Homepage Title

[echo1]

What would be the best Title of your Homepage if your top 3 keywords would be:

taxi service Seattle (5400 exact searches) Seatle taxi                 (4400 exact searches) Seattle taxi service (1900 exact searches)

Would you go for all of them or just the one with more searches? I guess you can target them all on one page being almost the same but what is the best strategy to apply in this case to get the most out of it? Do you take into account the broad numbers of searches which are different from the exact numbers?

Tools I used:Google sktool

Thanks for reading!

[AlanMosley]

First, I would not put all into the title. I would also look at broad.
But not knowing the numbers for phrase and broad, I am split between Taxi Service Seattle, it has the highest, but Seattle Taxi Service rolls of the tongue better, and may convert better.
I think Seattle Taxi Service, you are still going to rank for all 3, and if you find later than you need to change you always can

[Desiree-CP]

I pulled up some quick and dirty numbers for your target keywords using Google's search operators intitle: and inanchor:  This highlights how optimized a keyword is in terms of the title tag and anchor text.  Of course, this isn't going to help you win SEO but gives you a general idea regarding the competition for your search phrase.

Taxi Service Seattle - 1.7k results in title, 820k results in anchor text

Seattle Taxi - 3.8k results in title, 81k results in anchor text

Seattle Taxi Service - 996 results in title, 91.4k results in anchor text

To answer your question though, I would never stuff my home page title tag.  Instead, based on the numbers above I would change it to this ~>  [Company Name] - Seattle Taxi Service.  I would then optimize for "seattle taxi service" but link build for all three keywords since they are essentially derivatives of each other.

[AlanMosley]

I would always go the other way around, keyword - brand name.
The first word of the title carries the most weight.
http://perthseocompany.com.au/seo/reports/violation/the-title-begins-with-a-brand-name

[lee_greenhill]

One of the gold nuggets of seo is optimising for humans, not for search engines, so Seattle Taxi Service or Taxi Service Seattle would be better as these are terms that most web users are likely to type.

Take a look through Google's keyword research tool and experiment have a look at other popular searches.

For example, see what keyword research records for Taxi Service New York or London Taxi Service and see what people are actually typing.

Good luck!

[echo1]

Hey guys, thanks for your input! CafePress, I have to apologize but the example given above it was pure fictional, I did not expect anybody would research that.

This is the twist; the name of the company is Joe taxi? How is that going to affect anything? As it is now, we have keyword | company name. We decided to do it this way based on what Seomoz is recommending.

There is a huge difference between exact search and broad search. IMO, I think it's all be coming down to link building and anchor text. If I'm targeting Seattle taxi service (1900 exact searches) I will be definitely targeting Seattle limo (4400 exact searches) as well and, it will sound better too. On the other hand, I will probably be losing out if I would target taxi service Seattle because the Title will not be an exact match, I mean, I do have all the words but in different order which means somebody who is targeting the same keyword in its original order will probably rank better. I think I will go with Seattle taxi service but if you have more arguments for or against it I will be more than happy to hear them.

[Desiree-CP]

Echo1 - no need to apologize as I wanted to help you make a decision based on more data points rather than solely relying on the Google keyword tool.  As for your question about whether to use broad or exact match numbers I would always err on the side of caution and choose exact match.  If you want to be even more pessimistic in your numbers then divide it by half.

In any case, you should still gather competition numbers by performing an intitle:"keyword phrase" and inanchor:"keyword phrase" search in Google (including the quotes as it denotes exact match).  This will tell you approximately how many websites are optimizing their title and anchor text with exact match phrases.  Those numbers should guide you toward the right keyword choice.

Lastly, try experimenting with the title tag and vary up your anchor text so you don't "lose out" on the "limo service Chicago" keyword.  I looked at the results for that keyword and in the organic listings, no one optimized for it until the website ranked #7.

[echo1]

Thanks again!