Changing page titles and google penalties?
-
I just recently learned that changing your page title earns you a google penalty. Unfortunately i learned this after playing around with my page titles a bit to get the most optimal page titles. Does anybody know how long this google penalty lasts? is it forever? or just temporary?
-
A couple years ago I had about a hundred pages that described closely related substances. Their title tags consisted of the name of the substance and a few other words. I launched those pages and saw where they ranked and decided to change the words in hopes of better rankings. It worked good but not great as I was hoping. So I changed them again, and then again... BAM... my rankings droped big time. Like from bottom of first page to third page. They stayed there for a few months then moved up. Now almost all of those pages rank near the top of the first page.
Based upon this I think that Google is tolerant of a little bit of experimentation. But when you really go at it you might get demoted for a while. Now I don't monkey with title tags. I research first and then launch.
-
I can't speak to the author's credentials, but I can speak about the web page.
You should run as fast as you can from that type of web page. It is about as spammy as a page can get. The sidebar is full of large ads. The page is selling reports and memberships for thousands of dollars. The single page contains multiple articles covering a variety of topics, with tons of additional ads jammed between each article.
Before I joined SEOmoz I was lost in the SEO information jungle. Like you, I received a lot of bad SEO information. The best advice I can offer to you or anyone is limit your sources of SEO information. First places to look are:
-
Google search "Matt Cutts" + your keyword
-
Search SEOmoz
-
If you need to expand further, avoid any site with an ad on the page. It's ok if the site mentions it's own SEO tool or membership, but if you see ads for other sites and items for thousands of dollars, close the page. Their interests are clearly not to offer you the information you seek, but instead to use your need for information to service their needs.
-
-
I have noticed when i change the page title of some pages the rankings will temporarily drop almost completely off the first page, or to the top of the second page. after a few days the page crawls back up to being #3 or #2 on the first page.
-
"since Google dings pages when their titles change, modifying your Facebook Page’s name will cost you SEO points."
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/07/13/seo-facebook-pages-10-key-strategies/
Although, perhaps the author was wrong, just noticed a comment further down the page that said google doesn't penalize this behavior
-
I did it for about 2 months with my client's home page and nothing happened.
Maybe i was lucky... however i stopped now... maybe just in time
-
Where did you learn this information? Can you offer a URL?
How exactly did you make this determination? Can you offer the URL and the key term you are using?
-
Page titles definitely can change rankings. I have had mostly good experiences with optimizing my page titles for SEO, and a few bad ones, but nothing horrific. How far did your rankings drop?
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
-
Meta Titles On Site Different From Google Index Page
This is very embarrassing but I hope someone can help. The Meta Titles on my site are not being shown correctly on the Google site index. For example, when I got directly to the page the appropriate page title is shown obviously. However when I go view that page on Google, the title in completely different. Page title: <a class="attribute-value">Web Design, SEO, PPC, Mobile Development In Philadelphia, Bucks| Infinity Digital Agency</a> Google Shows: Our Services - Infinity Digital Agency Here is the result page. I am currently running WordPress and Yoast. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awww.infinitydigitalagency.com%2Fservices%2F&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
On-Page Optimization | | infinitydigitalagency0 -
Joomla Home Page Title Tag Issue
I have got a site that requires to have a custom title tag for its home page (primarily). Its using Joomla 3.3.1. I am not using any SEO components as of now. I have checked the the global configuration, It has Polymer Resources as the site name. I am also attaching copy of the Menu Manager>Main menu> home I would like to see the Home Page browser Title to read: Custom Engineered Plastic Resin | Polymer Resources But my current settings does not let me change the home page title. Any help in this regard will be highly appreciated. Thank you in advance 7yfHVw0.png KzouLB7.png
On-Page Optimization | | ArthurRadtke0 -
SEO Moz crawl has 3 missing page title errors when they are clearly there.
My SEO Moz crawl today has highlighted for errors where page titles are empty missing. For example: http://www.musicliveuk.com/live-acts/hire-wedding-entertainment/wedding-entertainment-kent This page clearly has a title as do the other 3. Is it a bug in the system or am I missing something?
On-Page Optimization | | SamCUK0 -
Duplicate Page Content and Duplicate Page Title
Hi All, I'm new in SEOMoz and have some questions after I have already spend 2-3 days trying to resolve the problems identified from Crawling one of my clients websites. I get quite a lot of Duplicate Page Conntent and Page Titles warnings and trying to find a workaround through the forums and posts. I continuously get this error on most of my pages: URL: http://domain.com/benefits with the same Page but with a WWW in front URL: http://www.domain.com/benefits Any advice will be highly appreciated. Thanks, Athos
On-Page Optimization | | athosk0 -
How long would it take for On-Page Optimization to have an effect on Google Rankings?
Hi there, I have a page on our website with an Interview with the author Tess Gerritsen. There has been a reasonable amount of Social Media buzz related to the page and lots of links. According to SEOMoz we are an A grade for the keyword Tess Gerritsen, we currently rank 29th on Google.co.uk for a 'tess gerritsen' search. My question is - how long would it take for any new changes to have an effect? I presume the answer would be whenever the page is crawled again. But is it wise to change one thing, then get crawled and see what the effect is, then the next day change something else and see what the effect is. Or is it wise to change one thing and then leave it a week or so to see the full effect of the change? Apologies for the vague question, if you need any more clarification just let me know. Thanks. Benj
On-Page Optimization | | Benj250 -
Getting pages indexed by Google
Hi SEOMoz, I relaunched a site back in February of this year (www.uniquip.com) with about 1 million URL's. Right now I'm seeing that Google is not going past 110k indexed URL's (based on sitemaps). Do you have any tips on what I can do to make the site more likeable by Google and get more indexed URL's? All the the part pages can be browsed to by going to: http://www.uniquip.com/product-line-card/suppliers/sw-a/p-1 I've tried to make the content as unique as possible by adding random testimonials and random "related part numbers" see here: http://www.uniquip.com/id/246172/electronic-components/infineon/microcontrollers-mcu/sabc161pilfca Do I need to wait more time and be more patient with Google? It just seems like I'm only getting a few thousand URL's per day at the most. Would it help me if I implemented a breadcrumb on all part pages? Thanks, -Carlos
On-Page Optimization | | caneja0 -
On page links?
Hi all, Ive be going through the pages in my site getting rid of errors so i can the work of a clean slate and get the best for my site. However, i have a large amount of pages which is flagged up by seo moz pro tool as too many on page links. How bad is this in terms of seo rankings? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | wazza19850 -
Page title = h1, or slight variation of it?
I recently found a new SEO tool http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/search-engine-optimisation/ It is fast, and has found some site tweaks I need to make. There is a free demo version that crawls up to 500 URIs. I recommend you check it out (I'm not affiliated). One of the conditions it checks for is if your page <title>is exactly equal to your <h1> tag. The fact that they flag it makes me wonder if that's something I should avoid (?).</p> <p>When I googled it I found a variety of opinions. When I looked at Rand's excellent piece on the perfectly optimized page http://www.seomoz.org/blog/perfecting-keyword-targeting-on-page-optimization I notice that the example Page Title and H1 are slightly different. By design, or a happy coincidence?</p> <p>Any opinions on whether I should make my Page Titles slightly different than my H1 tags to avoid the appearance of over optimization, or some other penalty?</p></title>
On-Page Optimization | | scanlin0