Getting a site to rank in the organic listings of any search engine can take some time and it’s only half the battle. Once you’re there it’s important to know exactly what your Title Tag and Meta Description should be to get the best possible Click Through Rate.

Testing Title Tags on your high ranking pages can be dangerous.

Imagine what the search engines would think every time they came to spider your site and the Title Tags change?

Of course you could just run the risk that it would not harm your rankings but that most probably is a risk too far.

Ideally you should know the right call to action that’s driving the best Click though Rate and Conversion before you start to promote that page.

This is an excellent time to take advantage of adCenter and run a PPC campaign to assess which Title might be optimal for your SEO efforts.

Create 5 – 10 different adverts using the Ad Title as a template for your Title tag and the Ad text as a template for your Meta Description (just like an organic listing). It’s important that your Ad Title and Ad Text is written using the same techniques as you would write any Page Title or Meta Description.

Example

You may have a new HTC Touch HD to promote and sell, so run a campaign on “HTC Touch HD” and use titles like:

Cheap HTC Touch HD
Free HTC Touch HD
Latest HTC handsets
HTC Touch HD + Laptop
HTC Touch HD Sim Free
Latest  Mobile handsets
Free Mobiles Phones Online

Advert titles should be kept short, descriptive and contain the call to action. 

When moving it from PPC to the on Page it may be beneficial to test  your Brand name placement at the end of the Title or the beginning.

Also when moving it from PPC to the Page it’s a good idea to avoid stuffing 3 or 4 of the best CTR Ad titles on the page titles, you could have the top 2 but use a separator such as “or”, “including” or “and” but  avoid “|” and “-“.

As you can see above, the paid advert titles are much shorter than the Organic Titles and the Meta Description is a slightly extended version of what’s said in the Paid Listing.

This would of course always be the case because of the text limits.

Example of a combined Ad Title:

Latest Mobile handsets including a Free HTC Touch HD

Which in my opinion will get a better click though rate than:

Cheap HTC Touch HD | Free HTC Touch HD | Latest HTC handsets

Ideally this process should be repeated for every landing page.

As Search Engines get more and more competitive it’s important to realise its only those who are willing to push the hardest who will succeed!

It’s also then worthwhile to take advantage of tracking tools and review which long tail phrases have converted and make appropriate content for them, add these terms to your Keyword Phrase target list.

You’ll get even better value for money from your research.

Thanks

Dave Naylor – Bronco Internet