and the list could go on and on and on…
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/best-practices-for-title-tags (he says limit to 65)
http://www.seologic.com/faq/title-tags.php (limit of 66)
http://www.errorforum.com/search-engine-optimization/3244-title-tag-optimization-tips.html
Also, I practice this daily in my routine at work, many super experts have told me the same. Hope that helps.
Holy Logo Batman.
Awesome… I didn’t make the list, and I’m in the top 50. Celebration time!!!
Nice finds, but you’re pretty much getting owned by Shoemoney right now
You’ve set the linkbait trap, gj. But you also stepped right in the shit yourself.
Chris - haha - I read your comment, and then checked out the logo. All I could think of was ’seoBoobs’, and put some eyes in the OOs, ala hooters…
Ryan, don’t worry I was not upset by you making an example out of me :).
I still think that optimizing the title tag for the homepage is not that useful, unless you have a static website or your homepage is your main game.
90% of my organic traffic go directly to the single post pages.
I will give it a try though and see what results I will get.
Daniel - that’s good to hear bro, I appreciate it. I’d love to hear anything that results from it. At the very least, it will be an interesting case study for wordpress blog seo. Thanks again!
Bryan - Hey buddy! That’s right, yours looked great!
Tudi - Thanks for stopping by and for the comment, but I’d have to disagree with getting ‘owned’. I work in SEO for a living, and I know what I know from industry experts. Having said that, if you define “owned” by having a bunch of know-nothing jackasses calling me every name in the book, then I’m afraid you have it wrong.
Shoemoney was really cool about it, after I commented over there and defended my reasoning, he was good about it. I was thankful, as I’ve followed him for quite some time.
The funny thing about all of this, is that most of the people (most, not all) downing me over there are people that truly aren’t knowledgeable about SEO. They are ignorant to the ins and outs, and somehow I got flamed by offering advice that has been said by true authorities on the subject (SEOMoz, SEOJournal) and so on.
I’m here to teach those new to SEO how to better their sites/blogs, and that is my main goal. I also know a thing or two about getting links - this may be a new blog, but I’m definitely not new to blogging =D
& or and work as the same word when used in title tags.
So save your some space by using &
Hey Stuart, thanks for the tip, much appreciated
haha, nice title on this post Ryan! I guess I should go and change that title on my blog now
Hi Ryan… thats a gr8 post and good to read … informative for me … Thanx
wat about titling of sites with many pages ? (i hv mentioned the site) would like to know ur opinion on it.
[...] When I say I’m boring, I really mean that my blog is boring. And it is mainly boring because I don’t spend enough time on it. And that is because I have a day job. Like this SEO guy. [...]
Lol, leaving paypal link at the end is really funny
The people behind the above mentioned blogs know the power of branding over seo well and that made them what they are.
Wow, Ryan you went straight to other blog’s throats in the first week. My site is Bellevere.net - sort of a blog for teenagers and college aged girls…since I cannot change the blog name, what do you suggest for a title tag?
Jon - thanks!
Puneet - Hey thanks! As far as your question, SEO’s recommend a unique meta description for each page. It’s a lot easier to do this as you add pages, so it’s best to get in that habit. Just remember to target a different keyword/keyphrase for each site, and you’ll be great!
Floex - considering I’m not monetizing this site yet, I didn’t see any harm in the donation button, right?
Mytime - I still don’t understand why people who take shots at me never leave a site link. Am I that scary?
Ashley - Hey, girl!!! You know me, I don’t mind stirring up healthy debate - it makes for good exposure =D
I checked out the source code for your site, and it seems you don’t have any meta tags in place. I highly suggest you download the “All In One SEO Pack” plugin (just google it), and set it up asap. You’ll definitely see a big difference in the future. Hope that helps, and thanks so much for saying hi!!!
Tweaking the title tag on home page of my blog increased the traffic by ~45%. I did that some 5 weeks ago. Before that I used to get 80% of my traffic on single post pages.
I am really happy with the additional traffic I am getting. Increased traffic = Increased revenue.
