Can I get your input on keyword usage in the title tag

[igor.pinchevskiy]

Hello fellow mozzers!

I've been struggling with my title tag and would like to get your opinion.

We provide IT services in the Los Angeles area. I've been doing keyword research for the past week and found about 400 keywords from various sources. I then looked at my top 5 competitors on Google and analyzed their homepage title tags, the most common keywords that they use in their title tags are:

IT Support Los Angeles
Computer Support Los Angeles
Network Consulting Los Angeles
Network Support Los Angeles
IT Services Los Angeles

Since it is recommended to have your title tag under 70 characters I've compiled the following title tag for my home page:

IT Services, Network Consulting, IT and Network Support in Los Angeles

which is exactly 70 characters, however my company name is an additional 9 characters, I think it would be wise to include in the title tag of the home page however I can't decide if I should exceed the limit by including the company name to the title tag or should I remove something from the title tag and then add the company name?

1. What do you guys think, is that a good title tag to use as is?

2. Should I add the company name without removing any keywords or remove  a keyword?

3. I'm trying to target local traffic since I can't compete with the big dogs yet, so I want to be in the SERPs when someone searches IT Services Los Angeles, IT Support Los Angeles, etc... Do I need to add Los Angeles after each keyword, or I can use a single instance of Los Angeles like in the example title tag that I have?

4. For the other remaining 400+/- keywords I want to use some of them to create static pages and some for blog posts, is that the way to go?

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!!!

Thank you!!!

[SEODinosaur]

I like to start my keyword research by examining the search volume and competitive organic rates on SEOmoz.

http://pro.seomoz.org/tools/keyword-difficulty (pro members only)

| IT Services Los Angeles | 54 |  165,000 | 165,000 | 170 | 170 | Full Analysis |
| Los Angeles IT Services | 60 |  unavailable | unavailable | unavailable | unavailable | Full Analysis |
| IT Support Los Angeles | 53 |  22,200 | 22,200 | 320 | 320 | Full Analysis |
| Los Angeles IT Support | 53 |  22,200 | 22,200 | 91 | 110 | Full Analysis |

out of your selected keywords I would use "IT Support Los Angeles" as your main keyword (highest local exact search volume with lower competition level). Use this with diversity in you title, description, H1, and at least 2 times in your body one regular and one bold or italic.

Here's a good title for your site: "IT Support Los Angeles by [Company name]"

[igor.pinchevskiy]

Hello Donnie,

Thank you for such a quick answer!

I did another search on keyword difficulty tool IT Support Los Angeles vs IT Services Los Angeles and IT Services Los Angeles gets much more traffic, take a look:

http://pro.seomoz.org/tools/keyword-difficulty/results.html?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=IT+Support+Los+Angeles%0D%0AIT+Services+Los+Angeles&engine_id=96&commit=Run+Report

Would it better to use something like this:

IT Services and Support in Los Angeles by Company name?

Also in your expert opinion:

How many keywords or keyword phrases do you recommend including in the titles?

Most of my competitors have a bunch of locations/cities that they service in their footers, like IT Support Los Angeles, IT Support Sherman Oaks, IT Support Encino, etc... as well as pointing to the same page (which from what I understand is duplicate content) and too many footer links. However 4 out 5 use them and I don't think they've been penalyzed as they've been holding the top 5 spots for some time now. Should I try the same tactic or avoid it and hoping that by not using these techniques it should help in outranking them?

Thanks again!

[SEODinosaur]

It's best to build your site for your users and not try to manipulate the search engines. I would go for one keyword per page two max. Placing two keywords in a title may look funny in most cases. In your case "IT Support Los Angeles" has the highest local search volume 320 out of the keywords you mentioned.

Adding spammy footer links does not help your users and most likely is not helping your competitors (it may have in the past) rather putting their sites in danger.

I understand that you want to rank for multipul locations, which can be done without spamming. For a good internal linking structure watch this video: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/smarter-internal-linking-whiteboard-friday

[igor.pinchevskiy]

Hi Donnie,

The 320 volume is the local search exact match, however the broad match on IT Services Los Angeles is much higher, should I focus on the exact match instead of the broad match when choosing keywords?

[SEODinosaur]

Yes, broad is not as measurable as [exact]. Especially when you are targeting local keywords.

[igor.pinchevskiy]

Understood, thanks!