Continued: Keywords and Web Page Titles ... Important

Take a look at this picture and tell yourself what you think the title is in the context of the present discussion or at least point to the TITLE. I am embarrassed to admit that it was quite a few weeks before I realised what was meant by Title in the context of web marketing using search engines and this is even after reading Ken Evoys 1,200 pages of MYSS ...

it was not Kens problem. I was the totally guilty party I skimmed that section. I assumed Title was my traditional view of title on a page. The Title of this web page is water garden ponds. Just to make this clear and to ensure none of my readers ever forgets what I mean by Title here it is shown by the BIG red arrow. The green arrow points out the Heading.

We will use this page again in the book to highlight important points.

At the time of writing this page I had not achieved my desired number 1 ranking but did have 4 of the top 10 spots amongst 503 competitors on Google for the term water garden ponds in inverted commas as written and not water garden ponds.

To summarise Google places considerable emphasis upon keywords and the correct use of them in terms of web page design it is one of the ways it knows what the web page is about. It is not the only way and maybe even not the best way as you will see in the next chapter.

This point is so important.

Let me use the following screen shot to further emphasize the importance of the Title and insertion of your main keyword in it. Below is a search for the phrase indoor ponds. Notice how all the top results have indoor ponds in the Title and most have it in the important text returned by Google to provide the searcher with information on the contents of the web site. This information by the way should be written in such a way to compel the visitor to click on the link to your site.

If you do nothing else make sure your main keyword is in the TITLE.

TITLE length

A study was recently completed to attempt to identify how important the length of the Title might be in terms of site optimisation. Each search engine imposes a limitation of its own in terms of length of course. You will notice long titles are cut off in Google results if you exceed the allowed limit see the number 1 SERP in the above screenshot as an example.

The result of the research was that shorter Titles seemed to be preferred less than 40 characters. Now this was not definitive research but it came from a source I respect and am happy to accept the outcome. It has a number of implications for me. The first is that I have tended to use the full length of Title allowed by Google (64 characters, you can check by going to any SERP and counting a Title which has been cut off) ... I now intend to go to at least some of my pages ( those ranking lower for important specific keywords) and reduce the length of the Title. More work for me for sure but consider this from a search engine perspective and not an SEO perspective. This is the logic behind my willingness to make the change.

The SEO would generally prefer longer Titles because more use of keywords can be made. The search engine possibly would prefer shorter Titles because it becomes more meaningful and to the point ...

Is plain and simple good cheddar cheese a better Title than Taste good cheddar cheese or any other cheese here?

It possibly is since the second and longer Title is far broader in scope or context.

If the intention is to optimise ONE page for a range of keywords then a longer Title is probably justified. However I would always strongly advise the use of a separate page for any keyword unless there is little competition for the keywords.

Once again back to the drawing board in the relentless determination to catch those number 1 spots.

TITLE and STOP words

Many words in the English language are considered irrelevant by search engines purely by their frequency of use and reason for use. These words are called STOP words or STOPLIST words. Typical STOP words are the, or, and , if, but and similar. There are about 600 I believe.

When it comes to TITLES and LINKS using keywords avoid the use of STOP words.

Your Title might not appear quite grammatically correct but the search engine and 99% of all surfers will not worry about this. On the other hand the use of a STOP word in a Title could pose a threat to your ranking. I cannot be sure of this but it is one of those things that almost all SEOs seem to agree on. That is good enough for me if it might make the difference between number 1 and number 2 spots.

TITLE - positioning and frequency of keyword

The consensus is the closer the keyword is to the beginning of the Title the better. Now if short Titles are used then the keyword phrase can be the Title like Good Cheddar Cheese. I believe this the best approach there can be no doubt that this is what the page is about if the same keyword is used properly in the body of the web page. There is no dilution of the keyword.

Surely this is better? Google will not tell us of course so we test and test. Once again you can only do successful testing if you are in total control of your own web pages. Being in control of your own web pages (this is real marketing work) is important management work and not something to be delegated to a web designer.