New blogs need to focus on their title tags. That’s a fact.
For established powerhouse blogs like Shoemoney and Techcrunch, promoting their brand is just as important, if not more so, than grabbing a few improved SE rankings.
Shoemoney creates an aura, a persona and a ‘feel’ to his blog - his title emphasizes this. Branding & SEO should go hand in hand!
You also neglect the long tail, where huge amounts of traffic can be delivered by subpages, rather than front pages. For Shoemoney, the relative increase in traffic by using a keyword-ridden title wouldn’t really justify the negative effect on branding.
Also, your title tag only contains the word ‘SEO’ once
Great post with very helpful links.
Great sound advice, always helps to have a vivid reminder of good sound SEO/SEM practice.
So, so true, and I appreciate the compliment =D
Well said, and everyone is most certainly entitled to their own opinion. Thanks for stopping by!
Great point, and so many people fail to see that. There comes a time when revenue means more than a brand if you’re already well branded. I don’t understand the mindset of those that refuse additional revenue…but that’s just me.
Thanks for stopping by!
thanks for reminding me to fix my title so it isn’t all caps :). I meant to do that when i changed to my new design.
Also just want to say props to you on using my friend Brian’s Revolution theme. Well done.
Nice try at a link Bait article also
Hi, I have followed your advice for this site. It was easy to swap around. I also did caps to all words. We’ll have to see. Your article is helpful, thanks!
However, I find it difficult with Multiple Sclerosis - MS Research Training And Education
of MS Research
as we put Multiple Sclerosis (MS) the abreviation comes after…what do you think?
How does capitalizing each word in the title help SEO rating?
Thanks for the informative insight. I’ve been doing our website since it first went online in 1999 and have been through many iterations in that time [one long page, frames, etc..] I’m new to SEO and just learning the basics.
I’m not sure about the benefits of “capitalize each word in your title”, as I’ve found no evidence to support the theory but I would add one more to your list:
8. Make sure you know how to spell, and if you don’t, learn to use a dictionary.
See your tip (1) for an example of how not to spell relevant.
Esha,
I don’t think capitalising each word in the title helps SEO rating at all, certainly not with Google. The folks at SoloSEO seem to agree with me.
Personally, I find “Your Crappy Title Tag Is Costing You Money - Are You On My List?” as a title pretty crappy because it’s hard to read. There’s absolutely no reason why every word, apart from the first, should not be in lower case because they’re not proper nouns or proper adjectives.
[...] attack, one that gears interest and debate is always a good thing. A great example is SEONoobs post about title tags and Internet Babel’s post on big bloggers with bad grammar - both of them got mentioned on [...]
Here’s a free tool that does an instant TITLE TAG test from the SEM point of view. But also useful from the SEO point of view. It’s a brutal test!
http://adwords-addict.blogspot.com
[...] Shoemoney sounded quite angry at first, I honestly don’t think he was after the fact. In my titles article, I gave sound advice on the importance of SEO formatted title tags, and the comment section of [...]
Good article Ryan,
But how blogs really rank in Google will blow you away.
I just learned this from Andy Beard.
http://www.keywebdata.com/?p=71
Things like Google tracks your subscriber thru Google reader and Blogrolls mean more that some incoming links.
Chris Lang’s last blog post..Why Blogs Don’t Rank Well In Google? Blogrolls Mean More Than Backlinks!
What is a title tag? It sounds like you are talking about the title. Is the “title tag” different from the “title”?
Ned Carey’s last blog post..Give Credit Where it is Due
Ned, Your title tag only appears in code, but it also is used by many applications like your browser and search engines.
Whatever is in you title tag is seen in the blue bar at the top of your browser, called the title bar.
Your title tag is also used by search engines to create the clickable blue text at the top of every search engine listing for any site.
It is also the number one place your keywords are found by Google ect.
When you create a blog post what ever is in the title of the blogpost is used by your blog software for your title tag.
That should be a good place for you to start.
Chris Lang’s last blog post..How to Get More Diggs, Digg Privacy Breach and Why Shouts Mean to Your Search Rankings