Length of titles is short netter than long

1. 67

   Appletreedealsposted 14 years ago

   The forum is "knowledge exchange" so let me pose a question to pick your brain.
   
   Optimum length of title - Is short better than long
   
   The basis of my question
   1. I know a title should contain your main most relevant keyword
   2. I know a title should grab the reader's attention
   
   ps. be glad to be corrected if what I think I know, (above), is wrong.
   
   But assume you can use a long or short title - both have main keyword, and both will grab reader's attention, is one better for search than the other.
   (ps. I have heard the search spiders don't look past first 4 or 5 words)
   
   i.e.
   long-tail keyword = Buy Chocolate Diamonds
   Title A: Buy Chocolate Diamonds Online
   Title B: Best Prices to Buy Chocolate Diamonds Rings Online
   (again, ps. titles meant as examples, not optimum choices)
   
   A & B have main keyword
   IMHO - both would catch readers attention
   
   but ... B has additional keywords that I think would be helpful
   
   am I wrong about B being a better title?
   
   Are search engine spiders sensitive to number of words and title length?
   
   Thanks all.
   Gregory

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2. 58

   Dame Scribeposted 14 years ago

   I would have to say as long as the MAIN keyword is in the title then others will just be sort of like , fluff all depend on how people search but no expert though so you don't even have to listen to me lol

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3. 63

   SandyMcCollumposted 14 years ago

   I think it's really a matter of choice. A longer title would make a better opportunity to narrow the focus of a searched term, but better? Others are more knowledgeable than I.

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4. 78

   frogdroppingposted 14 years ago

   I generally go with the shortest keyword for the url, longer title with the keyword in it. But I'm flexible - depends on whether the url is available or not.
   
   Each to their own - but I've found short urls with the keyword firmly sat in the title do better, for me at least.

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5. 67

   Appletreedealsposted 14 years ago

   Thanks for the quick replies.
   
   @Dame - not sure about the 'fluff', that was 'sorta' my question, do the extra words help in the search or are they just 'fluff' the spiders ignore - I'm leaning to them being helpful as more terms available to match searches
   
   @ Sandy - yep, that's the question my question poses
   
   @ frog - It took me awhile to see it, but I do agree with you about the short Url being better, with the main keyword (or two) being its focus, but I'm still trying to puzzle the validity of another author's statement that search spiders ignore words after the first 4 or 5 words in titles (ps. I quickly learned that a hub title can be changed to be different from the hub Url)

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6. 48

   johnr54posted 14 years ago

   In my experience, it would be more like
   
   Chocolate Diamonds - Best Prices on Chocolate Diamonds
   
   assuming you were trying to rank for Chocolate Diamonds.
   
   Keep the length to about 67 characters or less, put the keywords early.  On Hubpages getting the keyword early is more important since that is also the anchor text for the internal links generated by hubpages on other hubs and tag pages.  It is also better to have it early in the Title tag, but that is not as important.

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7. 72

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   I consider the title as an opportunity to stand out to a human readers eye
   
   It should still contain your intended keywords but a little creativity has its place.
   
   The URL as short and sweet as you can pull off with your intended keyword phrases
   
   I am comfortable tweaking titles as many times as possible until the article responds to the best of its statistical ability (with at least a month between tweaks to accurately gauge the tweaks  effects)

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8. 67

   Appletreedealsposted 14 years ago

   @JOHNR64 & Sunforged - Thanks I appreciate the advice.

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