How does Title keyword order, number and puctuation factor into rankings?
-
Hi,
I am new at SEO and really trying to dive right in and do some thorough keyword research before I put my efforts into on-page optimization. In my research I have found a bunch of keywords that have low competition and decent search volume for my niche. I was thinking that I could be quite clever to combine a few of these phrases together in order to target them all. I realize that the first few positions for title tag placement hold extra value so I do not want to overdo it with my word choices and therefore not rank for my keywords.
For example "pink girls room" has the highest (but not a ton) searches out of the keywords that I have found. "pink room decor" is also a decent and relevant keyword. So if my title is "Pink girls room decor" at the beginning of my title will I hurt myself instead of thinking that I am clever enough to get both keywords with one shot.
Also, if I add more keywords in a natural way after this important beginning phrase, will it help me get more long tail search terms or will it just dilute my original keywords?
Finally, how do search engines view punctuation? I have noticed that when I search for terms myself that Google appears to ignore punctuation.. Does that mean if I am strategic I can get more keyword terms in my title and still sound human by taking advantage of this?
Thanks so much!
-
Today I read something different.
My understanding is that Google will also rank for the words in the title themselves not necessarily in the order placed, whereas Bing and Yahoo have a stronger emphasis on exact order keyword match. So today I changed up my Title in hopes of getting in a few more key words too. Hopefully I don't fall from my lofty perch for my main key word that is in my URL.
PS...I did have one word twice in my title ...I hope I don't get penalized for that.
-
"Pink girls room decor" does not cover you for "pink room decor" because the words need to be all together and not separated by another keyword.
"Pink girls room decor" covers you for "Pink girls room" and "girls room decor"
Yes additional alternative keyword phrases will help not hurt as long as you don't keyword stuff, "bedroom" and "room" are different keywords so think of alternative words that are also searched
Punctuation is ignored but still should be used for proper grammar
Don't forget that all title tags should be unique across the site! good luck!
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
-
I'm monitoring the organic keywords for a website, what do their organic keywords tell me?
Should the keywords they already rank well for make good topics for them to exploring in the future?
Keyword Research | | RonkeIR0 -
Is it a bad idea to hyphenate keywords?
Hello, my understanding was that Google reads hyphens in keywords as spaces, but if that's accurate how come keywords with hyphens that I research with Keyword Explorer — for instance, hospital-acquired infections — rank lower when I include the hyphen? If the hyphen hurts SEO, do I have to remove them all from the blog or page in question? Removing hyphens means a blog or page will have punctuation errors, which is irritating to an editor, but I don't want to sacrifice the effectiveness of keywords, either. Thanks, in advance, for your response!
Keyword Research | | SallieJ0 -
YouTube Keyword Research
MOZ has some really powerful tools available to us, but I was wondering if there are any tools for conducting keyword research for YouTube? Thanks!
Keyword Research | | Alaeddin1 -
What does it mean when two keywords in Google's Keyword Research Tool have exactly the same amount of searches?
The two keywords are [publicity] and [product placement] (both in exact search - not broad) and have 22,200 searches each. Is it purely coincidental or are the two keywords kind of related in Google's eyes and that's why we're seeing the same amount of searches for each?
Keyword Research | | davhad0 -
Ranking for broad search terms
Hello, ive been getting some good organic traffic lately, i always run the live real time analytics and have noticed that the site is ranking for very broad terms and not specific exact keywords that i have the pages optimized for. Is there a reason for this? thx
Keyword Research | | TP_Marketing0 -
Ranking in a specific country
Lets say I want to rank for SEO in mexico. Would a .mx domain with targeted content outrank global players (SEOmoz etc) in Mexico.
Keyword Research | | swansonjp0 -
Can't think of any keywords I'd want to rank for
I run a box-of-the-month subscription club for Japanese candy called "Candy Japan". Users sign up for $24 / month and then I start sending them products to try from Japan. I'm curious about SEO, but lack in imagination for terms I would even want to rank for. I already rank OK for "japanese candy", but people who search for that who click over to the site don't seem to convert. People who search for "candy japan" do convert (obviously), since it's clear they already know they want to subscribe. I started making content pages about specific candies, but those are not working. Firstly no-one knows the name of specific Japanese candies, so there isn't any search traffic for them. And even when I get some clicks, they don't convert because I am not selling those specific products (and am not interested in doing so) but rather my product is the subscription club itself. Any ideas on what kind of terms I might be able to find new converting club members from?
Keyword Research | | Bemmu0 -
Most Important Keyword Term
Question about a sites most important keyword term. So lets say you have a website and your most important keyword term is "Blue Widgets", you also have a page named "blue-widgets.htm". What do we do with our index page in this instance? Especially for the title tag? Should I put "Blue Widgets" in the title tags of both pages? I'm guessing this would be a duplicate meta tag error? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Keyword Research | | TRICORSystems
Thanks
-Brandon0