Don’t you just hate feeling like someone is cheating and winning
while you play by the rules and lose? How good would it feel if you knew you
were playing by the rules and winning for a change? Well, I’m about to tell you
how you can do just that.
When I was first starting out placing websites in the tops
of search engines like most I spent a lot of time in forums asking questions
and reading the advice of the other people just starting out. One tip that you
could get on any seo or web promotion forum was PUT YOUR KEYWORDS IN YOUR
TITLE.
Well like most things SE0, conventional wisdom seemed to be
if one is good, then more is better. So, almost every search you would do
started returning links that had the exact the same thing you searched for
repeated over and over in the big blue links in the results. THAT’S how smart
search engines and webmasters were back then.
Now over a decade later webmasters and search engines both
are much smarter and realize repeated keywords in a title tag does not a
relevant result make. With internet marketing now hitting the financial scale
in the 10 digits the world knows now that a powerful marketing message and a
value driven call to action is much more effective for a commercial search.
Weeeeeelllll you
might think so but take a look at this results page for hotels in London
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=hotels+in+london&btnG=Google+Search
Out of the entire list of
some 20+ results, (counting both the paid and organic), the closest
thing to a marketing message are the words discount, cheap and budget in about
half of the listings. OOOHH, we’re selling now! <extreme textual sarcasm
I’m not saying SEO’s have done anything wrong. Obviously
since Google highlights the matching words in the title and description, it
must be a big part of the ranking algorithm right?
Wrong! I have long said that the blame for poor results and
lack of relevancy lies not so much at the feet of the webmasters who are only doing
what they think the engines want them to do, but at least some of the blame
lies squarely on the shoulders of the engines themselves.
Those words are highlighted not because it is tipping the
hand of the algorithm, they are highlighted to give the searcher the impression
that the engine has located relevant results.
GASP! SEO Guru, are you actually implying that the keywords
in the title don’t play a part in an engine determining relevancy???
<multiple question marks to signify shock and disbelief<
No. I’m not implying anything. I’m telling you that:
#1. the keywords in the title tag don’t play nearly as big a
role in the placement factors as the majority of people in the web marketing community
believe and
#2. what difference does it make if you are not #1 and #1
gets over 70% of the clicks. And we can’t all be number 1 all the time for
every keyword.
While I’m talking about getting clicks, I’ll address the
fact that there is no question that results on the first page with keyword repetition
in the title do get clicks, but my contention is that they get the clicks because
they are on the first page NOT because the message offers value or has a clear
call to action. This may be the single biggest factor to the entire web marketing
world thinking that a 2.5 conversion ratio is pretty good.
Search engines have done such a good job of public relations
that the general consensus is that if it’s on the first page it MUST be
relevant. In spite of the fact this is a misconception, it is actually a good thing because that is what enables a complete
newbie to kick the butt of SEOs and steal their clicks.
Let’s take a look at another search term. Granted this one
is not as commercial and therefore not as competitive, so that will leave
plenty of room for argument, (I actually enjoy the arguments but then I also
enjoy bus fumes), but there can be no question that it shows keywords do not
HAVE to be in the title to rank on the first page for a search.
Let’s do a search for
rabbit husbandry. A VERY popular search term with young, affluent,
adult male rabbits.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=rabbit+husbandry&btnG=Search
Notice that four of the 10 results do not have either word
in their titles yet they are on the first page. Also note that there are highlighted
references to the words in the description but that goes back to the engines
trying desperately to “prove” to the searcher they found “relevant” results. We’ll
discuss that a little more later.
Also, check out a search for trajectory of the moon.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=trajectory+of+the+moon&btnG=Search
Now 6 out of the ten top results have neither word in the title. Obviously,
keywords do not HAVE to be in the title to be on the first page.
GASP! Are you actually advising us to not put keywords in
the title SEO Guru???? <there’s that shock thing again with the multiple
question marks>
NO! If you omit the keyword from the title tag and
description tag, the engine will have to hunt really hard to find matching
words to highlight to give the impression that it found relevant results. This
is the main reason, (well this and the fact that page rank is a little flawed and
it needs some real help), that you don’t see your description tag in the
results the way you write it.
You used to be able to sell with your description
tag, but
those were the good old days. Now they have to show highlighted words
from the search
terms or it looks like they made a mistake so they will butcher your
description or even use weird places in your text to accomplish this.
Which means
selling anything is tough but the engine looks good to the searcher. No
problem. Remember, that which doesn't kill us only makes us stronger
--- and more money if we do it right.
The take away of today’s article is how to steal those clicks
and what I’m telling you is that if you try to get more occurrences of your
target term in your title tag which is limited to about 150 characters or so,
including spaces, you are blowing it and letting the number 1 guy win. Use the
space to make sure you have your target term in your description and text, (the
anchor text of your inbound links actually have more to do with what gets
highlighted from where on your site than your tags do), BUT if you want to
steal the clicks from number 1 then sell the title tag!
What if your title tag said
Where do celebrities stay in London?
Riverviews of the Thames
from your hotel room
Londons’sexiest concierge at your service
etc, etc, etc.
The point is almost anything besides Hotel London, london hotel, hotel discount in London, is going to stand out like a sore
thumb and attract the eye.
If you focus on selling with your title instead of stuffing
the keywords into the title tag, any newbie can steal those clicks.
Peace
Massa
PS
If you’re thinking, “ok fine, SEO Guru, but how do I get the top 10 away from all
those seo’s in the first place?” Well, over the next few days, I’ll discuss how
to use this strategy with long tail keywords and show you EXACTLY how.