[thelist] SEO vs Usability - order of title tag

Felix Miata mrmazda at ij.net
Mon Jul 24 06:24:11 CDT 2006


On 06/07/24 01:50 (GMT-0400) Stuart Young apparently typed:

> I'm having an argument at work about the order of the title tag for the
> homepage of a site.

> According to the SEO-centric viewpoint, the most important keywords should
> always be at the front of the title tag, hence the name of the company
> should be at the end.

> However it is my contention that for the homepage of the site only, the
> title tag must start with the name of the company. Unfortunately, I can't
> find much evidence of this on the web, except for Nielsen's "Top Ten
> Guidelines for Homepage Usability":

> 2. Write a Window Title with Good Visibility in Search Engines and Bookmark
> Lists
> Begin the TITLE tag with the company name, followed by a brief description
> of the site. Don't start with words like "The" or "Welcome to" unless you
> want to be alphabetized under "T" or "W."
> http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020512.html

> I can't find any other evidence of how the title tage may be used in
> bookmarks, or robot assembled lists and hence it should start with the
> company name, because users may find it difficult to find the link if it is
> out of alphabetical order or doesn't start with the expected phrase.

> Similarly I can't find any real evidence of search engines prioritising
> keywords at the start of the title tag. Is the order of the title tag so
> important for SEO that it should override basic usability?

Two to think about:

http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/auth/tabstitlesbookmarks.html
http://diveintoaccessibility.org/day_8_constructing_meaningful_page_titles.html

The latter does mention Google & page ranking, but nothing specifically
about home pages.
-- 
"If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord', and believe in
your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
						Romans 10:9 NIV

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata  ***  http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/



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