Can I get your input on keyword usage in the title tag
-
Hello fellow mozzers!
I've been struggling with my title tag and would like to get your opinion.
We provide IT services in the Los Angeles area. I've been doing keyword research for the past week and found about 400 keywords from various sources. I then looked at my top 5 competitors on Google and analyzed their homepage title tags, the most common keywords that they use in their title tags are:
IT Support Los Angeles
Computer Support Los Angeles
Network Consulting Los Angeles
Network Support Los Angeles
IT Services Los AngelesSince it is recommended to have your title tag under 70 characters I've compiled the following title tag for my home page:
IT Services, Network Consulting, IT and Network Support in Los Angeles
which is exactly 70 characters, however my company name is an additional 9 characters, I think it would be wise to include in the title tag of the home page however I can't decide if I should exceed the limit by including the company name to the title tag or should I remove something from the title tag and then add the company name?
1. What do you guys think, is that a good title tag to use as is?
2. Should I add the company name without removing any keywords or remove a keyword?
3. I'm trying to target local traffic since I can't compete with the big dogs yet, so I want to be in the SERPs when someone searches IT Services Los Angeles, IT Support Los Angeles, etc... Do I need to add Los Angeles after each keyword, or I can use a single instance of Los Angeles like in the example title tag that I have?
4. For the other remaining 400+/- keywords I want to use some of them to create static pages and some for blog posts, is that the way to go?
Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!!!
Thank you!!!
-
Understood, thanks!
-
Yes, broad is not as measurable as [exact]. Especially when you are targeting local keywords.
-
Hi Donnie,
The 320 volume is the local search exact match, however the broad match on IT Services Los Angeles is much higher, should I focus on the exact match instead of the broad match when choosing keywords?
-
It's best to build your site for your users and not try to manipulate the search engines. I would go for one keyword per page two max. Placing two keywords in a title may look funny in most cases. In your case "IT Support Los Angeles" has the highest local search volume 320 out of the keywords you mentioned.
Adding spammy footer links does not help your users and most likely is not helping your competitors (it may have in the past) rather putting their sites in danger.
I understand that you want to rank for multipul locations, which can be done without spamming. For a good internal linking structure watch this video: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/smarter-internal-linking-whiteboard-friday
-
Hello Donnie,
Thank you for such a quick answer!
I did another search on keyword difficulty tool IT Support Los Angeles vs IT Services Los Angeles and IT Services Los Angeles gets much more traffic, take a look:
Would it better to use something like this:
IT Services and Support in Los Angeles by Company name?
Also in your expert opinion:
How many keywords or keyword phrases do you recommend including in the titles?
Most of my competitors have a bunch of locations/cities that they service in their footers, like IT Support Los Angeles, IT Support Sherman Oaks, IT Support Encino, etc... as well as pointing to the same page (which from what I understand is duplicate content) and too many footer links. However 4 out 5 use them and I don't think they've been penalyzed as they've been holding the top 5 spots for some time now. Should I try the same tactic or avoid it and hoping that by not using these techniques it should help in outranking them?
Thanks again!
-
I like to start my keyword research by examining the search volume and competitive organic rates on SEOmoz.
http://pro.seomoz.org/tools/keyword-difficulty (pro members only)
| IT Services Los Angeles | 54 | 165,000 | 165,000 | 170 | 170 | Full Analysis |
| Los Angeles IT Services | 60 | unavailable | unavailable | unavailable | unavailable | Full Analysis |
| IT Support Los Angeles | 53 | 22,200 | 22,200 | 320 | 320 | Full Analysis |
| Los Angeles IT Support | 53 | 22,200 | 22,200 | 91 | 110 | Full Analysis |out of your selected keywords I would use "IT Support Los Angeles" as your main keyword (highest local exact search volume with lower competition level). Use this with diversity in you title, description, H1, and at least 2 times in your body one regular and one bold or italic.
Here's a good title for your site: "IT Support Los Angeles by [Company name]"
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Multilingual keyword research
Does anyone have any experience in multilingual SEO? We are looking for software that conducts research for GEO Locations such as UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan & India. Writing content for each of these countries is difficult unless we speak their language, we could look at outsourcing the translation but conducting keyword research for each location is almost impossible.
Keyword Research | | Jseddon920 -
Termexplorer good tool for keyword research or not?
