Title Tags Are Bunk - An Unscientific Study

I’ll preface this by saying that when it comes to SEO, I’m a content and linking girl. If you want to rank well in the SERPs, you build decent content and you get people to link to it. Those two steps are the most important in SEO. They involve a lot of forethought and strategy. You have to understand your audience and know what they want from you. But this post isn’t about that.

This post is about what everyone writes about when they write about SEO – Title Tags!

I was making Title Tag recommendations the other day. I was a bit out of practice, so I decided to Google a few terms and see what others were doing with Title Tags this season. I found something interesting…

A lot of ranking pages weren’t using keywords in their Title Tags at all.

So, I did a 10-minute unscientific study in which I Googled 10 competitive keyword phrases and counted how many of the 1st page results used keywords in the Title Tag.

I purposely chose keywords I thought would be over-optimized and disprove my theory. The results:

As the MythBusters would say: Myth Busted!

Well, not scientifically – my little chart doesn’t prove anything. But, personally, I’m over Title Tags. Only 50% of ranking pages used the entire keyword phrase in the title. 25% of ranking pages used an unordered or disrupted version of the keyword phrase (ex. Cable TV, High Speed Internet and Telephone Service) And 35% of ranking pages didn’t include the keyword phrase or only had a partial phrase.

So, can we please stop writing about title tags as if there is some super secret SEO art to writing one.

In 2007, a bunch of SEO experts pulled together and ranked Google Search Engine Ranking Factors. Keyword Inclusion in Title Tag was hands down number one.

Rae Hoffman wrote: I still think the title tag is one of the most important on page elements from an algo perspective as well as a click through perspective.

Jill Whalen wrote: Probably one of the most important factors in determining rankings.

Christine Churchill wrote: If you have time to do only one SEO action on your site, take the time to create good titiles.

I think times have changed.

Back in ’07, SEOs were writing Title Tags that looked a lot like: Brand Name | Keyword Phrase #1 | Keyword Phrase #2 | Keyword Phrase #3.

And then everyone was saying “LOOK NATURAL! LOOK NATURAL!”

Now, I’m saying don’t sweat Title Tags.

If you have an old domain and a shitload of backlinks, well yeah, you could change a few title tags and rank just fine.

For everyone else, investing a bunch of time in writing that perfect natural-looking title that includes all your keywords is a waste of time. Title your page whatever it’s about and move on to finding links. Your time is better spent there.