Title tag : how many keywords ?

by 41 replies
53
Hi there,

i was wondering about the number of keywords in the title of website would bring the best results seo wise ? 1,2,3 or even more ?

which number would you recommend ?

Thanks !
#search engine optimization #keywords #tag #title
  • It depends on the length of your keywords. Google takes about the first 60 characters of your title.
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    • Hi shulink,

      thanks for your hint- really appreciate it
    • Google "displays" the first 65-67 characters of the title in the SERPs before truncating it. Google "uses" the ENTIRE title to rank as best I can tell regardless of length... at least out to 300+ characters (and my guess is no matter how long it is).

      I have personally tested this with really long title elements of 300+ characters with random, very unique strings in them (like "title test 283819c99kckekk - testing long titles 29918cjjeiciikj - best long 2838skkwikdiekdi title...") where I KNOW the keywords like "283819c99kckekk" do not exist on any other page on the web. The ONLY place the strings appeared were in the title element of my test page (nowhere on the page, not in the meta keywords, not in the meta description, and the ONLY link to the page was from my home page with a link text of "Test"). And once the page was indexed, even if "29918cjjeiciikj " were in position 300+ of the title element, a search for "29918cjjeiciikj" at Google returns one result... my page. So they likely consider the ENTIRE title regardless of length.

      That being said, typically your title should target 1 keyword phrase... maybe 2 or 3 keyword phrases if they are all very similar and very closely related. Keyword density within the title element is VERY important. Though keyword density within the overall page carries very little weight these days, keyword density within HTML elements that are themselves ranking factors (like title, h1, h2s, URL, link text of incoming links, etc.) is VERY important. So don't stuff your titles with words (like the name of your site) that are not part of your targeted keyword phrase(s).

      "Refinance - Mortgage Refinance - Refinance Loans" is a MUCH better title than "Get a Refinance Loan Today - JoeMama.com" if you are trying to rank for "refinance loan" related keywords. The words "get a", "today", and "joemama.com" all hurt your page's ability to rank for its targeted "refinance loan" related keyword phrases.
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  • I think you can take your targeted keyword first in title tag but remember always make title of 60-65 characters because search engines will hide the rest of the characters.
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  • 2 keywords in the title is recommended
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    • I can give you a few ideas. Ideally stick your main keyword phrase at the start of the title and then put something after it that gets people to click (like a headline), something that makes people curious. So it would be Keyword Phrase - Call to Action.
      That way you can increase clickthroughs on the results, which means that with the right call to action/headline you could get a better clickthrough than the URL's ranking above you.
      So to answer your question for number of keywords using this method you just need to make sure your phrase and headline are within the character limits.
      (As a sidenote your meta description can increase clickthroughs if you sell it right).

      Another option is to nest your keywords, so within 7 words or whatever you're picking up different variations of a keyword phrase or different keyword phrases altogether. A simple example is a review page. If you had a page that was for a...hmm..train set review you'd have this in the title:

      "{Specific train set model) Review | Train Set Reviews"

      That's a simple example for picking up the plural variations (and using some keywords out of the phrase can give some seo benefit in my experience (not saying this is true all of the time), but for some sites I can get 5 different keywords phrases in the title (as long as it doesn't look spammy, it needs to be natural) Here's an example:

      "Legal Problems in Seattle | Seattle Legal Services & Advice"

      You'd be picking up:

      legal problems in seattle
      seattle legal services
      seattle legal advice
      legal advice
      legal services
      legal problems
      seattle legal

      Now, this isn't the best example but my point is by nesting the keywords you can pick up multiples if you really take your time over it. I've sort of gone of subject with the number of keywords, but it's kind of related.
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  • Maximum four and minimum two, title tag is one of the most important factor of on page SEO , so i think we should utilize it in good manner.
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    • Could do, the only way to know is to test. Not a very comforting answer, I know. Try it on a page that isn't ranking and see what happens.
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    • There should be two keywords per page. According to me the quality of keyword is more important than the quantity of keywords. It is also depend on the competition and strength of your pages. Less keyword with high quality helps a lot.
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  • YouTube - Snippets and Titles
    According to Matt Cutts: if titles are really really long, Google may still use that title in their scoring, but may select specific snippet of the title or a more suitable title altogether.

    The same applies to,
    1) Generic pages (title=index, home, untitled)
    2) Websites that have the same title spanning across all the pages of the site.
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  • I also put a lot of keywords in title and doesn't seem to have any negative effect so far.
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    • Hi Plato!
      In my opinion title tag is one of the most important factor in getting high search engine rankings!
      My advice: use specific keyword phrases, or to answer your question a recommended number is 2,3 keywords in your title tag!
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  • i usally put one keyword at the title, in this way the page is moe focused
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  • 3 Basic rules of keyword deplyment I use are Prominence, Proximity and Density.

    Prominence - The closer the a word is to the beginning of a link or block of text, the more important Google will see it. Words that follow become less and less important (to the Google bots).

    Proximity - This refers to how close the keywrods making up your keyphrases are to each other.

    Density - this is the frequency a keyword is found within a page. I aim for 2-3% keyword density.

    This startegy has helped me over the years and I belive works well.

    Hope this helps.

    Mark
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    • some good pointers in this thread thanks.
  • Just write for people and you are good. I stopped worrying about such things long time ago. I use title -> h1 -> h2(subtitle).

    Title should be what the page is actually about
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    • We often use 3 keywords in the Title. one of our clients has 3 keywords as the title and is ranking #1 on all 3.
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  • 2 keywords is fair enough. Just be sure that the title is very relevant to the content and it shouldn't look like being made for SEO purposes.
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  • Thanks for your tips about the number of keywords. Actually I have been in a confusion for a long about how many should be the keywords in title.
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  • 2 to 3 keywords are Recommended ......
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  • It is good to have 2 keywords and maximum you can have 3.
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  • depends on the length of the words. better have a maximum of three..

    https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeti...AS#search.none

    this might help you in deciding your keywords.
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    • 60 to 67 characters would be better for title tag optimization
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  • Make title small as you can. Also use highly competitive keywords on homepage and less on innerpage.
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  • Usually I have about 3 important keywords in the title. It depends. It's better to make combination between keywords and to use singular / plural form of the keywords.
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  • The usual keyword tags is usually three. But make sure they are powerful keywords.
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  • Title tag is the most important element of on-page optimization,so you must put at least 2 keywords on title tag, and length of title tag should be 60 to 65 characters long not more than that because if you enter more chars than Google eliminate those chars.
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  • I normally use 4 to 5 keywords on my title tags.
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  • Three keywords are suppose to be an ideal title to any web site.
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  • Keywords for the title should be chosen on the basis of exact search volume of the keywords. In my opinion 2 to 3 keywords are best for any title but that 2 to 3 keywords should be having high search counts.
  • alteast go for 2 and adjust them in 60 characters
  • Some Times I use 3 keywodrs, and use Capital Font..
  • Use 3 keywords in title.This should be accurate and short.
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  • 3-4 keywords are good in the title. But keep in mind that limit for title tag is upto 70 characters
  • An important thing is to keep it sounding natural, remember you're not just optimizing for SEO but trying to draw a high CTR from results which plays a factor in rankings, sites that don't get clicked on will stumble in the serps....
  • It's not about the number of keywords but rather the message you're trying to convey and fitting it into the title under 60 characters.
  • i think <60 is best option.
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