----------------------------------------------------------------- SearchReturn Discussion List "Understanding Internet Search Technology" ----------------------------------------------------------------- Moderator: Published by: Disa Johnson SearchReturn http://www.searchreturn.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- February 22, 2007 SearchReturn Issue #119 ----------------------------------------------------------------- SEND POSTS: ----------------------------------------------------------------- Refer a friend: http://www.searchreturn.com/subscribe.shtml ----------------------------------------------------------------- .....IN THIS DIGEST..... // -- ESSENTIAL TIPS -- // "Title Performance Metrics" ~ Moderator Comment ----------------------------------------------------------------- // -- ESSENTIAL TIPS -- // ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> Title Performance Metrics >>Do you have data showing improved performance when you removed the brand name from the end of the title? Or conversely, worse performance after adding it?<< Moderator Comment: The short answer is yes but it's not worth fully reprinting here. I performed unique string experiments in the past. Suffice it to say that another place where SEOs go awry is to assume their tests can give them highly accurate data about optimization. You can get informed of general trends, but ranking changes can never give you the whole picture. If you record a ranking for a page, change one aspect to the SEO, track the ranking change, you might draw a conclusion about the performance of a particular SEO technique. The ranking shift will completely mislead you if you neglect the fact that in the interim a competitor may have appeared above you or was removed that resulted in the shift. Perhaps a series of links (or just one important one) that previously counted in your favor disappears or lacks indexing on an update. All this without refering to search engine algorithm changes! Having said that, Paid Inclusion can improve the testing accuracy since the guaranteed indexing and quick refresh cycles provide you with a more accurate picture of what's going on. To this end, yes (with Yahoo! at least) adding a major brand at the front of the title has generally given more traction with clicks. If you add brand at the end, the click through can suffer and you reduce the power of the keywords by adding to the limited character count. Since click through test results on brand is generally independent of the search engine in question, performance increases work across the board - Yahoo!, Google, MSN and Ask. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stay Tuned. Got feedback?: http://www.searchreturn.com/feedback.shtml Archives: http://www.searchreturn.com/digest-archive.shtml Alternate formats: http://www.searchreturn.com/info-formats.shtml Manage Subscriptions: http://www.searchreturn.com/help/manage-subs.shtml Problems unsubscribing? Contact the postmaster: mailto:postmaster@searchreturn.com Information on how to sponsor this publication: http://www.searchreturn.com/help/advertise.shtml Published by SearchReturn http://www.searchreturn.com Website Membership: http://www.searchreturn.com/register.shtml The contents of the digest do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SearchReturn or Disa Johnson. SearchReturn and Disa Johnson make no warranties, either expressed or implied, about the truth or accuracy of the contents of the SearchReturn Digest. Copyright 2007 Disa Johnson. All Rights Reserved. -----------------------------------------------------------------