Long or Short Title?

1. 72

   Moxylposted 13 years ago

   Just wondering what works better - long or short hub titles? And why?
   
   Thanks!

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      warchild75posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I have always been told short but i have a couple of long titles to do with video games and they each get over 500 views a day so i think as long as you have a good niche it shouldnt matter!!!

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      Jake Gene Barnesposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I would say... as short as you can make it while still accurately describing the content is probably the best route to go.

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   cookibuqposted 13 years ago

   Depends on what you're writing about. If the topic is pretty straightforward, a short title would do. If it incorporates a few different concepts, you might wanna go for the longer title to explain it more. That way it won't be misleading for the reader, methinks (:

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      Barbara Kayposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I've always wondered which is better with the search engines. Anyone know?

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         KristenGraceposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I'm definitely not an expert, but I actually have succeeded with both long and short titles.

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            saleheensblogposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            depends on the niche competition

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   Website Examinerposted 13 years ago

   A short title is said to be more SEO friendly, but with higher competition. Longer titles are more niche-oriented. Without claiming to be an expert, I prefer a short, descriptive title that includes the valuable keywords.

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4. 94

   SmartAndFunposted 13 years ago

   What do all of you think of using long titles in order to stuff more keywords in? For example I just published a sales hub about modern furniture, so in the title I used "contemporary, modern, mod, funky, cool furniture" or something to that respect. Is using all those redundant words smart or a bad idea? I guess I've been selling on ebay too long, LOL. (It is smart to do on ebay).

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      Barbara Kayposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Stuffing in a lot of keywords was what I had in mind.

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   saleheensblogposted 13 years ago

   These will help :
   http://learningcenter.hubpages.com/cate … ing-topics
   http://learningcenter.hubpages.com/titl … r-traffic/
   http://learningcenter.hubpages.com/hubcamp-sf-5/
   http://learningcenter.hubpages.com/hubcamp-sf-2/

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      SmartAndFunposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you, Saleheen. I will digest that info. You have been very helpful to me these last few days!

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         saleheensblogposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         glad that I could help

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      TopUniverseposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Good read especially the second link. Thanks.

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      Barbara Kayposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the links.

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   AlanZimmermanposted 13 years ago

   One important thing to consider...is that you should try to grab a shorter title when you first post a hub.  Long titles have less competition, and you can always change your title.
   
   You cannot change your URL on your hub, so its best to grab short titles in the beginning.

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      saleheensblogposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      why? I don't see any benefit.

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   lrohnerposted 13 years ago

   I totally agree with Alan. I start with short URLs and work my way towards longer ones when the shorter ones aren't available.

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      SmartAndFunposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Excuse my ignorance, but if long titles have less competition... Isn't it good to have less competition? Sorry, I am new and my head is spinning!

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         saleheensblogposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Let me elaborate. After publishing a hub the search engines give it a boost in the page position to kick off. If its a good one you will find it even in the first page. After a few days or weeks it loose its position and climb down the pages. If the hub is a good one it starts to climb up the pages again and after few months it climbs up to the position it really deserves to be for certain keywords both for your used and non-used tags as search engines itself can pick the keywords from your hub.
         Now if you have chosen a short title with one or two keywords that are valuable both in terms of traffic and CPC you will get the benefit of the earlier favor of the search engines. In first few days you will get good amount of traffic and if the hub is really good in that time you may get some organic back links also.
         
         After few weeks or months when your hub has lost its position you will see steady traffic and you can research then for which keywords your hub is really getting traffic by using Google analytics and HP hub stat>keyword and title tuner. You can then pick more keywords from your research and add in the title to optimize the title and for a lower competition niche.
         
         But the earlier boost will not always take you to the first page. It depends on how short and how competitive your title is. For example, if your title is "Keyword Research" you are less likely to be in the first page as its too much competitive. But "Best Keyword Research Tool" could take you to the first page. Now after few months or weeks if you see that you hubs are getting visits for such keywords where words like "Google Adwords", "Keyword Analysis" is embedded in most of the time then you will consider to change the title to "Keyword Research and Analysis with Google Adwords."
         
