Optimizing your WordPress titles
I've recently redone my entire category structure, going from a large group of categories to only six of them. I did that with a plugin which adds an ajaxy bit of interface so you can easily add and delete categories to posts from the category overview. This plugin is called wp-cats.
Now after doing this (and after renaming my blog to "Joost de Valk's SEO blog" instead of "SEO Blog - Joost de Valk" I decided it would be fun (and wise) to show the category name(s) in the title for posts. So I added that, the code for the title's of my single pages now looks like this:
echo get_the_title()." - ";
foreach((get_the_category()) as $cat) {
echo $cat->cat_name . ' ';
}
echo " - ".get_bloginfo('name');What do you think? Does it look good? Or would you create your titles differently? And BTW, how do you people like the improved logo?
PDF 12 Responses to “Optimizing your WordPress titles”
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by ramon on 13 September, 2007 at 13:36
good logo :)
by martijn on 13 September, 2007 at 14:13
I really needed the logo to know this blog was about SEO and not your favorite cookies! :p
by Sudar on 13 September, 2007 at 14:41
Nice idea.
But I am not sure how it will look, if the post is assigned to multiple categories (greater than three)
Since you have reduced your category number to just 6, it will not be a problem in your blog.
--
Sudar
by SEO Carly on 13 September, 2007 at 14:42
I like the Titles, they are virtually identical how i do mine with the entry heading furtherest to the left, followed by Category then site name.
Very keyword rich and importance from left to right.
Also the logo is much better, the last one looked a bit like a search box. :)
by Joost de Valk on 13 September, 2007 at 16:15
@Sudar: agreed :)
@SEO Carly: thx for the great feedback :)
by Google Tutor on 14 September, 2007 at 17:21
I think limiting the categories was a great idea, I'll be doing that myself soon too. I would dilute my post titles with the category title too though, overkill imo. Slapping the category into the kw meta for the single post page would be nice though.
by Google Tutor on 14 September, 2007 at 17:34
"I wouldn't dilute my post titles with the category title too though, overkill imo. "
:)
by SEO Carly on 17 September, 2007 at 07:01
“I wouldn’t dilute my post titles with the category title too though, overkill imo. �
I wouldn't call it "diluting" it, as it adds a couple of highly relevant keywords which will appear in the page body. You just have to be aware not to make things too spammy when titling your post the category words will be places in the title.
For instance this page has:
Optimizing your WordPress Titles - SEO WordPress - Joost de Valk's SEO Blog
There's a double up on SEO and WordPress, which is ok as there's enough other words that the density isn't too high. If the post title was "SEO your WordPress" you would start hitting the upper limit with "SEO" appearing 3 times in about 10 words or roughly 30% KWD
As i said, you just need to be aware of the outcome when titling your post. If i was going to drop anything, it would be the Blog Title rather then the category which will always be related.
For example if Joost wrote a post on something off topic, the word "SEO" would appear in the Title and not in the Body Content (well besides the Nav and link to Home).
So if i removed "anything", it would be the Blog Name first. Sites like MattCutts.com, DigitalPoint.com etc don't use site name in page Titles.
by Petter on 21 September, 2007 at 06:27
[Article Title]-[Category Name]-[Site Name]
What I am thinking about is whether this kind of TITLE is a little longer? Usually a longer title will be cut off by SE
by Ashish on 1 October, 2007 at 08:09
[Article Title]-[Category Name]-[Site Name]
Using the above style is fine if your site name offers any keyword advantage.
if your site name is jut your name which does not have any seo benefit then do not add your site name to the titles.
by Scott - 3DM Design on 3 October, 2007 at 05:29
I like the idea of a smaller number of categories, bolstered by tagging; when I get around to upgrading WordPress I'll probably try cutting categories down.
For those with posts that belong to more categories, you could easily limit the number of categories used in the title with a little change like this (limit 3, I'm using it on my blog now):
echo get_the_title()." - ";
$cat_count = 0;
foreach((get_the_category()) as $cat) {
if ($cat_count cat_name . ' ';
$cat_count++;
}
}
echo " - ".get_bloginfo('name');
by Scott - 3DM Design on 3 October, 2007 at 05:33
Sorry- hopefully this code comes through:
echo get_the_title()." - ";
$cat_count = 0;
foreach((get_the_category()) as $cat) {
if ($cat_count < 3) {
echo $cat->cat_name . ' ';
$cat_count++;
}
}
echo " - ".get_bloginfo('name');