Optimising Page Title for Backlink Anchor Text?

[drang3d]

I have a question regarding page titles. If your optimising for say two keywords "x" & "y", is it better to optimise together using "x & y" in the page title & url and the anchor text or is better to create 2 seperate pages using "x" & "y" and using "x & y" for the anchor text. Is this the way you run an seo campaign targeting 100's of words put reducing the workload by combining them into less content?

[Agnafl]

My suggestion would be to set-up your page title like so. Choose the 2 main keywords that you want to target so it looks like this, " Overseas Property | Overseas Property For Sale". Build links back to your site using those 2 keywords as your anchor text. Use them independent from each other. Alternate between the 2 every other time you create a backlink.

Keep just one page and write good, unique content for that page that includes all those 100's of words that you speak of. After you build enough links with your 2 main keywords, start using some of the other keywords that you want to target. This way you will have hit your 2 main keywords pretty hard as well as a portion of the lesser searched strings. If your content is unique and written properly you should be able to capture most of the other keywords through longtails without building a campaign around them.

Just my $.02

Matt

[Bigtoe]

It depends on what x and y stand for.

[ericbramlett]

My suggestion would be to set-up your page title like so. Choose the 2 main keywords that you want to target so it looks like this, " Overseas Property | Overseas Property For Sale".

I disagree...you're overlooking another important aspect of the title tag - conversion. You could very easily rank for both keywords you've outlined above, by simply creating the tag: "Overseas Property For Sale". The bots recognize "Overseas Property" & "Overseas Property For Sale" in the tag - they also recognize "Overseas Property Sale".

However, you have 65 characters to play with, so you can definitely add in more to the tag, for both SEO & conversion purposes. Something like "Search Now | Overseas Property For Sale" would grab my attention (and you still have 26 more chars to play with.) So...just off the top of my head:

"Search Now | Overseas Property For Sale | Buy Sell & Invest" = 59 chars

IMHO, it pops to the user, and the bots are going to recognize a ton of KW combinations.

[Agnafl]

I agree. I was just using his example with just 2 main keywords that he wanted to focus on. Going the step further as you have explained would be a great benefit.

Matt

[drang3d]

Eric is there a limit to the amount of characters in the Title tag that the search engines recognise?

[ericbramlett]

That's a good question. There definitely is a limit, but I don't know what it is. I know if you turned your title tag into a 130 char keyword stuff, it wouldn't help you at all. Google displays 65 characters on the SERPs - Personally, I go over by a few characters, and I don't think it's hurt me at all... Just shoot for 65 chars & don't sweat it if you're a few under or over, IMHO.

[Rene Galvan]

Have you guys noticed any difference in placement due to keyword order? When I titled my home page, I chose to use the metro area which coincides with my domain name for consistent branding. Most of the other sites use the largest submarket (McAllen Real Estate) as their first words.

My current title is:
Rio Grande Valley Real Estate (McAllen, Edinburg, Sharyland Homes for Sale)
Matches my domain:
RGV-Realty.com

When I backlink, I use only "McAllen Real Estate" about 75% of the time.

If word placement is non-issue for Google, this title should provide many keyword combinations. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

[waynelong]

I am not the SEO expert in the group and cannot send you to a definitive answer on this but I have been told that Google puts more emphasis on KWs starting from Left to Right so that the most important KWs should be on the left and progress to less important on the Right. If "McAllen Real Estate" is your top term maybe:

"McAllen Real Estate and Homes for Sale - Rio Grande Valley - Edinbug - Sharyland .

This also would seem to make sense from a conversion standpoint.

[mpilatow]

See, I myself prefer to use some branding in my Title tag. Instead of using multiple phrases I like to use the phrase that defines that particular page best along with the company name, like Keyword Phrase: Company Name.
If there are additional phrases that I want to target I will either do it on a new page or include variations in the actual body content. That's just kind of how I have always done it.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that using multiple related phrases is wrong but I prefer to include some sort of branding message when I can.