SEO title not showing properly

[joescrivens]

Since I have changed my theme and been adjusting my site it seems that my SEO titles are not properly shoing in google.

here is how I have it set up on the home page


Screen Shot 2013-02-19 at 11.00.02 by JoeBoyMan, on Flickr

but in google the actual title is like this:


Screen Shot 2013-02-19 at 11.01.49 by JoeBoyMan, on Flickr

what settings in my site do I have wrong?

 

[theurbanclown]

How long ago was the SEO changed? Sometimes google can take a while to change it.

 

[joescrivens]

I guess 2 days ago

but I dont remember it ever saying "Wedding Photographer Stoke" as a title even before I changed it.

 

[Rob L]

Looks to me like Yoast is conflicting with the theme you have chosen, if you check the source code for the page there are currently 2 page titles. I would guess google will use the first and ignore the second.

Edit: this may help http://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-seo-yoast-duplicate-site-title?replies=17

I assume the title of your wordpress site is "Wedding Photographer Stoke" and that's where the old title is pulled from.

The page was last cached on the 10th Feb, so the page title won't be updated until google recrawls the page.

Regarding your meta description: Not everyone will agree, but I'm firmly of the opinion that the meta description has zero ranking benefits, and should be used to entice the browser to click on the link - a very short attention grabbing sales pitch. Yours currently reads like a list of your most important keyphrases.

 

[joescrivens]

Looks to me like Yoast is conflicting with the theme you have chosen, if you check the source code for the page there are currently 2 page titles. I would guess google will use the first and ignore the second.

Edit: this may help http://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-seo-yoast-duplicate-site-title?replies=17

I assume the title of your wordpress site is "Wedding Photographer Stoke" and that's where the old title is pulled from.

The page was last cached on the 10th Feb, so the page title won't be updated until google recrawls the page.

Can I speed up the recrawl?

Regarding your meta description: Not everyone will agree, but I'm firmly of the opinion that the meta description has zero ranking benefits, and should be used to entice the browser to click on the link - a very short attention grabbing sales pitch. Yours currently reads like a list of your most important keyphrases.

Well, I'm currently 1st spot or on the 1st page for all of the keywords I was targetting, so something must be working - I guess the only way to tell if the meta descriptions were helping or not would be to change them and see if i dropped

 

[tiler65]

Can I speed up the recrawl?



Well, I'm currently 1st spot or on the 1st page for all of the keywords I was targetting, so something must be working - I guess the only way to tell if the meta descriptions were helping or not would be to change them and see if i dropped

Don't forget to try searching from an incognito search or clear your cache etc when wanting to find more accurate results for your phrases.

 

[tiler65]

I have just tried some phrases for a staffs portrait tog and you were not 1st on the list...in fact my mucker Cris Lowis is 1st in quite a few searches with phrases based around photography.

 

[Rob L]

No, sorry you can't influence when google crawls your site at all.

All I'm saying is, the meta description does not effect ranking position at all, if you're currently ranking well for your targetted keywords, well done, but the meta description is not a factor - it's a short phrase to grab browsers attention and make them click on your site instead of someone elses. In my opinion you should change it to something more likely to do that.

So not really an seo gain but a marketing one to increase your CTR.

 

[joescrivens]

I have just tried some phrases for a staffs portrait tog and you were not 1st on the list...in fact my mucker Cris Lowis is 1st in quite a few searches with phrases based around photography.

havent been targetting "staffordshire" as a keyword yet, only added it to my site in the last few days

been focussing first on "stoke" and "stoke-on-trent"

although there are a few staffordshire keywords that do rank me high like "portrait photography staffordshire" where I am number 3

I think we went down this route before also, depending on where you are located the results change

It's interesting looking at your mucker chris's site. His home page has all those SEO spam tricks that everyone here told me to avoid at all costs - didn't do him any harm did it

 

[joescrivens]

No, sorry you can't influence when google crawls your site at all.

