Title tags that Search Engines will love

I read this example somewhere on SEO article:

"Placing a keyword phrase at the start of the title tag allows it to be seen better by the search engines. Look at the following examples:

1) ABCDEF Electrical - Hi-Fi Systems
2) Hi-Fi Systems - ABCDEF Electrical

Both of these two examples are acceptable to human eyes but in the eyes of the search engines the second is see as more relevant if 'Hi-Fi Systems' is searched for because it appears at the start of the title. Generally it is best to place company name or the name of website to the end of your title tag."

Now I have a question... many of the search engines has policy to reject such submissions where the title has company name or website name at the end. They suggest to have the website name first followed by the page name or topic. So according to them, first sequence is acceptable. This article is suggesting me second sequence.

What you think, which is favourable for us to implement?

 

I would say that the company name is not necessary.

It is said to stay away from having the domain name at the very beginning since this is repetitive. I would stick to maybe having it in your homepage title, and internet pages can just have techiques of keywords and keyword phrases.
KG

 

IMO... keyword phrase at the start of the title tag.

 

Agree'd title tag should have a description of the content of the page first then the company name second if at all

 

IMHO
Make it like this:

KW1 | KW2 | KW3

with keyword 1 the most important KW and 2 and 3 to follow in rank...
FORGET the company name unless it's a BIG brand or your KW...

 

This is how I do it and how I have seen much success from my efforts.

 

I stopped using the company name long time ago. unless you try to rank for your company's name it's kind of useless.

 

Company name looks good when the page is found by someone doing a search.

 

I agree. IMO, it might not help you with the SE's but I think it does help you stand out in the mind of the person doing the search.

 

When I appeared for one online test for Editor for website submissions, I came to know that they strictly had the first option followed over there. But it seems I think the second option is what all prefer. Might be second option is more practical, right?

 

I agree. The company name is not needed. The title tag should be a description of the content that is on the page and it should also match the headline that is on the page.

 

I presume you're referring to Zeal. Firstly, that's not a 'search engine', it's a directory and secondly, such a rule only refers to the title chosen for the directory listing and has no impact on what you choose as your title tag when creating a web page.

If you're not referring to Zeal or another directory, I'd be interested to know what Search Engine has such a guideline in place.

But yes, I'm in agreement with the others; place the keyphrase(s) first, then (if you need to) the company name at the end.

 

Imagine a SERP where every listing has the search query as the title. What distinguishes one listing from another? Random text pulled from the page listed in the description? IMO, having the company and/or product name in the title is extremely important - just not for SEO purposes.

 

I agree... Company name, if needed, should be placed at the end of the title.

 

I do not use my Company Name as the Title - Unless my site name is google or yahoo. Alot of customers out there do not know the name of my company so why put it in the title.
I use to - but not anymore - it does not seem to help me.

 

Amen, and it also let's search engines know more than just keyword, that you actually are trying to target something else than rankings.


Type in any search phrase and you will see the top results, either way seems to work, I wouldn't worry too much about the little things.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=internet+marketing

 

Absolutely. If you do a search on MSN for "dress shopping" and take a look at #1 and #2 tell me, which one are you going to click on if you're looking to buy a dress? Number 2 is my site. Number 1 is, well, from that title I'm not sure. It's one thing to get up in the serps, it's another thing to get people's attention once you're there. People looking at that will imediatly know that Mari-Len.com sells dresses. They won't be sure what to think about the number 1 site except that it has something to do with proms or something. It also looks like hell as it's not well formated and all lowercase. On this one my keyword is before the name of the site. It's actually the name of category page the link points to.

If you look at the actual title of the site: "Mari-Len.com - Women's Clothing", you'll notice I put the keyphrase last. There's a reason. That phrase is the last thing on every single page on my site. Also, if you do an MSN search on women's clothing or womens clothing you'll notice something strange. With the apostrophe I'm way down in the serps. Without the apostrophe I'm #17 and climbing. I was #19 yesterday. I'm not sure I get that one, but what can you do.

The bottom line is I don't think placement of the keyword in the title is as important as making the title something people will notice. If you're #1 in the serps and your title looks like crap so will your listing. Once your link is there you have to ask yourself: Based on the other links around it, why should anyone click on mine?

 

What search engine has such a policy? I don't know of any significant or important ones that do...

 

No it was not any important one for sure. I was submitting my site long back to a search engine and I thought to become Editor for them. So I was giving the test, and they were stressing on, Editors should not approve such sites etc etc.

Anyways it was not that important search engine.. just making sure, rest of the IMP ones dont have such policy

 

Maverick, it sounds like you are describing a directory. Directories and search engines are very similar - they both allow end users to find pages relevant to a topic from a database. The difference is in how they work.

Directories will have pages/sites categorized in a hierarchical topical structure (or taxonomy) which end users can browse to find pages/sites of interest.

Search engines do not allow browsing of their database. Users must enter a search query and the engine will return a result set relevant (hopefully) to the query.

Some people get confused because directories often offer a search engine component in addition to the browsing function.

Generally, directories rely on submissions to build the database and search engines use automated means (spiders/scripts/programs) to crawl the web and build a database, but this is not necessarily always the case.

Search engines do not need editors.