By David Hannes.
Recently I had a client write to me the following in regards to her new blog: “Spoke with my blog writer and everything on the blog is as optimized as it can get according to her. So we should be set.”
I took one look at her new blog and knew that although her blog’s home page had title text, keywords and description text that passed an SEO analytics test, the blog article was still far from optimized; only she didn’t know it and didn’t understand why.
This was the title text to her main blog page:
Episodic or Reality Television
companyname.com Blog
In the strictest sense of SEO analytics, it passes the bar, but this article’s title text is 49 characters of text that doesn’t mean anything to anyone searching for her video production company services without specifically searching for the company name.
Note: When you blog you should blog with purpose, it should be with intent. A blog article is an internet marketing tool when utilized right. Each article has the potential to act as a landing page to your website. This opportunity is lost when your title text and article content is not relevant to what you do and how you’d like to be found on search engines.
Your title text is essential to being found on search engines. On today’s search engines, preference is given to the title text when your web page is indexed. Title text is upwards of 60 characters of valuable real-estate that should be written with search specific keywords and phrases that enable your page to be found on search engine result pages (SERP). It is a waste to misuse or under-utilize the title text.
Note: it is a common mistake is to always include your company name in the title text. It is a misuse of this valuable space to include your own company name in the title text of every blog article. Unless you are a brand name like Coke or Subway, most people searching for your small business products or services who do not presently know you exist will not be searching for your business specifically by your company name.
Example: If someone is looking for affordable web design services in Chandler Arizona and they have never heard of Creative Developments, should I optimize my title text to include my company name? No. I want to be found by triggering a search for the service that I offer in a given geographic region. Better that my title text read “Affordable Web Design in Chandler Arizona”. Try it out. Creative Developments may appear on page 1 of Google.
Leave the business name searches to the Local Business Directory (LDB) listings. If you want to be found by people specifically looking for you and/or your business by name, register on local business directories. If you register your company name on Google+, Yahoo Local Business, Bing Local, Super Media, Yelp, and other local business directories and you will be found specifically for your company name in a specific geographic region.
Your blog article’s title text is too valuable to fill with your company name on every blog. Again, it’s a misuse of the title text space to repeat your own name on each of your blogs if you’ve already registered your business on local business directories.
Let’s example our example title text further. This client is wasting 16 characters on the non-search specific words: companyname.com Blog. Why is this? Well, ask yourself who is searching for your company by typing in the word “Blog”? It is true that this page is a blog, but few, if any, are searching for this blog under the keyword, blog.
Sound Advice: Do not waste your title text on irrelevant words like About Us or Who We Are. Your website will never ever be found on Google this way because no one is ever going to type in “about us” in a search engine trying to look for you, your business, your products or your services.
Creative Developments is an all-purpose website development company. To inquire about our web design, video editing, internet marketing, SEO or social media management services for you or your business, call us at (480) 968-5096 or email us at [email protected]. We are located in Chandler, AZ, servicing Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Mesa, Glendale, Gilbert, the entire valley, Arizona and beyond.