SEO Titles and Keyword Density
-
Hey guys,
I'm doing some on page SEO for a few clients and I've always wondered about this question. I have read tons of articles on the perfect <title>tag, but they don't often mention this.</p> <p>So my titles, like most others follow this format:</p> <p>Keyword 1 | Keyword 2 - Company</p> <p>So say for example I am trying to rank for 'life insurance' and 'life insurance quote' for 'axa sunlife'.</p> <p>It's my assumption that the title should be:</p> <p>Life Insurance Quote - Axa Sunlife</p> <p>rather than:</p> <p>Life Insurance | Life Insurance Quote - Axa Sunlife</p> <p>Am I right in thinking that putting it twice has no added value, and could in fact have an adverse effect?</p> <p>Thanks,</p> <p>Lewis.</p> <p> </p></title>
-
if you included the plural and singular versions of a keyword in title tag would that be considered a keyword repeat ?
-
Maybe you can read this tutorial : http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/title-tag
An advice don't repeat the keywords in the title
-
Hi Lewis,
I've done a couple of tests (nothing scientific - just trying things out and looking for trends) on this in the last few months and have found the following:
- Using the same keyword more than once doesn't seem to have any impact on keyword rankings
- The first keyword in the title element seems to be given priority, assuming that it's matched up with other on page elements (ie. Broad usage throughout the page, alt tags, etc)
The best title tag will most likely have your keyword first, followed by some kind of call to action, and then your site name at the end. This works on a few levels - namely that you're improving your rankings, click throughs and also brand awareness.
Kieran's definitely correct in saying that it should be tied in with the meta description, although I'd disagree that there's no benefit to having the brand at the end of the tag - particularly if you're working with a client who's looking to build, or reinforce, their name.
Remember that it isn't all about getting to the top. By including your call to action you're potentially helping with conversion rate optimisation and by including the brand you're helping build trust over the long term... which is incredibly hard to measure but will surely add hidden benefit and gives you another string to your bow!
As far as keyword density goes, the old ways of looking at it are completely outdated. If you aim to use your keyword 3-4 times in a reasonable sized page whilst also employing the ~ operator on Google to find, and use, related terms you'll be fine.
Hope that's helpful - would be really interested to hear how you get on
Matt
-
Thanks Gianluca
I agree 100% I was thinking of the actual site Title tag when typing this so answering it from that context. Yes Keyword(s) + Hook
-
You are right and not at the same time. Right telling that a redundant use of the keywords is not generating benefits (instead, it can look simply spammy)... not, because the title you are suggesting in not "exciting".
Remember that Titles are the first line of a Search Snippet. Therefore it should have to be crafted wisely:
- In order to focus Search Engines on your page's main keyword;
- In order to push the searchers into clicking your result and no other.
I usually suggest to think to Title as they where the Page Tagline. This also make easier its use into the same content of the page itself, as the HTML Title usually is converted to the H1 Title by many CMS.
Therefore, in your case, a Title could be:
Life Insurance? Ask now a life insurance quote to Axa Sunlife
And the Meta Description would renforce the Title call to action, maybe citing the main competitive advantage of the Axa Sunlife life insurance.
Ciao and I hope this helps
-
In my opinion putting it in twice is not a good idea. I assume that you have done the appropriate keyword research in this area and that the keywords are appropriate. I personally don't even think there is value in adding the AXA Sunlife as AXA is meaningless to the Search engines. It does help when the title is displayed to give some people idea.
I think your title should be along the lines of Main Target Keyword in Body of the Page x 1 to 3 then stop. I would not use multiples. If you have multiple keywords you want to target create an additional page for the keywords.
So
Life Insurance Quotes
Life Insurance Premiums
Life Insurance Special Offers
the Title is of course only the beginning. Get some nice meta description under it as well to if your link with this Title does show then it makes sense. this may be the place to mention AXA or the company so people get some good company name visuals
-
For sure the title tag is one of the most important elements in SEO. Make use of the maximum length of 70 characters. As this title is displayed in SERPs, make sure to integrate a call to action. The mention of the company name is usualy not so important, as long as you are not a brand in the eyes of Google.
For the keyword density: take a look at your competitors. Stuffing is dangerous!
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
-
Keyword Stuffing
Working on optimizing my e-commerce website. We have managed to obtain very good ranking on most keywords that we use directing to different products. However, there is one that ranks very low, and Moz alerts that keyword stuffing might be one of the reasons. While I have edited the content to include less of the same keyword on that particular page, the links to different products that contain the same keyword from the same page (accessories and related products) I believe are increasing my count and it seems to be working against me. \ Should I start eliminating some of these links so as to eventually obtain a better ranking? any help would be greatly appreciated.
