Shortening Titles
-
Have a ecommerce site using woocommerce. Most product titles contain the information needed for the product. I have shorten the title as much as possible but;
Most of the titles are about 18-19 characters over 70 characters the recommended max. I have removed all possible characters from the title but I could remove the site name - this would get it down by about 18 characters - meaning most titles would then be just under the 70 characters recommended.
Would removing the site name from the title of all the products be a bigger problem than good?
-
What do your customers care about?
It's harsh, but take a deep breath and ask yourself if your site name/brand really matters.(Remember those loyal customers will probably be going directly to your site or via a branded search rather than a search for individual products)
What's more attractive - "Dave's Widgets" or "Fast, reliable delivery..."
The rules are obviously different if you're a big brand with a widely recognised USP.
If you include the site name in the meta descriptions are you going to be losing space that you could be using to sell the product/value proposition/benefits?
If you do feel the site name is important, is this something you can test before you go ahead and make a site-wide change? (Evidence is better than opinion!)
-
Thanks for the reply Doug. Yes, currently the site name is getting cut off anyway. I want the title to appear in the search engine without having this: "..." half way thru, as it makes the tittle looks a little messy.
The site name is in the domain name which is clear for people to see. I could always add the site name into the meta description.
What do you think about doing that?
-
If you've got a reputable brand then having the site name/brand appended to the titles can help get click-throughs from the search results.
If you're appending the site/brand name to the end of the titles then these are just being cut off anyway so you won't be getting this benefit.
Hacking away at a title to get it under the recommended limit, and get your brand/site name in there risks leaving searchers looking at a meaningless, overly abbreviated and confusing title - which I'd say is a bigger problem than not including your site name. (Your domain is displayed in the search results too.)
Your titles have got to give searchers confidence that they're going to find the information/products/services they're looking for if they were to click on your site. What can you do to make these as compelling as possible?
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
-
Duplicating words in the page title OK?
Im finding a site with lots of duplicated words in the title tags, I have always avoided doing this in the past, Is there any penalty for having a word repeated twice in the title, indeed is there a benefit from having it twice, IM assuming not
On-Page Optimization | | Donsimong
For example: Marketing Services in Milton Keynes | Our Services | TFA
https://www.t-f-a.co.uk/services the word service is repeated twice, in my opinion this is of no benefit at all and is better rewritten to remove the duplication1 -
"Avoid Multiple Page Title Elements"
Hi, in page recommondation I get a "Acoid Multiple Page Tile Elements" Fix. Make sure your page has only one <title>tag. </span><em>"Web pages are meant to have a single title, and for both accessibility and search engine optimization reasons, we strongly recommend following this practice"</em></p> <p>Well I'm trying....I am not able to find where og why I have multiple titles in this page?</p> <p>This is a norwegian page, but maybe someone can look through it?</p> <p>http://www.proplantime.no/bransjer/bygganlegg/mannskapsliste</p></title>
On-Page Optimization | | Marked_Proplan0 -
Titling and H1 Tag Question
What to do if you have hundreds of thousands of a particular product. Comic Books for example. Is it ok to have the words Comic Book in the title and H1 tag as long as it is qualified? For example, if I have the following as both the Title tag and the H1 tag. Comic Book - Spider Man Versus Wolverine Comic Book - Silver Surfer Goes Home to Visit Mom. Comic Book - Superman Gets a New Kitten Comic Book - Wonder Woman is More Wonderful Than You Know As of now, I have been doing it this way, but only in the title tag. However, Google has been using my H1 tag as my title, so in the search results, I am only getting: "Superman Gets a New Kitten" And I am afraid that that is leaving out important info for searchers, especially qualifying that the product is a Comic Book and if someone is searching for a Comic Book, I need that to return. But I don't want any 'more' trouble from the Panda. Again, this will be hundreds of thousands of products. Thanks for your help! Craig
On-Page Optimization | | TheCraig0 -
Different title tags and meta descriptions for desktop and mobile?
Is it possible to use different title tags and meta descriptions for mobile users? For Example: In the SERP for desktop you'll see the desktop title tags and meta descriptions, but in the SERP for mobile you'll the mobile versions of the webpage.
On-Page Optimization | | alex19780 -
Creating the META title tag?
I am having a hard time figuring out what the best META title tag is for my site. I have a deal blog that focuses on Amazon deals but I also write articles, top ten lists, etc. It is baby and mom related. Is there a tutorial for this? Should I just experiment and watch my organic search results? TIA!
On-Page Optimization | | dealblogger0 -
Which is better, have our location in the title or have a title that is 66 characters?
I was told by an SEO company that I need to put our name and location in every page title, however, an seomoz.org campaign gave me warnings for having a page title that is too long. Which is better, have our location in the title or have a title that is 66 characters? We have both a physical and online store, so it would still be nice to direct foot traffic to our physical store.
On-Page Optimization | | HockSports0 -
Page Title
My website was hacked last November and then again last week. Prior to the hacking we were at number one in Google.co.uk for our main search term "nile cruises' for years. After last November's hacking we dropped to about position 4 and after last week we are at position 7. Ima rebuilding the lost data and I am having to create new Title and Description meta data for each of the indexed pages. I am taking the opportunity to try and ensure my titles and descriptions are good and the correct length, etc but wondered about the best title format. I set our home page title over the weekend as: Nile Cruise | Leading ABTA & ATOL Bonded UK Nile Cruise Specialist I was going to try and cover 3 keyphrases in the title like this: Nile Cruise | Nile Cruises | Nile Cruise Bargains But I thought that might look a bit spammy because the 3 phrases are very similar. I wondered what anyone else might suggest? Thanks, Colin
On-Page Optimization | | NileCruises0 -
How do I get rid of duplicate page titles when using a php site?
Hi. I have an e-commerce site that sells a list of products. The list is divided into categories and then those categories for the various pages on the site. An example of a page title. would be given root/products.php?c=40 another page would be given root/products.php?c=41 Is there a way to structure the site with SEO in mind?
On-Page Optimization | | curtisgibbsiii0