Should I include my website name in my page title?
Should my page title include my website name?
This is a question we've gotten a lot from clients. First off, if you haven't already, make sure you read our article on SEO 101, which details how to use the title tag on your web page to reflect the keyphrase identity of your page. Once you've built pages using this approach, you'll see your title reflected as the title of the clickable link in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Below is an example of the title for the how accurate are search results page on Guru of Search:
Do the keywords from the site title interfere with the page title keywords?
As you can see, the title of this website, Guru of Search, comes right after the page title. The question you may ask is, do the keywords from the website title interfere with the keywords from the page title? In other words, will these additional keywords confuse Google?
The answer? We think not, but things you should keep in mind:
- It's okay not to have a website title in the page title
- If you choose to add your website title, place it after the page title
- Your website title should be significantly shorter than the page title
Remember your user - branding your website name
We like to remind people that ultimately your search engine optimization and marketing efforts need to have your user in mind first and foremost. That being said, does it help to have your website title next to the page title? Put yourself in your user's shoes for a minute. If you conduct a search and find several relevant results, but see your favorite website name next to one of the search results, are you more likely to click on it? Probably. That being said, if you hate the website, you are less likely to click on it.
Consider what your users will see
Bottom line - you should include your website name if it's short, catchy, and brandable, and you think it will help your website name's branding. If you examine the search results pages for various industries you'll notice that some industries use this approach (including the website title) more often than others. Large companies with short brandable names (Amazon, IBM, Apple, Ebay, etc.) tend to add their name to the page title.
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Long website name?
Good article, thanks. I've been wondering about this for a while now and how it would impact my search engine ranking. My only problem is that my website name is really long - so when it's appended to the page title it makes the whole line really long, and almost takes away from the page title.
Do you have any suggestions as to what to do in my situation? Should I include the website name in the page title regardless of how long my domain name is, or should I refrain from including it at all?
Shorten your domain name
Good question. The best approach would be to somehow shorten your domain name (down to an acronym if you need to). If that's not an option, consider registering an alias domain (a domain that you will forward to your original domain). This will not only help with your branding initiative, but will give your users less characters to type in the browser address bar. They will have an easier time finding you, and you may get more type-in traffic.