All I'm saying is, the meta description does not effect ranking position at all, if you're currently ranking well for your targetted keywords, well done, but the meta description is not a factor - it's a short phrase to grab browsers attention and make them click on your site instead of someone elses. In my opinion you should change it to something more likely to do that.

So not really an seo gain but a marketing one to increase your CTR.

earlier you said people wouldn't agree with this - is this your opinin or do you know for sure that meta description has no bearing? If so why do things like Yoast look at it?

If it is definitely not having any bearing then I for sure will want to change it

 

[Rob L]

earlier you said people wouldn't agree with this - is this your opinin or do you know for sure that meta description has no bearing? If so why do things like Yoast look at it?

I said "not everyone will agree" but I think anyone experienced in SEO would agree.

It IS important, no doubt about it, but not directly as a ranking factor.

The way it does help with rankings: If you have a high CTR and a low bounce rate then that will lead to higher rankings - googles done it's job and matched a browser to a search term. If however your meta description does not match the content on the page and your bounce rate is much higher then it will have a negative effect on rankings.

There is nothing wrong with your current meta description, it says what you do, but in a very clinical non human way - it could be improved to encourage CTR, ranking (as described above) and hopefully your visitor conversion rate.

I've no idea what your current visitor numbers are, but if you could change your meta description (whilst maintaining its accuracy) and even gain just a 10% increase in targetted traffic, wouldn't that be worthwhile?

 

[tiler65]

havent been targetting "staffordshire" as a keyword yet, only added it to my site in the last few days

been focussing first on "stoke" and "stoke-on-trent"

although there are a few staffordshire keywords that do rank me high like "portrait photography staffordshire" where I am number 3

I think we went down this route before also, depending on where you are located the results change

It's interesting looking at your mucker chris's site. His home page has all those SEO spam tricks that everyone here told me to avoid at all costs - didn't do him any harm did it

Who said I was targeting just staffs...I was using it as a base...my phrases were wide and far reaching!

 

[joescrivens]

Who said I was targeting just staffs...I was using it as a base...my phrases were wide and far reaching!

like I said tom.

Well, I'm currently 1st spot or on the 1st page for all of the keywords I was targetting

Hows your SEO tom? Got top spots or page 1's for the keywords you target? Must be harder in a large city like Manchester, I can't get you on page 1 for any keywords so far.

 

[joescrivens]

I said "not everyone will agree" but I think anyone experienced in SEO would agree.

It IS important, no doubt about it, but not directly as a ranking factor.

The way it does help with rankings: If you have a high CTR and a low bounce rate then that will lead to higher rankings - googles done it's job and matched a browser to a search term. If however your meta description does not match the content on the page and your bounce rate is much higher then it will have a negative effect on rankings.

There is nothing wrong with your current meta description, it says what you do, but in a very clinical non human way - it could be improved to encourage CTR, ranking (as described above) and hopefully your visitor conversion rate.

I've no idea what your current visitor numbers are, but if you could change your meta description (whilst maintaining its accuracy) and even gain just a 10% increase in targetted traffic, wouldn't that be worthwhile?

thanks rob, I shall give it a try and observe the effect positively and negatively

 

[tiler65]

like I said tom.



Hows your SEO tom? Got top spots or page 1's for the keywords you target? Must be harder in a large city like Manchester, I can't get you on page 1 for any keywords so far.

No chance for me Joe, I am way behind, not enough content either.

 

[joescrivens]

No chance for me Joe, I am way behind, not enough content either.

Its never too late Tom.

are you not shooting regularly these days?

 

[tiler65]

Its never too late Tom.

are you not shooting regularly these days?

Nope.

 

[joescrivens]

Nope.

how come?

 

[tiler65]

how come?

Other things on but making a comeback this week.

 

[joescrivens]

Other things on but making a comeback this week.

chosen a theme song yet?

 

[tiler65]

chosen a theme song yet?

Denis Waterman is on it right now.