Internet Marketing Tycoon

**MightyMaster** · 06-23-2005, 10:50 PM

Couple Questions ...

1. I have heard that if you put two titles in your meta that you will rank higher in the search engine as search engines aren't reading keywords anymore and they focus more on your title and your page content. Has anyone tried the two title theory?

2. I was searching the other day in Yahoo and came across an listing that had "۝" at the beginning of the title. It caught my attention in the search engine because it makes a shape like a softball (see http://www.LifeForceOnlineStore.com). I knwo when I seen it my attention was directed to that link ... which is a good thing. Does having special characters like this in your title effect your ranking in the search engines?

3. What is the recommended number of keywords in your meta tags?

Sorry for asking so many questions. Just wanting to get listed high in the engines.

**chrishirst** · 06-24-2005, 02:59 AM

1/ There should only be one title tag in a document to be correct HTML, Why would ANY user agent look for two. Only one will be read and used.

2/ It will make no difference either way. It was a fad that lasted about a week, once it was seen that while it might be attention grabbing in some character sets, it often looked stupid (squares or "?") in others.

3/ there isn't one 6 to 10 words related to the page content should be sufficient.

**EGS** · 06-24-2005, 04:30 AM

Chris, I have to disagree with you bud. (For #1)

1.) There are two title tags. They both carry out different functions. The <title> tag is used primarily for the browser to display the website's designated title. The meta title tag is still being used by search engines and is the way your website will be indexed.

If you slack one of them, the browser will choose one to display. I'm not sure if FireFox supports displaying the meta title tag as a <title> tag, though.

2.) Special characters DO affect your website ranking in most search engines. It's a character that's not associated with your website, thus content-wise, it'll make your site slack. It can cause your ranking to go down in keywords. I used to start my site off with :: and sometimes -> and noticed not improvements, but the opposite of it. In fact, one of my sites was banned because of it. I wouldn't attempt it. Anyway, there is no true reason to have special characters in your title tag. I mean, you really want the visitor to remember the title of the web page. They won't remember some square or colon or something. They'll remember a strong title that'll relate to your website.

3.) Honestly, you shouldn't have more than about 8 keywords for your website. The MOST you should have is 15, but that's not a safe-point. Safe-point is 12 and under, really. Keywords are still being used by search engines, maybe not Google, but it is still being used. Thus, you need strong keywords that relate to your site. You don't need to match every word or have keywords that meets every "category" of your website, but try to make it as relavent and as "in general" as possible.

Hope this helps.

**MightyMaster** · 06-24-2005, 08:30 AM

Thanks guys ... I really appreciate it.

In regards to the special characters .... Google picks it up ... but I don't know what it will do with my ranking. http://www.google.com/search?biw=985...nestore.com%2F I guess I will just take it out then as the ranking is more important than the eye appeal.

**chrishirst** · 06-24-2005, 01:08 PM

Now come on, I've been at this game far too long to take notice of every meta tag that is seen to be used. simply because you can make your own up if you so wish. Even <meta name="position" content="first"> has been seen before. (It doesn't work BTW before any one rushes off to edit their pages).

<meta name="title"... > isn't used by any browser and certainly isn't going to be used by any search engine. so for all intents and purposes there is only one <title> tag that means anything. But of course if you can show that it is used I am always willing to learn something, and to that end I've just put a page up on my site to test it.

If you want more on metas read this.

Quite honestly there is no such thing as a "safe" point or danger point where meta KWs are concerned. If there were, why are all these pages still ranking with over stuffed meta tags, alt attributes etc. IF SEs penalise this kind of spam why do they still exist?
This paranoia about don't repeat words more than 3 times, don't have more than x keywords, don't have outbound links etc etc, is just BS by these so-called experts who half the time don't know their a$$ from their elbow.
There is only one way to get banned or heavily penalised. and that is to be blatently doing something to fool or "game" the SEs and any one who gets their site penalised know what they did.
You do not get banned by designing a site that is good for both visitors and SEs alike.

Also you can have thousands of keywords/phrases for your site if your market place is broad enough. Search Engines rank pages not sites so if you have enough content why do you say 8 keywords maximum for a site? it's a bit limiting if you are selling hundreds of products don't you think ?

**MightyMaster** · 06-24-2005, 01:17 PM

Thanks Chris ... the url your provided looks to be a great resource!!

**bentong** · 06-25-2005, 05:02 AM

it is advisable to have only 1 title on the meta tags and as for the number of keywords, every search engines have different algorithms on which your keyword is much a factor..or you can take the average # number of keywords for each search engines..all we have to do is test and try for each SE.