Questions
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/home-2 showing in SERPS but not the homepage
So is it because of a problem with the setup of the homepage? Would a 301 redirect mean that /home-2 is still ranking.. ideally I need to get it out of the results all together.
Technical SEO Issues | | xcyte0 -
Starting every page title with the keyword
Best practice is great starting point, but you need to work out what works for your audience, your offerings and your business. For instance, having a call to action in your title can make a positive difference ("find" is a bit generic, but things like save, download the guide, buy now, etc can work, if it connects with the searchers intent.) Luckily page titles are pretty easy to test - you'll need to keep an eye on your rankings and traffic and measure click-throughs for a suitable period depending on the search volume and taking into account any seasonality etc. As well as the traffic you receive, also look at the conversion rate too - especially important if you're testing for intent. You can always tried a couple of variations in Adwords to see how they perform, especially for you more important keywords / pages. The approach you take regarding your titles also depends on the type of page, the nature of the business, your specific business goals, the strength of your brand etc. Take a good look at the other sites appearing in the SERPS and the titles/descriptions they're using. Put yourself in the place of your audience and try to see what's going to work and what isn't and how you might be able to differentiate your page from the rest. Also remember that titles have to work in conjunction with the description. While the description isn't used for ranking, it can take some of the load of the title when it comes to supporting click-throughs. Another point to consider is that Titles aren't just used in search engine results, but also when the page is shared / linked to etc. Depending on your site, you may want to adopt a slightly different strategy for your blog content than you use on a product catalogue for instance.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | DougRoberts0