Title Tags Help

[affiliaterookie2009]

Hello everyone,

I have come across a WP plugin called the All-in-one SEO pack and some other title tag plugins. Now I have no idea exactly what the difference is between the title tag, and the blog post title. I even see the option to add a title tag to my main home page. My main home page is the .com web address right now, would the title tag be like some background words behind the scenes for access to search engine indexing. Can someone help me out with this?

I have been researching Title Tag, but its just not clicking. I see alot about title tags overriding the blog titles, etc.

Also, I came up with some pretty nifty blog post titles when I first started blogging, but then I ended up making the titles simple containing main keywords for SEO. Does Title Tag have anything to do with this?

Thanks guys, I'm such a rookie...lol

[Linda Buquet]

In Wordpress normally (without a title tag plugin) the post title will be the title tag too. And if you create compelling and relevant post titles I don't see a reason to use the plugin.

You said: "Also, I came up with some pretty nifty blog post titles when I first started blogging, but then I ended up making the titles simple containing main keywords for SEO."

Keep in mind post titles serve 2 purposes - yes you want to get the right keywords in there for search engines HOWEVER you also want a title that is compelling enough that it makes a PERSON want to click and come to your site - after they see you in the search engines. If someone is searching for the KW in your title they are going to find you buried in a SERP with at least 10 other listings, so you need to make sure your listing is going to stand out and be compelling.

The whole purpose of SEO is to get visitors so don't just put a bunch of KW in the title. It needs to also read right and have meaning for real people.

Also keep in mind keywords in the title do you no good if they aren't also in the body copy, so don't try to keyword stuff extra KW in the title. If the post is all about green widgets and all their uses and you make the title "Green Widgets for Internet Marketing" hoping to get ranked for Internet Marketing - if those 2 words aren't in the body content, having them in the title won't help you at all.

If you write for PEOPLE and write LOGICALLY the post should automatically be pretty good for the search engines - you just go back and double check it and possibly make some tweaks. If the post is all about green widgets and all their uses, then the title and content will be all about the uses for green widgets. You'll automatically be including the KWs a few times in the content and the title and content will be related and relevant which is exactly what SE are looking for.

Write for people 1st and search engines second.

[Linda Buquet]

Another reason this is not a good strategy ESPECIALLY for blogs...

"Also, I came up with some pretty nifty blog post titles when I first started blogging, but then I ended up making the titles simple containing main keywords for SEO."

If you are marketing your blog right SE will only be one of MANY avenues where people will find your posts.

Keep in mind you could be attracting lots of your visitors NOT through search engines but via RSS feeds, blog aggregation sites like Technorati, Twitter and Facebook if you publish your feeds there, etc.

So if someone is looking at a long list of other people's blog posts about a certain topic, or scanning Twitter and all the other titles are compelling, well crafted link bait titles and yours is just a bunch of boring KW's, your post could be lost in the shuffle with no one clicking over to read it.

So especially when it comes to social media like blogging "Write for people 1st and search engines second." Yes the KW are still very important, but weave them into compelling titles.

[affiliaterookie2009]

Thanks alot Linda!

Also, are keywords within descriptions useful? Such as when you move the mouse arrow over a word, the short descriptions that pop up?

[Linda Buquet]

Originally Posted by affiliaterookie2009

Such as when you move the mouse arrow over a word, the short descriptions that pop up?

Descriptions that pop up where? A word within your WP content? I'm not aware of WP doing that by default. Do you have a plug in that does that?

[affiliaterookie2009]

There is an option within the admin panel that allows me to key in a short text description that I want to appear describing the what the page that follows is all about. Its for a word within my content, or a link.

[Linda Buquet]

Hmmm, I've used WP for years and have never seen this. Are you talking about the general description for the blog itself?

Can you tell me where in admin it is or what it is called? Also if you highlight it and then view source, what does the source code call the text?

[affiliaterookie2009]

Oh okay, its in the field when you go to "edit post", then go to the "insert/edit link" icon. It's the field "Title". I just realized it's only for links though. Whatever you place in the "Title" box, becomes a description when you mouse over.

[Linda Buquet]

I have the latest version of WP and don't have that option so I think you have a plug in that added that.

[minstrel]

To go back to the original post, I do use the All-in-One SEO plug-in, which does more than optimize the page title. For example, it also optimizes the meta description tag and reduces duplicate content (canonicalization) issues.

From the plug-in description:

Some features:

• Canonical URLs
• Fine tune Page Navigational Links
• Built-in API so other plugins/themes can access and extend functionality
• Provides SEO Integration for WP e-Commerce sites
• Nonce Security (sic - I have no idea what this means)
• Support for CMS-style WordPress installations
• Automatically optimizes your titles for search engines
• Generates META tags automatically
• Avoids the typical duplicate content found on Wordpress blogs
• For beginners, you don't even have to look at the options, it works out-of-the-box. Just install.
• For advanced users, you can fine-tune everything
• You can override any title and set any META description and any META keywords you want.
• Backward-Compatibility with many other plugins, like Auto Meta, Ultimate Tag Warrior and others

As Linda has already indicated, the page title for a post is usually the title of the article. However, this will of course change depending on whether you are viewing an individual post page, the home page, etc. It's what appears in the title bar at the top of your browser when you view a web page. It also is visible when you do a View Source from your browser as the following tag:

< title > Title Tags Help - 5 Star Affiliate Marketing Forums< /title >

That is the title tag for this page (spaces added after "<" and before ">" so it will display.

And, just to demonstrate the power of the title tag for search engine ranking, and why the specific content of the title tag matters, this thread, started just over 4 hours ago as I post, is the #2 result in Google for the phrase "title tags help" with the quotes and #5 for "title tags help" without the quotes. On the other hand, is is not in the first 100 results for just "title tags" or "do title tags help".