Hi Mozzer, Did you have tested the "Term Explorer" tool for the keyword research? Is it a good tool? Can we trust the results? Thank you for your help. Regards, Jonathan
Keyword Research | | JonathanLeplang0 -
How do I use Google Keyword in onsite seo?
Hello to all, I wanted to ask if I am doing this correctly. So I own a Bernese mountain dog website I used the google keyword research tools to view keyword ideas. I listed my results below. So my questions are: 1 - Bernese Mountain Dog Puppies (the keyword) blow away the other keywords. So when you are looking at your sites most popular keywords, do you make the most popular keyword your homepage? Because it gets the most link juice? Like would you build the homepage around the best keyword instead of branding - like the company name etc? Or does it matter? Basically just as long as you use it for one page? 2 - When you have keywords that have parts of other keywords, is it safe to use the longer keyword because it has parts of the other phrases? Such as Bernese mountain dog puppies for sale is a part of Bernese mountain dog puppies for sale in Colorado. So if you use bernese mountain dog puppies for sale in Colorado, it will also hit the bernese mountain dog puppies for sale? ( without the In Colorado) What type of strategy would you use for this type of situation? 3- Lastly, and thank you for your time - I watched a video from a grey hat seo guy. He said to take a keyword or phrase like say Colorado home builders, create a page like example.com/Colorado-home-builders/ Then make you h1 tag - The Best Colorado Home Builders Add The Best Colorado home builders to your meta description and one more time in your h2 tag Then create a Bold, and italic The Best Colorado Home Builders in your unique content paragraphs. So my question is - is this grey hat and bad? Or the standard? I do not want to get hit for over optimizing. So just wanted to ask you opinion first. In the end, I truly thank you for taking the time to read my questions. I appreciate everyone's help and greatly appreciate your knowledge. So my results look like this | bernese mountain dog puppies | 590 | Low | $0.45 | 1% | |
Keyword Research | | Berner
| bernese mountain dog puppies for sale | 90 | High | $0.42 | 9% | |
| bernese mountain dogs | 90 | Low | $0.37 | 0% | |
| bernese mountain dog puppies for sale in colorado | 30 | Medium | $0.76 | 0% | |
| bernese mountain dog breeders in colorado | 20 | Medium | $0.32 | 0% | |
| bernese mountain dogs colorado | 40 | Low | $0.08 | 0% | |
| bernese mountain dog puppy breeders | 10 |0 -
Does SEOmoz account for keyword variations?
If I want to know my rank for bank account, do I need to list bank accounts as well or will my ranking include variations? Also, if I use the word bank as a keyword, will any search that contains the word bank (even when other words are included) count towards the ranking for that word? Or would I need to add additional keywords like dallas bank, local bank, etc?
Keyword Research | | Mpulliam0 -
Ranking for more keywords - Noob question
Hi, I've noticed recently that our site is ranking for a fraction of the keywords that our competitors are ranking for. In terms of increasing the number of keyword rankings per page would it simply be a case of adding optimised copy to each page? Thanks, Dan
Keyword Research | | Sparkstone0 -
Keywords for multi service business?
New to this so bear with, I am a TV aerial, satellite, CCTV, Door entry, Access Control, Telephone repair engineer. I have one seperate page for each of the installations I carry out as well as the basic home, about, areas, faqs and so on. My question is do i have one key phrase for each of the services i cover or do i just relate all the keywords from that service into the keywords tag ie, META name=keywords content="Digial aerials Stockport,digital aerials Manchester,aerials Stockport,aerials Manchester,aerial repairs Stockport,aerial repairs Manchester,digital,aerial,tv,tv aerials Manchester,tv aerials Stockport,arials,arial,aerial installer,aerial installations,aeril installation,Stockport,Manchester ,"> That is what i have fro Tv aerial installation, Should i make landing pages for each phrase for each service or stick to one page? www.redvalecommunications.co.uk is the site if you want to take a look thanks in advance
Keyword Research | | redvalecomms0 -
Google SERPS for similar Keywords?
I have website which is being listed for a keyword which is not in the site. It seems that google is using a Thesaurus to find words with similar meaning. Is this right? How could this be used for SEO purposes?
Keyword Research | | Tinderbox0 -
Run a batch of keywords 1 by 1 through Adwords Keyword tool
Hi, I'm looking for a tool that will be able to run a list of keywords 1 by 1 through the Google Adwords keyword tool and place them together in a list, in order to get as much long tail keywords as possible. Thanks for any suggestion!
Keyword Research | | DeptAgency0