I used to be #1 for " free SEO tips" but now I'm #2. I recently checked my stats and realized that no one finds my site through searching for "free seo tips" but they do find me for "seo tips" (currently ranked #7). A few keyword checkers assured me that having "free seo tips" in my title was a waste. I also realized that I'll proabbly never be in the top ten for "search engine optimization". So the old title, "Free SEO tips: search engine optimization = better search engine rankings" is gone. The new title is "SEO tips = better search engine ranking" is 39 characters (you should keep titles under 60 or at least under 70).
As you can see I want two keyword phrases: SEO tips (Wordtracker reveals: seo and tips 16.0 /day & seo tips 2.0 /day while Overture shows: seo tip 17.7 /day) and better search engine ranking (Wordtracker = 38/day and Overture = 92/day).
I'm currently #5 allinanchor: better search engine ranking, but am number 70 something in Google's regular results. That's probably a result of two things: Until my new title, that phrase was too far back in the title (which is also a hyperlink on evry page of this blog) and very very few external sites link to me with that anchor text (they link to me with "Free SEO tips").
I'd personally like to see you use a "human friendly" title, rather than worry so much about search engine rankings. Anybody who is seriously interested will look through at least the first 30 or 40 links that google gives, quite possibly skipping over the first few that have "ugly" titles.
Why not use the following?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Designing Pages for Better Rankings
It's descriptive and lets people have an idea about what is on the page, so will probably attract more "clicks." Who really cares how high up you are listed if nobody clicks the link?!
Posted by: Ralph Nader at September 14, 2004 12:55 AMI feel that my title is descriptive. "SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Designing Pages for Better Rankings" doesn't really fit my blog as I almost never talk about designing web pages for SEO, sometimes called "on page SEO" (this post about titles being an exception). I offer SEO tips that have helped me get better search engine rankings and should help others do the same.
Of course, if I end up with a #1 ranking but no one comes to my site I'll probably consider your advice.
Posted by: James Trotta at September 14, 2004 11:24 PMTrade links with seo-search-engine-ranking.com
http://www.seo-search-engine-ranking.com/ad_network_222.php