Local SEO Title-Tag Optimization

[kbaltzell]

Hi Everyone!

A bit of a greenhorn SEO here, and I'm trying to learn a bit more about some of the best practices in local SEO. I'm wondering if anyone can help me with the following scenario:

Business: Dental Care & Surgery

Location: Springfield IN

Name: Springfield Dental Care Experts (example)

Website: 18 content pages, pages dedicated to each service

Since there are 18 pages to work with, there are plenty of places for us to mix-up the title tags. However, I am still unclear as to what the best way would be to do this. I understand that the Geo-modifiers should go at the front, and that the brand name is considered optional.

Would tags such as this make sense?

Springfield IN Dentist | Springfield Dental Care Experts

Nearby town

Mountainview IN Dental Care | Springfield Dental Care Experts

Last question:

The website has pages for each of the services offered by the dentist, ex: Dental Cleanings, Consultations, Fillings, Surgery, etc. Should each of the pages be included in the title tag?

Springfield IN Dentist | Springfield Dental Care Experts - Dental Surgery

My concern is that buy adding this, the title tag would be too long.

Thank you for taking the time to read and respond!

[jasonwdexter]

Title tags should be used to give a title for that page.

I would go for (Example)

Page Title - Keyword | Brand Name

So for a contact page, this would be:

Contact Us - Springfield IN Dentist | Springfield Dental Care Experts

Consider a user who is looking at a page full of websites in the SERPS. You want them to easily identify what the page is, as well as the company that the page is for.

Your homepage could be something different, like:

Springfield IN Dentist - Springfields leading dental care | Springfield Dental Care Experts

If this is too long, look at shortening the brand name

[webfeatseo]

You should not use the same keyword in all title tags. So this would be the wrong way to do things

Springfield IN Dentist | Springfield Dental Care Experts - Dental Surgery

Springfield IN Dentist | Springfield Dental Care Experts - Dental Fillings

For city specific keywords first make sure they get traffic by doing some research. If they do then you can target those kinds of phrases within the site.

If not I would target generic phrases such as "dental surgery" and have locations pages set up to assist with your geo targeting.

[kbaltzell]

Hmm. Yeah, I was planning on diversifying the keywords on each of the pages, using phrases that are getting traffic for a particular area.

There seems to be a lack of well-established "best practices" for local SEO title tags, and this is something I've been trying to nail down for a couple of months. I hear that geo modifiers should go before any keywords, are you suggesting maybe this isn't the best approach?

Contact Us - Springfield IN Dentistry | Springfield Dental Care Experts

Dental Surgery - Springfield IN Dental Surgery | Springfield Dental Care Experts

Thanks!