Homepage Title Tag - Key phrases spread too thin? Advice please

[Buffalo-Mobile]

Hi there.  Im newish to SEO and first time poster here (so apologies if I've posted in the incorrect place), and I'm hoping for some advice on my homepage title tag.  Its is:

"Asbestos Surveys & Removal, Kent & Sussex - MyBusinessName Asbestos Surveyors UK"

Im hoping to target keyphrases "Asbestos Surveys Kent", "Asbestos Surveys Sussex", "Asbestos Removal Kent", "Asbestos Removal Sussex", "Asbestos Surveyors UK".

My question is, have I attempted to jam too much in? By breaking the location bits away from "Asbestos Surveys", will it rank poorly for "Asbestos Surveys Kent"?  Should I only target "Surveys" OR "Removal".

Many thanks in advance.

[donford]

Hello Gemma,

Title tag is one of the most important things on your webpage. Like me, this was also my first question here on Moz about 5 years ago. Back then I was referencing Rand Fishkin's post from 2008 about how to structure a title tag. At the time it was recommended to use no more than 80 characters in the title, today that recommendation is 60 characters. In practice I still refer to Rand's original post for guidance and I love to reference it for people who want to learn.

I think you pretty much got your title tag right, but I would think about removing the last bit, "Asbestos Surveyors UK". So you end up with "Asbestos Surveys & Removal, Kent & Sussex - MyBusinessName". 58 chars depending on the length of your business name.

As you can see in Rand's post on how he was able to target multiple keywords, your title tag follows that logic to the T. The last bit is somewhat redundant and just takes up more space. Breaking down the last bit..."Asbestos Surveyors UK"

• Asbestos is already stated and at the very beginning of your title tag which means it has the most weight.
• Surveyors is a noun that can be derived from the act of the survey which is already in your title
• UK while important, is somewhat implied by Kent & Sussex. Having your address on your site, or server in the UK will likely get you that correlation by Google anyway.

To answer your questions specifically;
Did you jam to much in? - No, I don't think so. You want to use as much of that title as you possibly can!
By breaking the location bits away from "Asbestos Surveys", will it rank poorly for "Asbestos Surveys Kent"? - Its hard to say how it will rank because the title tag is only part of the equation. Obviously Asbestos Surveys Kent is stronger when those words are together, but your example will still show strong for that keyword.
Should I only target "Surveys" OR "Removal"? - Well again this comes down to other factors, but I wouldn't remove either one if they are both part of your business model.

All in all I think you did a good job on your title tag creation, it hits all of your keywords and doesn't sound spamming. I would really consider removing that last bit and run with it.

My thoughts,

Don

[Buffalo-Mobile]

Thanks so much Don.  That was an excellent reply.  I really appreciate it.