unique title for every page?

hi i have a query regarding title tags (yes the very basics of seo)

i have a website of approx 300 pages, does every page require a unique title tag or can it be partly unique... let me show an example to explain:

<title>site title - page name - keyword, keyword,keyword,keyword,keyword</title>


is it enough to just change say page name on each page or should i be aiming for giving every page a new page name, and a new set of keywords?


thanks in advance for your help.

[Marcia]

Each page should have a unique title - one that will attract clicks.

A title consisting of keywords separated by commas may not be the most appealing to surfers - it's the title that appears as the clickable link in the SERPs. So make it about 8-9 words or less, including the main keyword phrase for the page and also a word or two that's a variation or additional modifier, to target a little wider variety of phrases.

[Mikkel deMib Svendsen]

Yes, every page should have a unique title but you can certainly reuse parts of it. However, you should remember, that in any case it is not likely that you will rank for more than a few keywords on each page - the keywords that are most prominent on the page and in linking to the page. So keep it short at simple.

Also, remember that the Title is what shows up as a link in search results and it has to inspire the users to click on it. A keyword1,keyword2,keyword3 title dosen't do the job very well. Think sale. Whats in it for me? What do you want ME to click on that title and what can I expect to get once I get there. Sell me the page.

So, the game is to write a title that include one or two of the most important keywords on your page - for example the name of the product on it and the group of products it belong to.

Personally I would recomend that you leave the branding to the site. Unless you have a very prominent brand that is likely to make more people click (a brand that people trust and value) then you are better off focusing your title on what your page can do for me - rather than it's you doing it. If I don't know your brand then it won't trigger me to click. So, leave out your brand name. You have limited space for the title (keep it under 60 carachters) so use it wise

[Dugger]

Im my experience just having duplicate title and meta tags and can be enough for Google to consider a page a duplicate - which hurts your rankings. So, I would recommend that each page title (and tags) be unique. They should reflect the content of the page.

[Anthony Parsons]

There's a big difference in the SERP's when your faced with a result that has your keyword phrase blaring out at you, compared to just seeing the business name of a site and one or two of the words. A unique title for each page is really nothing short of "essential" IMO. Not only for ranking purposes, but clickthrough purposes. Ranking is one thing, getting that click is another. That's one important facet of good SEO technique.

[Robert_Charlton]

<title>site title - page name - keyword, keyword,keyword,keyword,keyword</title>

is it enough to just change say page name on each page or should i be aiming for giving every page a new page name, and a new set of keywords?

epocire- Ditto to what Marcia and Mikkel said. Let me try to add to it, or rephrase things slightly.

Your question suggests that you're thinking that all of the keywords you're optimizing for should go on one page. As Marcia and Mikkel suggest, this isn't the best strategy.

You're right that the title is arguably your most important onpage optimizing element, but title length and focus become limiting factors. Also, keep in mind that the phrases in the title need to be reflected in the content that's on that particular page, so page focus enters into it too. It's hard to focus a single title and a single page around a great many different phrases.

It helps, then, if you think of your basic unit of optimization as the page, and to create individual titles for each optimized page. You can either create titles around already existing content, or create optimized pages around target phrases, or a combination of both.

Looking at your example, by "site title" I'm assuming you mean essentially site or company name. It's generally felt that the most valuable title real estate is at the front of the title, so you often don't want too much extraneous stuff up there preceding your target phrase(s). A company name may or may not be extraneous... It depends on the length of the name and whether it contains any keywords that work with other keywords in the title.

When I can, I like to get the company name up at the front of the title on the home page for bookmarking and branding purposes... but I'm also the first to dump this preference in competitive areas. Generally too, shorter and more focussed titles work better on more competitive searches. Anticipated inbound link text also affects how you build your titles.

What you have as "page name" in your example is, I assume, a functional name like "Contact" or "About." Try to make these work so they read well... say "Contact Widget World About Keyword1 Keyword2 Widgets." On pages that aren't core optimized pages, you might be able to pick up extra traffic.

Probably not all pages on a site are optimized, and the titles don't have to be uniquely optimized, but it's usually helpful to have them at least descriptive of their functions (eg, "Terms of Service").

Always make sure that optimized titles are readable and attractive to searchers.

[mcanerin]

Sometimes you will have pages that have very similar content on them - for example, an e-commerce site that sells various colors of widgets or other fairly repetitive items.

In this case, you will usually find that there is a recurring "theme" for the titles and that you can reuse it to a degree. I find this useful when dealing with very large sites where you simply can't effectively change each title manually.

What you can do in this type of case is create a human and SE friendly title that has spots for keywords, then pull the keywords out of the database as the page is created.

For example:

Widget World - buy [color] widgets here! Free shipping.

Then, when you are on the green widget page, it puts "green" in there, and on the blue, it puts blue, etc.

This is only easy for large systems that have a common theme. When you have pages that have wildly different items you may need to be more creative, but it can still be very effective.

It's always better to custom build titles (and meta descriptions and keywords) by hand, but sometimes "better" is not practical for some systems.

Ian

[Gem]

Originally Posted by epocire

does every page require a unique title tag or can it be partly unique

Can you explain the expression "partly unique" please.
I was under the impression something is either UNIQUE ,or its not.

Definately make page titles UNIQUE, even if its only one word different.

GEM

[Mikkel deMib Svendsen]

Partly unique could be something like this:

Buy [product_name] and more [product_category] online

In this case [product_category] will be the same for all product titles in that category - but the product names will be unique. Thats perfectly ok.