3 possibly silly little questions

[fromtherooftops]

so I have a few questions that have filtered down from another department. These are things they've read from SEO agencies, and have been repeating, but they went against my thoughts. wanted to see what you thought -

1. it was said to me that search engines actually look for the word 'site map' to locate the HTML sitemap. Therefore, pages should only have the word sitemap on their site.

2. what kind of HTML layout is most valuable for search engines, regarding an ecommerce site with categories, product pages, collection pages, etc. Or is it just not anymore valuable over an XML sitemap (because there isn't much relevancy there).

3. there is a 50 character limit on the content in a title tag, as far as what a search engine will read. the rest is ignored. so you should fill up the first 50 characters with relevance and ignore the rest.

[fromtherooftops]

I thought I'd answer my own questions with what I think is the right answer - opinions appreciated!

1. it was said to me that search engines actually look for the word 'site map' to locate the HTML sitemap. Therefore, pages should only have the word sitemap on their site.
I never heard this in my life. To me, a search engine shouldn't limit itself in anyway - relevance is relevance, no matter what it's named. And that a search engine doesn't particularly care about external sitemaps.

2. what kind of HTML layout is most valuable for search engines, regarding an ecommerce site with categories, product pages, collection pages, etc. Or is it just not anymore valuable over an XML sitemap (because there isn't much relevancy there).

I would think that as much information on as few clicks as possible - top categories, second tier, and then products. Since the relevence isn't apparent through the keywords, it's not really doing much in the way of passing relevance to SE's.

3. there is a 50 character limit on the content in a title tag, as far as what a search engine will read. the rest is ignored. so you should fill up the first 50 characters with relevance and ignore the rest.
I don't think they stop at 50. I just think that's how many characters show in the serps. I don't think there's a known limit, but I think there are flags if you try to spam it. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated!

[AussieWebmaster]

so I have a few questions that have filtered down from another department. These are things they've read from SEO agencies, and have been repeating, but they went against my thoughts. wanted to see what you thought -

1. it was said to me that search engines actually look for the word 'site map' to locate the HTML sitemap. Therefore, pages should only have the word sitemap on their site.

It is a hot word but sitemaps can be named something else and still achieve what they are intended to do.

2. what kind of HTML layout is most valuable for search engines, regarding an ecommerce site with categories, product pages, collection pages, etc. Or is it just not anymore valuable over an XML sitemap (because there isn't much relevancy there).

You want the product pages to have SEO - they are the most specific information about a very specific product... get well placed for the individual product and the sales will increase.
The XML sitemap will work getting them to be aware of the page but without SEO the page will not necessarily be ranked for the terms you want.

3. there is a 50 character limit on the content in a title tag, as far as what a search engine will read. the rest is ignored. so you should fill up the first 50 characters with relevance and ignore the rest.

50 is not the number.... the spider will read the entire title but the impact of the keywords get diluted beyond a point....

[jimbeetle]

1) At least Google, Yahoo and Ask now support the Sitemap protocol (sitemap.org).
Google (http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/docs/en/protocol.html)
Yahoo (http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/smallbusiness/store/promote/sitemap/index.html)
Ask (http://about.ask.com/en/docs/about/webmasters.shtml#22)

2) Since the search engine part of the question is now moot, consider a solid, easy to navigate HTML sitemap for your visitors. Unless it's a smallish site I wouldn't drill down too far to detail pages, but down far enough so that users are pretty confident that they'll find what they want when they click that link.

3) If you're that concerned about title length then your titles are probably too long. I believe the more concise and focused, the better. The longer the title the more imprecise it becomes, more likely to confuse searchers (and SEs). Hit them between the eyes with exactly what the page is about -- and hopefully what they're searching for -- and you're more likely to get the click.

To go a bit further,a carefully crafted unique title for each page goes and in hand with a similarly well crafted unique meta description. The better they both work, the more clicks.

<added>Wow, a lot of action since I started typing.</added>

[beu]

1. it was said to me that search engines actually look for the word 'site map' to locate the HTML sitemap. Therefore, pages should only have the word sitemap on their site.
I hear people say this from time to time but don't think it has any truth. By the way, Google calls their own "sitemap" a "site map" (two words not one).

http://www.google.com/sitemap.html

2. what kind of HTML layout is most valuable for search engines, regarding an ecommerce site with categories, product pages, collection pages, etc. Or is it just not anymore valuable over an XML sitemap (because there isn't much relevancy there).
CSS is always a good idea and I would pretend there was no XML sitemap when you build your site.

"A sitemap provides an additional view into your site (just as your home page and HTML site map do), but sitemaps do not replace our normal methods of crawling the web. Google still searches and indexes your sites in the normal way, whether or not you use this program, and sites are never penalized for using this service."

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40318

As far as relevancy when it comes to product pages, forget what you call the product! In your description call your product what customers call the product.

For example, Nike has a product they call a "Classic Hooded Fleece II" but they loose sales because customers searching for this item want to buy a "sweatshirt". Sounds simple but you would be supprised, the point of a product description page is to be descriptive. If the shirt is blue say it's blue and so on!

3. there is a 50 character limit on the content in a title tag, as far as what a search engine will read. the rest is ignored. so you should fill up the first 50 characters with relevance and ignore the rest.
The TITLE is the most important element in a quality page. Extra keywords in a TITLE can thin relevancy. I wouldn't use more characters than users can see in their browser window.

By the way, these are really GREAT questions!

Best of luck to you!:)

[fromtherooftops]

Thanks everyone for the awesome opinions! I find this to be the best SEO forum - you guys are very supportive.

[Jazajay]

CSS is always a good idea and I would pretend there was no XML sitemap when you build your site.


Spot on. Build your site to modern standard layers -
Behavior,
Presentation,
Structure,
Content,
Business logic.

By doing so you will split the content/ structure up reduce code bloat and build an accessible site for SE and your users. Modern standards are the base of any good SEO.

People who relie on site maps aren't doing them selves any favors, that said xml and html site maps can't hurt don't limit your self.

there is a 50 character limit
From what I understand 250 is the max they will read. But I don't care all your title should be - if you sell Blue Cats Strangling Midget Foam Mattress's that is -

is shock horror - Blue Cats Strangling Midget Foam Mattress.

Nothing else is needed in my opinion. Ha I should move into marketing