Meta Title's Ranking

[bailey_t]

Hi, I have a question regarding meta titles. Does consistency across title tags help with ranking/Google prefer this? What are some of your best metadata practices tips?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hi @bailey_t I would actually suggest the opposite for title tags. They should be unique and describe what that specific page is about. Consistency isn't something I think about when crafting title tags, unless you are thinking about the brand being integrated into the tags, or something like that.

 

[bailey_t]

hey @Colan Nielsen most of my clients are apartment buildings, so we try to incorporate their brand name with the page title for example "Homepage | The Loft Apartments in Denver, CO" all while staying under 55 characters. typically we try to keep everything after | consistent but that is just what my old boss told me to do so I am wondering if there are better tactics when i go in and rewrite title tags for clients.

 

[Stefan Somborac]

Hi @bailey_t, what @Colan Nielsen recommends is what you'll find in any guide to SEO. To quote Google's Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide, "You should create a unique title for each page on your site."

Repeating a small amount of text for branding is fine, but your <title> tag is critical for telling both users and Google what a page is all about, so make the most of it!

In fact, here's a video from Google, just published today, that provides a great overview of <title> and <meta description> elements.

(Bonus: Don't use "homepage" as the title on your homepage! Use something descriptive, such as "Luxury Apartments in Toronto" or "Family Doctor in Vancouver".)

 

[bailey_t]

Thanks @Stefan Somborac that is super helpful!!!

 

[Conor Treacy]

From a marketing end of things, think of Pain vs Solution. While having some brand information on some pages is good, most people will not care too much about it. People searching have a pain (needing a place to live) and want a solution (apartment for rent near 84th & Dodge St).

If you position your Titles (and descriptions) as a 15-second elevator pitch, that's essentially what searchers are looking for. The brand is less important on MOST pages, but good to have on both the home page, contact and about pages.

Also, we're huge fans of having a different Page Title (in SERPs) than that of an H1 on the actual page. They don't have to be the same, and for all intents and purposes, they shouldn't be the same.