         I have written a hub on keyword research, you can read the hub if you like.

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            Moxylposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            thx a lot for your detailed explanation. I'll try out several ways you suggested and see how it goes!

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            lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            I just want to clarify two things on this:
            
            First, this MAY be the case when you publish the hub. There are a lot of factors that go into determining if and when your hub reaches the top of page 1 and whether it stays there or drops off.
            
            Second, keyword research should be done before publishing a hub. Getting to page 1 in the search engines is ONLY important if people are actually searching for your keyword, and your keyword research should tell you the popularity of your chosen keyword. You can work very hard to get to page 1 for, say, "green-headed parrots that wear diapers," but if no one is searching for that term, your work has been a waste of time.

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               saleheensblogposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               agreed

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            Peter-Jan Celisposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks Saleheen! Your info explains exactly what I saw on my hubs: Great initial traffic, than lower. No reason to panick I see now. Guess I will now start seeing increases over the next months.

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         Website Examinerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         You are talking about less competition, but the search volume is likely much smaller.

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      3. 67

         lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         First, let's not get URLs and Titles confused. My personal preference when creating a hub is to get a short, broad URL and a focused, more specific title. So if I was going to write a hub about "purple dogs that bark with their eyes closed," my title might be "Purple Dogs That Bark With Their Eyes Closed" and my URL would probably be hubpages.com/hub/purple-dogs.
         
         Why? My URL still applies if I decide to change the focus or keyword of the hub down the road, it applies to a broader audience and still contains the main portion of the keyword.

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   SmartAndFunposted 13 years ago

   Wow, thanks everyone for your explanations and advice. Based on what you all have written, I'm thinking I've made some of my titles too long. But I am still reluctant to remove keywords from the title. I also need to go back and look at my URLs. I guess I assumed when I used the title tuner to add keywords that my URL was automatically changing too. My mission for today is to figure out how to use a keyword tool, LOL.  And Saleheen, I will read the hub you wrote about it. Still trying to wrap my mind around it. I don't have a techie's mind as I'm sure you can all tell! Thanks again everyone.

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      saleheensblogposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      here is the hub http://hubpages.com/hub/SEO-Keyword-Res … ch-Engines
      
      you can't change URL after it is made. So be careful when you create one.

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         SmartAndFunposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Yikes, I have so much to learn! I had better start writing some hubs with shorter URLs. Thanks for the link!

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      WoodsmensPostposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      SmartAndFun
      
      I wouldn't worry to much about the longer titles. If  you search for one of those hubs you will see that only the first 70 characters plus spaces shows up in the title of Google. This can be important to consider when adding longer titles although search engines read the entire title. viewers only see the first 70 characters.
      
      Title + description snippet and keywords is what is important
      
      URL length is debatable unless it is pointing to a specific website with keyword in the domain but still with hubpages must be relevant to the content of the hub.

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   L.L. Woodardposted 13 years ago

   I'm going to reveal my freshman status and lack of knowledge, but this seems the place to do so. : )
   
   How does one create the URL for their hub?

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      Website Examinerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      If you type in a title, a URL will be automatically generated for you. If you want a customized URL, there is a field underneath the title field, where you can type in the desired URL. Pasting does not work as well. Do not type the prefix (http://hubpages/hub/) merely the subsequent part, e.g. "Author-Generated-Content".

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    lisavanvorstposted 8 years ago

    I like the short titles. I think when browsing what to read, it is easier to spot what you want to read with a short title. Just my opinion.

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    NateB11posted 8 years ago

    I've had 7 and 8 word titles do very well and haven't noticed short titles doing particularly well. So, I'm not so sure about the advice about shorter titles that you often hear/read. I think, as far as traffic goes, using keywords that are searched for and are not already (too much) written about is more the key. In other words, the old thing about search volume and competition in choosing keywords/titles.
    
    Here's a hint: People often type questions into the search engine.

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