On-Page Optimization | | NewVape0 -
Keyword Stuffing Question
Say your on a e-commerce category page "Shirts" every lower level category has "shirts" in it such as: T-shirt, long sleeve shirt, sweat shirt, v-neck shirt, and so on. Is this page going to be penalized in google for the keyword "shirts" just because it is in the title and on the page a thousand times because i'm targetting words like "long sleeve shirt? and if it is, will the "long sleeve shirt" keyword be negatively affected as well? Answer much appreciated,
On-Page Optimization | | Mike.Bean
Thanks in advance.0 -
SEO and dynamic content
I am working on a project right now and I am looking for some advice on the SEO implications. The site is an e-commerce site and on the category pages it is using an external call to retrieve the products after the page is loaded. How it works is all content on the site is loaded, then after that a js script appends an ID and loads all of the product information. I am unsure how Google will see this, anyone have any insights?
On-Page Optimization | | LesleyPaone0 -
Are tags important for SEO?
I just installed a plugin called SEO content control and it is telling me I need to write descriptions for my tags. I haven't been using tags although I did create a list of them. I don't have an endless amount of time on my hands so is this a worthwhile task?
On-Page Optimization | | dealblogger0 -
SEO for Image only posts
Let's say I have a post where I show 25 different wood textures. I start the post with a small paragraph and then I show several images of wood textures linked to an internal or external page. Since I don't use a text link, then I have to rely on alt tags. It would be very difficult to assign a different alt tag to so many similar images, and I guess there would be a risk of keyword stuffing (walnut wood, oak wood, etc). On the other side, if I assign the same tag to all images, then that clearly is keyword stuffing (alt=wood textures). This is just an example, but it applies to most of my posts. What do you think I should do with the alt tags? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | enriquef0 -
Title tag questions
General title tag questions how important is it not to change your title tag, I own a prom dress site and I'm always changing them between prom and homecoming' Is it bad to have title tags that are only different by one word across thousands of pages on your site. I have thousands of dresses so each title tag only varies by the style # I have always had title tags that are for example black prom dresses, well i recently discovered that just black dresses is googled 10 times the amount so im debating changing them to black dresses so that the word dresses is closer to the front of the title tag, am I over reacting or is that a good idea or would it be bad to put black dresses, black prom dresses, black homecoming dresses I also put the year in almost every title tag 2012, is that bad, I ranked great for 2012 stuff but could it hurt my homepage domain rankings on major broader keywords
On-Page Optimization | | Dirty0 -
Existing good authority LP with multiple keywords, how to optimize for these keywords?
Hi Mozzers, Currently I am optimizing ONpage after I made a report for which keywords the website already ranks in the serps. I was surprised about the numbers of keywords the website ranks in Google. The website ranks for multiple keywords in 1 landing page. They get a lot of traffic, but has a position #5 or #7/#8, onpage grade is for most of the keywords a C or D and lots of them a F, so it's worth to optimize it. How should I do that when the landing page is domain.com/category and the 5 different keywords are partofcategoryname. Should I put all these keywords in the title and landing page body content as the onpage tool recommend me that? I was thinking about the option I described above OR to create a new landing page for the specific keyword each. However, the already ranked landing page has a PA of 38. When starting to build new landing pages is starting to build from PA 0. Anyway, it's definitely I chance to do onpage, I just don't know what I should do since there are 5 different keywords that already ranks for the landing page with good traffic. I want to let it rise in the serps to increase the traffic of course. Looking forward to recommendations! thanks in advance
On-Page Optimization | | Falcopa0 -
3 keywords optomize for home page. Should I create page with thoses keywords or leave it like this?
My online store home page, Furnace Filters Canada has 3 keywords with good ranking in google.ca keywords: ''furnace filters canada'' rank #1 position in google.ca keywords: ''furnace filters'' and ''furnace filter'' are on 5 or 6th position of page 1 in google.ca Those keywords are bringing most of the traffic to our site. To achieve this ranking, I had to use the On-Page Keyword Optimization, tool from seoMoz Questions: It is possible for me to create a page with the URL: https://www.furnacefilterscanada.com/Furnace-Filters or https://www.furnacefilterscanada.com/Furnace-Filter Can this improve my ranking with keywords like, ''furnace filters'' and ''furnace filter''? Is this a waist of time? If I decide to create a new page for optimization with, do I have to create one for singular and another one for plural? Creating a new page also mean removing, '' Furnace Filter'' in the home page title, until the new pages are index, I'm afraid to loss that 5th position in Google. Should I leave the home page title like it is now, '' Furnace Filter - Furnace Filters Canada - Online Shopping Store NOTE: we only do business in Canada, that is why Google.ca is more important to us Thank you, Jean Nichols
On-Page Optimization | | BigBlaze2050