SEO: Title Tag

[Stationery-Direct]

I have always thought that you should never use a keyword in your title tag, description tag and keyword tag more than 3 times, I thought google and the other search engines penalised for this sort of thing.

However, on researching a few things I have noticed a lot of websites that are at the top of google listings for certain words have them displayed in the title tag and description tag many times, for example:

A search for "NCR Pads"

Placed No 1 - Description:
We offer 2-part ncr pads, 3-part ncr pads, 4-part ncr pads and 5-part ncr pads. Free designing and carriage.

Placed No 4 - Title:
NCR Printing: NCR sets, NCR pads and NCR books from the business ... (http://www.admiralprinters.com/print/NCR.htm)

As you can see there is repetition more than 3 times and they are highly placed.

Can anybody enlighten me on this?, many thanks.

Damon

[vengavenga]

Everyone has different ideas about this, but our experience shows that title tags are a lot less important that they used to be, in the same way as other metatags have much less importance placed on them nowadays.

The search engines want to provide their users with accurate, relevant search results and the best way of doing that it to look at page content over and above everything else.

The page itself mentions NCR pads several times and there's no doubt whatsover that the page is about NCR pads and nothing else.

Ali.

[quikshop]

Hi Damon,

Take a look at my friend's internet shop and the title he uses: http://www.paragonmartialarts.co.uk/. I think Google place a lot of weight on relevancy, so if what you have in your title and meta tags is repeated or resembles the text you have in your web page, thats a big plus.

On your web page, try to keep your keyword density to a conversation level, doing 3 paragraphs worth of NCR NCR NCR NCR NCR will guarantee a big hairy Google boot off their listings :D

Regards,
Dave

www.internetretailer.biz (http://www.internetretailer.biz)

[sandpetra]

Wow!!!!!

Title elements are they are correctly called ARE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENTS FOR BETTER VISIBILITY IN GOOGLE AT LEAST!

http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

A good title tag could be the difference between first and 11th, or 100th.

It needs to be unique on every page.

If you want to rank for something, put it in your title tag, then get links to that page with the keywords in the links. Then mention the keyword phrase in the text of the page a couple of times, and ensure your internal navigation points to that page with the keywords in the url. :)

[sirearl]

Wow!!!!!

Title elements are they are correctly called ARE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENTS FOR BETTER VISIBILITY IN GOOGLE AT LEAST!

http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

A good title tag could be the difference between first and 11th, or 100th.

It needs to be unique on every page.

If you want to rank for something, put it in your title tag, then get links to that page with the keywords in the links. Then mention the keyword phrase in the text of the page a couple of times, and ensure your internal navigation points to that page with the keywords in the url. :)

Agree 100% saying meta tags are not important to SEO is like saying petrol is not important to your car :D

[sandpetra]

Hello Earl! I'm back on the scene a wee bit - been snowed under recently (actually off sick just now) - I'll be in touch.

[sirearl]

Hello Earl! I'm back on the scene a wee bit - been snowed under recently (actually off sick just now) - I'll be in touch.

Hi you shouldn't have given the little buggers that link,they will all be at it now ,hard enough for us old timers to earn a crust :)

I did not see my name on the list of world authorities,must have been an editing error :D


Earl

[JustOneUK]

Hello Earl! I'm back on the scene a wee bit - been snowed under recently (actually off sick just now) - I'll be in touch.

NOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!
Don't go giving him someone to talk to..... ;)

Title tags are important. Yes you can duplicate your keywords in there although I wouldn't recommend using a keyword more than 4 times maximum.

[DuaneJackson]

Agree 100% saying meta tags are not important to SEO is like saying petrol is not important to your car :D

Meta tags and title tags are two different things.

[sirearl]

Meta tags and title tags are two different things.

glad you noticed its a generic term us geriatrics use :)

[DarrenC]

No matter how desperate you are to get 1st page rankings don't make it look spammy or unprofessional.

[sandpetra]

Agreed. But how many people other than webmasters actually read this element (apart from in search engines).

A good rule of thumb is don't repeat your keyword more than twice, in my experience. If you are adding more and youre still not getting results, you need to reevaluate your page text or get some more quality links from your "neighbourhood".

ie - If you have a flower shop get links from Flower forums, flower blogs, flower photography sites etc. :)

[RayB]

NCR pads and sets are not remotely competitive terms.

I suspect the more competitive the term, the less a spammy title is tolerated, and will quickly start to work against you.

[sirearl]

NCR pads and sets are not remotely competitive terms.

I suspect the more competitive the term, the less a spammy title is tolerated, and will quickly start to work against you.

Ray There's spam and there's SPAM.;)

What do you consider spam?

[RayB]

Ray There's spam and there's SPAM.;)

What do you consider spam?

It comes in a tin and makes a nice sandwich?

The point is a spammy title is tolerated if there is little else to serve up as a result - but is poor parctice. If you are going after "NCR" sets then a well sculpted page and tags is easy to get well ranked.

I doubt if many people younger than 40 know what NCR sets are!

[mattk]

NCR pads and sets are not remotely competitive terms.

I suspect the more competitive the term, the less a spammy title is tolerated, and will quickly start to work against you.
Agreed. This is not a competitive phrase, so the top ranking pages are unlikely to be the creme de la creme of optimisation.

If you want to see good page structure then look at the top 10 results for a very competitive term.