Things to keep in mind while writing a Story SEO Title.
- Keep SEO title under 65 characters in length:
Search engines will only display the first 60-65 characters on the results page. After that, they use an ellipse and cut the rest off (example). -
*steps 2-5 come from David Viney's book Get to the Top on Google
- Keyword Prominance:
Prominence implies that a word used at the begining of a link or piece of text is more important than the rest. The closer a word is to the front of the analyzed text area, the more relevant and important it is to a Search Engine.Example: Targeting the keywords "Business Printing" and "Printing Services"
- Title 1: Chambers Print LLC - we offer printing sevices to businesses
- Title 2: Busines Printing Services - from Chambers Print LLC
The second of these alternative titles will produce better search engine rankings (for "business printing" or "printing srvices") than the first option can based on Keyword Prominance.
- Keyword Proximity:
Keyword proximity refers to how close the keywords that make up your keyphrase are to each other.Example:
- Title 1: Printing Business Cards & Letterheads
- Title 2: Business Card Printing & Letterhead Printing
While the first option is perhaps more elegant English, the second will produce better rankings for a page optimized on either "business card printing" or "leterhead printing," as the relevant words appear next to one another and in the correct order.
- Keyword Density: As Few Words As Possible
This can be defined as the relative frequency with which a keyword or phrase is found within the page text area being examined.Example:
- Title 1: Business Printing
- Title 2: Business Printing and More
While both options score equally on prominence and proximity, the first wins on the density criterion. Here Keyword density is at 100% (for the phrase "business printing") compared to just 50% for option 2.
- Keyword Splicing: Hitting multiple birds with one stone
Example:
- Title: Online Business Card Printing Services
The five-keyword title includes multiple search phrases for business cards: business card, business card printing, online business card printing, business card printing services, etc
More help with writing SEO titles:
3-Steps for Writing (and testing) Great Headlines - from FutureNow Inc.