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<title> - site name in every page?

by shayatik
12 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi,

Recently I installed Yoast's WordPress SEO plugin.

The default setting for page title is:

%%title%% - %%sitename%%

Which causes my pages to look like:

Some title 1 - the website name
Some title 2 - the website name

So 2 questions:

1. Should I include the website name in every page's title, or should I change it to %%title%%?
2. I don't know if there's a connection, but 2 weeks after I installed the plugin, my ranking for the main keyword dropped from 12 (stable) to 90.

Thanks!
#&lttitle&gt #<title> #page #site
  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    Many sites use their domain/website name in each title.

    I am not sure why that is, other than branding perhaps. But since it's
    done quite often, it's not a problem. Amazon uses amazon.com on
    each of their pages, for the most part. Perhaps because the title is
    showin in SERPS, big sites want to be noticed. I recently changed
    some of my titles and descriptions with my website in them. It might
    make the potential visitor know that the page resides on a "good"
    domain.

    Paul
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    If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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  • Profile picture of the author EyeSoft
    Personally I would go with the no website name and just title of the page. I guess that having both of them can be confusing for many people and some would think they are on the main page of your blog or website.

    Besides, some SEO experts would consider it a spamming technique, so I would vote for title alone.
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  • Profile picture of the author MatthewReece
    Originally Posted by shayatik View Post

    Hi,

    Recently I installed Yoast's WordPress SEO plugin.

    The default setting for page title is:

    %%title%% - %%sitename%%

    Which causes my pages to look like:

    Some title 1 - the website name
    Some title 2 - the website name

    So 2 questions:

    1. Should I include the website name in every page's title, or should I change it to %%title%%?
    2. I don't know if there's a connection, but 2 weeks after I installed the plugin, my ranking for the main keyword dropped from 12 (stable) to 90.

    Thanks!
    Website name in the end of title, for example "Title that is written to be cool | site.com", is written for 2 reasons. First is branding, second is making it 100% unique. You should agree that any other site in the web wouldn't use yor site's name in their title. And should be noted that Google don't see such titles as spamed titles. So there are no problems at all.
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  • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
    I'd do it for branding. Even though there's the domain name, it could add some authority and tell the company name on the first encounter. It's like a signature and an advertisement in one.

    Pages you change may do drop in search results. You should check if everything seems to be correct with the on-page SEO, but Yoast's plugin tends to be reliable. If everything seems fine it's fairly likely that the SERP position will bounce back to what it were. It'll take some time, though.
    Signature
    Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
    Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

    What's your excuse?
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Ford
    Hey. You can use brand name instead of site name. For example, your site is supershop.com.
    - Super Cool Title | at supeshop.com
    or you can make
    - Super Cool Title | at SuperShop

    It makes sense, if people know your brand and search using brand name as keyword.
    Also it looks good.
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  • Profile picture of the author webby0031
    FIRST THING TO DO WITH YOAST IS UNTICK FORCE REWRITE TITLES AND THEN FILL THE SEO INFO OUT ON EACH PAGE MANUALLY.
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  • Profile picture of the author mkg
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author webby0031
      Originally Posted by mkg View Post

      I use it for branding. Some of my sites even use the brand name first like

      Brand Name - Page title

      You can even use something like brand name one or two words description/tag/slogan - Page name
      e.g
      AwesomeShopName Cheap Clothes - Spring Summer 2014 collection (page name)

      You can get seo benefit out of it if your niche name is used in searches but this is mostly for a better user experience and letting them know instantly which site they are visiting and what your brand name is
      Absolutely Stupid waste of H1 title space for SEO.

      your arguments are flawed
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      • Profile picture of the author paulgl
        Originally Posted by webby0031 View Post

        Absolutely Stupid waste of H1 title space for SEO.

        your arguments are flawed
        ROTFLMAO! What the frick is H1 title space? I think you are a tad mixed up
        about a lot of things....

        FYI: The WF uses Warrior Forum in the title of some pages here...go figure.

        Paul
        Signature

        If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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      • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
        Originally Posted by webby0031 View Post

        your arguments are flawed
        Says the guy who doesn't even attempt to make an argument.
        Signature
        Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
        Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

        What's your excuse?
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  • Profile picture of the author ConnectVT
    Well using the website name is not a bad practice. However the drop in you rankings is due to some changes in the title. Try to use that keyword more in your pages (not more than 3 to 4 times).
    Signature

    ConnectVT
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    • Profile picture of the author Timothytype
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      • Profile picture of the author Michael Curran Smith
        It's possible that putting that setting "on" may have caused a bunch of duplicate titles. A larger site might require an audit to see if you have dup titles; this could potentially drop rankings, although probably not that drastically. Look to other solutions as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author osredworm
    As far as I know and have seen is that many of the sites out there use their website name in each title.
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