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Title tag optimization

This article got me thinking on how I handle title tags on various sites. It's a good, quick read and great points are made by both strategies (put brand/site name first in the title tag, or put it last). Title tag optimization should also take into consideration any SEM intiatives you have in place. SEM can help drive home your brand on a search engine results page (serp) (sign up for this hitwise whitepaper on brand marketing in search engines, or read an excerpt here). For example, for Levolor.com, we have the following (typically 1st placement in SEM results and always the 1st placement in natural results when searching for "levolor"):

As you can see, we employ a combination. Because this industry is dominated with independent online retailers, we attempt to improve natural search results using the above title tag on our homepage, thus the reason for "window blinds, treatments, shades, & drapery hardware." These keywords hit home on most popular search phrases that drive traffic to our site in combination with products we offer. Natural search results are very important to us right now as we came into the online world late in the game and have a lot of traction to make up. Our home page title tag is a bit wordy right now and by itself, doesn't lend to obvious clicks if you're really looking for the Levolor site. Additionally, we are a well-known brand name to many, but the blind and shade industry is home to many new consumers who are brand agnostic -- it's very possible for consumers to initially discover us via search engine results without having heard of us before.

Using the meta tag and a combination of SEM, we can very easily craft our message to drive home the point that this is the official manufacturer site, and not an online retailer selling our product (of which there are several). The fact that we are the first natural search result also gives us flexibility to be a little more "wordy" with the homepage title tag. Levolor is a very well-known brand name and as a result, we also place Levolor at the end of every title tag on the site. There is slight overlap in the "official manufacturer line" which could be tweaked in either our SEM or homepage meta tag. Since it's already established in SEM, we may modify the homepage meta tag in the future so we have less redundancy. This will take some A/B testing to prove out which method is more effective at driving clicks.

On the flip-side of this coin, let's take a look at SuperMotors.net search results:

As you can see, we've got some work to do. First, we do not do an effective job of indicating on the hompeage in the title tag (or meta tag, for that matter), that this is SuperMotors.net. Actually, the data is there, but the title tag is so long on the homepage, that is gets truncated on the serp. Furthermore, the title tag and meta tag are very redundant. The title tag should almost be converted to "SuperMotors.net | Photo, audio, and video hosting" and just leave it at that. In anyone's bookmarks list, the current homepage title is really too long and isn't easily identified as SuperMotors.net.

In the second result on this page, you can see how SuperMotors.net is included in the title tag. This is done dynamically on every page of the site. Having your brand name or domain name in the title tag of each page is recommended if users will see it in their bookmarks or on serps. Placing it before the title of the page or after the title of the page will be a decision you make on a case-by-case basis depending on your brand recognition, competition for natural search, and your current SEM initiatives that pick up where your natural search leaves off.