Downsides on shortening article title?
-
Hi there,
I'm new to Moz: great tool so far!
I just tried the page optimization feature and see that (for instance for this article) page titles are often too long. Now it's tempting to just shorten the title straight away, but I have a memory of someone once telling me changing the title will change the URL. And changing the URL is something not appreciated by Google.
Could someone please explain if and why this is/isn't the case? And if there are any downsides/things to consider before changing the article's title?
Thank you in advance!
-
In any case, you should only change the address and not the URL. However, if you must change the URL, you need to set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. This will inform Google that the new URL is different, and it will re-index the new URL properly without causing any issues. There might be some fluctuation in the link for up to 24 hours, but after that, everything should be fine.
-
Though there are no real downsides to shortening the title, as long as it accurately describes the products or services that be sold on that page. Your web designer, should therefore add a page title which really accurately describes what you are selling on that page
-
@Christy-Correll Best Answer about your query.
-
There and no real downsides to shortening the title of an article, as long as the title of page / blog post accurately explains what the page or blog post is about.
We done this for a fencing business because some of the titles were to long for the meta title and description, so we had to rewrite them to make them shorter.
-
There are no real downsides to shortening the title of an article.
That’s as long as the page title accurately explains what the page or blog post is about.
We done this for a Cardiff fencing business, simply because some of the meta titles were too long for the meta title and description.
-
Thank you for your replies José, Christy and Salience,
It looks like you are right, and the ('SEF URL') is fixed: it will not change when I change the title: https://screencast.com/t/XR6lS6YdL
For now -changing URLs- sounds a bit too risky for me to start with yet. I'm just trying to create the best articles, contentwise.
Feels a bit odd that URLs are going to be different from the titles though. But I guess that's a better situation than having titles that are too long.
-
Hey,
Agree with the other replies but wanted to mention that changing your article title may have an adverse affect on the ranking performance of your content, so be careful and do some solid research before making a change.
Thanks!
Salience
-
Hi RaoulWB,
Welcome to the Q&A forum! As far as the search engines are concerned, the title and URL of a page are independent. However, some content management systems create the URL based on the page title, and may automatically update and redirect the URL if you update a title (depending on how the CMS is configured, etc.). Is this possibly what you are thinking of?
Christy
-
Hello,
It is independent, you can change your title and not change the url. Many times to improve the CTR the SEO title is changed. Changing the url is more delicate, first you must study the risks it has for the positioning of that url. If you have received links to that url you could lose them, etc.Regards
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
-
How/when do you trim your article pages?
Hi all, I wanted to ask what have you all done to your article section that has made a difference to the site's SEO performance? What's the criteria for deciding which articles top cut or 301 redirect to the main page For example: 1. you have a slightly irrelevant article to your website topic, low conversions, but a lot of quality links to page, but no primary keywords in article title. 2. You have a slightly irrelevant article to your website, low conversion, but a lot of quality links AND you have your site's primary keywords in article title 3. You have a relevant topic to the site, but low engagement and low conversions Thanks for all your help!
On-Page Optimization | | SDavis111 -
How specific do I have to be when adding keyword to the meta title which I am trying to rank for?
I am looking for some clarity on what exactly you need to spell out for google in the exact match and what google understands in terms of using keywords in your meta title which I am trying to rank for. For example if my category page is for women's top, with both printed and solid color options, would it be ok to write- "Women's Tops: Printed & Solid Shirts & Tunics" and be able to rank for women's tops, women's printed tops, women's solid shirts etc. or would I have to be more specific and use women's as the keyword modifier before each term and write- "Women's Tops, Women's Printed & Solid Shirts, Women's Tunics"?
On-Page Optimization | | whiteonlySEO0 -
How can I redirect anything after the article url to main article?
Hello everyone, When someone visits my websites article like http://www.website.com/article-title/lol , it give to 404 page error. But when someone http://www.website.com/article-title/ , it shows the article. The word "lol" can be changed to anything. I would like that to be redirected to the main article. Example: Someone visits website.com/article-title/lol, they should be redirected to website.com/article-title/ Is it possible to do so? If yes, please tell me how. Note: I'm using WordPress Thank you
On-Page Optimization | | hakhan2011 -
Product titles
Hi guys, I'm starting to sell sofas and furniture online in Australia. Many USA companies just use the key ranking words as the Product Title i.e. "Ultra -Modern black leather sectional sofa with bookcase". Even if they have 100s of products. But in Australia they just use the model name, such as "The York", "The Boston", etc. Cause it does create a nicer picture and a neater look on the main page. I was wondering how important this practice is in improving search ranking? is it spammy? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | cowhidesdirect0 -
Why Isnt My New Article Indexed?
I posted this article last night: http://www.londontri.com/325/tomtom-runner-gps-watch-review It didn't appear in Google's index this morning despite me pointing a few high quality links to it (not keyword optimized links, just links from high quality forum posts) On closer examination I thought that the problem could be due to a keyword stuffing penalty so I have made sure that I am not repeating too many words/word combinations using a keyword density checker but the article is still not indexed. Any ideas what could be going on?
On-Page Optimization | | ross88guy0 -
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?
On-Page Optimization | | royRR0 -
Optimize Page Title - Advice
I am currently going through my site and re-doing the page titles to try and optimize each specific product's page. I know that having the part number as the first piece of text in the title is the best practice. My question is, if i add a bunch of terms to the title, after the part number, is that taking away from the important part (the product number)? For example, my product is Audi A4. The term i want to optimize for is Audi A4. Which would be the better title for ranking purposes? A) Audi A4 | Automobile or B) Audi A4 | Automobile | 4 Cylinder | Made in Germany Thanks for the advice!
On-Page Optimization | | Prime851 -
Title tag for category page
I'd like to know your views on the best approach for title tags for category pages for ecommerce sites. 3 examples A) Category name | Free delivery on $50 purchase | Brand name B) Discover best "category name" on brand name C) Category Name | 1st Keyword, 2nd keyword | Brand name Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | walidalsaqqaf0