Keywords positioning in body text

If you were looking for something you really wanted on the Internet you would probably identify in your own mind important characteristics. Consider the following:

• You want cheese.

• You want cheddar cheese no other kind

• You want English cheddar cheese only

• The English cheddar cheese must be yellow not white.

Because you are really wanting to find English yellow cheddar cheese and because you are an experienced searcher you would type a phrase perhaps the following:

English yellow cheddar cheese.

On the assumption that I sell English yellow cheddar cheese and place importance on this I design my web site to make sure that the serious visitor is in no doubt that is what my web page is about. So:

• My TITLE is English yellow cheddar cheese

• My web page heading is: English yellow cheddar cheese, the tastiest, freshest English yellow cheddar cheese as judged by 1 million customers

• My web page SUB-heading is: English yellow cheddar cheese for the cheese connoisseur. English yellow cheddar cheese is vacuum packed for shipping world wide at no cost

• My body text might look something like this:

Blabla bla bla English yellow cheddar cheese adihoasdho sIHOAghsdoas sahioahdlodo. Askdonad English yellow cheddar cheese.

Klokj ucnaO SDKQWJJSW ASN JHklsdksd kkasdasl;as kskdnki asdjkkljk cheddar cheese adihoasdho sIHOAghsdoas sahioahdlodo. Askdonad English yellow cheddar cheese. Raskdo asdjasdj askldduiomj

Aki;p kaKL KAA klA cheddar cheese Askdonad English yellow cheddar cheese.

It is no coincidence that Google will also probably rank your site very highly for English yellow cheddar cheese.

This is the essence of web page design for keywords. Notice one other thing the keyword concentration is higher at the top of the page.

Example of keywords being used to seek high rank

The number 1 site shown on the Google SERPSs page below was done by me early in my project notice repetition of indoor ponds in the site description text.

Below is a screen shot of part of the above number 1 SERP. In this shot the two words indoor and ponds have been highlighted in different colours. You will notice a few things:

• The English is not the best in terms of grammar or fluency. It is however perfectly acceptable to most visitors but will receive no English literature prizes.

• The keyword phrase is definitely in heading and also sub-heading (in fact twice in sub-heading)

• Notice how I have also worked in indoor fish ponds as a keyword phrase.

Think of inserting keyword phrases along these lines in terms of writing keywords into your page. This page ranked highly only due to its keyword structure and was not due to any links from other sites at the time of it first becoming ranked on Google. It does go to show that keyword selection and using keywords sensibly to identify real site or page content of a web is favoured by search engines.

This is a single page from a web site all about garden ponds. The main links within the site are all designed to highlight the importance of ponds as a main subject. The screen shot immediately after the one being discussed will leave you in no doubt about this. This is one way to ensure that links to other pages have some real relevancy to the human visitor and therefore the search engine.

Note use of indoor ponds as phrase

The screen shot below shows how the word ponds has been used in most internal links for this web site. This is what the website is about, after all all sorts of different ponds. The visitor can see this immediately and it helps him to navigate the site sensibly and quickly.

This screen shot would suggest readily to anyone that this web site is about ponds. Keep this shot in mind when we discuss topics/themes of sites a bit later.

When a visitor clicks a link to your web page he or she (about 55% are male in USA) must quickly see what the site is about. Forget your company name and how proud you are of your logo and artistic skills. Chances are the visitor has never heard of your company name and could not really care less at this stage of the proceedings.

This is a good reason by the way NOT to put your company name in any web page TITLE unless you are Microsoft or Coca Cola of course.

Use that first screen to tell the customer what your site is about. Hook the customer, forget the company pride for now! It is difficult enough as it is to sell to a searcher. Many will never go beyond the first screen. They might if you have what they are looking for. Just compare your own behaviour when searching if the first screen looks like rubbish or of no immediate interest it is assumed to be rubbish or of no interest and never to be seen again.