Hi

I am rewriting the titles using:

wp_title('-', true, 'right'); bloginfo('name');

The bloginfo name comprises a quite competitive keyword. However I could
reach the 2nd position of Google searches, using such title tags in every
page and post.

For some custom post types the titles are very long. Hence, the resulting
title tags are longer than the Google recommended length.

I have rearranged the code to:

if (strlen(get_the_title($post->ID))<40)

                                               {wp_title('-', true,
'right'); bloginfo('name');}

                                               elseif
(strlen(get_the_title($post->ID))>65)

                                               echo
substr(get_the_title($post->ID), 0, 62-strrpos(get_the_title($post->ID), "
")).'..';

                                               else

                                               echo
get_the_title($post->ID);

The title tag length is ok now

I wonder if it is really worthy.. What do you think?. Is it really important
to keep the title tags below certain length?

Angel

Hi Angel, yes it's important. 69 characters is the optimum.

Why bother using PHP to amend the titles?

There are plenty of useful meta tag plugins that can help you achieve the
optimum search engine placement.

A handy one that springs to mind is the All in one SEO pack.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

On 21 September 2012 09:14, Phil Gregory <phil.greg...@zero1.co.uk> wrote:

I would recommend Joost de Walk's WordPress SEO plugin (
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-seo/) over All in One SEO.
All in One SEO tends to automate too many things to the detriment of your
SEO! It seems to still work on the principal that it is sites that rank in
SERPs when it is pages that do so.

WordPress SEO gives you many tuning parameters with immediate feedback,
along with some sensible defaults and a host of other related features like
XML sitemaps and proper canonical links.

Mike
--
Mike Little
http://zed1.com/

Thanks Mike,

I use that one but just couldn't remember the name of it.
It is definitely better than All in one SEO pack.  Particularly with the lights it displays to indicate the quality of your SEO.

Kind Regards,

Phil

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https://twitter.com/#!/SEOZero1

--------------------------------------------------------------------

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On 21 Sep 2012, at 09:33, Mike Little wrote:

Thanks!. I used wordpress-seo but there were incompatibilities with my theme
(socialite).

I am in an "initial developer" stage. I like to come into the PHP code
rather than relying on plugins directly. It is really bothering but a good
way to learn..

Sorry I couldn't attend 19' meeting. I am in Spain for several weeks.

cheers

  _____  

De: manchester-wordpress-user-group@googlegroups.com
[mailto:manchester-wordpress-user-group@googlegroups.com] En nombre de Phil
Gregory
Enviado el: 21 September 2012 09:35
Para: manchester-wordpress-user-group@googlegroups.com
Asunto: Re: [MWUG] Re: title tag lentgh

Thanks Mike,

I use that one but just couldn't remember the name of it.

It is definitely better than All in one SEO pack.  Particularly with the
lights it displays to indicate the quality of your SEO.

Kind Regards,

Phil

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Phil Gregory - Web Marketing Co-ordinator

 <mailto:phil.greg...@zero1.co.uk> phil.greg...@zero1.co.uk

 <http://www.linkedin.com/in/philgregory>
http://www.linkedin.com/in/philgregory

 <https://twitter.com/#!/SEOZero1> https://twitter.com/#!/SEOZero1

--------------------------------------------------------------------

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Tel: 0845 867 6391

Mail Address: Suite 2, West Road House

26a West Road, Buxton, SK17 6HF

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--------------------------------------------------------------------

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On 21 Sep 2012, at 09:33, Mike Little wrote:

On 21 September 2012 09:14, Phil Gregory <phil.greg...@zero1.co.uk> wrote:

Hi Angel, yes it's important. 69 characters is the optimum.

Why bother using PHP to amend the titles?

There are plenty of useful meta tag plugins that can help you achieve the
optimum search engine placement.

A handy one that springs to mind is the All in one SEO pack.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

I would recommend Joost de Walk's WordPress SEO plugin
(http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-seo/) over All in One SEO.
All in One SEO tends to automate too many things to the detriment of your
SEO! It seems to still work on the principal that it is sites that rank in
SERPs when it is pages that do so.

WordPress SEO gives you many tuning parameters with immediate feedback,
along with some sensible defaults and a host of other related features like
XML sitemaps and proper canonical links.

Mike

--
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http://zed1.com/

--
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On 21 September 2012 09:46, Angel Utset <angel.ut...@gmail.com> wrote:

I would question the quality of your theme. WordPress SEO is a very well
written and popular plugin. I have it installed on many, many sites and
I've never had an incompatibility problem.

 **

Whilst coding themes is a good way to learn WordPress and PHP, I would not
explicitly add SEO specifics to a theme.

At long last some theme authors are starting to realise that SEO
functionality does not belong in a theme. (That's not to say themes'
shouldn't be coded to be SEO aware/friendly. But specific functionality
like title tweaking, etc. do not belong in a theme.)

In fact, in the last week or so, WooThemes have announced they are
deprecating their own theme-engine-based SEO functionality in favour of
Joost's WordPress SEO plugin.

"Therefore, as of October 31st 2012, both Sidebar Manager and WooSEO will

Similarly StudioPress' theme-based SEO options will turn off if Joost's
WordPress SEO plugin is activated. (They hired him to help them with their
themes' SEO friendliness.)

 **

No worries, there's always the next one.

Mike
--
Mike Little
http://zed1.com/

Also worth, disabling all plugins and then activating wordpress SEO.  then reactivating plug ins one by one, this will indicate if there is a conflict with other plugins.  I regularly have an issue with Jetpack. In the end I opted to disable it, as the benefits it brings are less than those of other plugins.

Kind Regards,

Phil

-------------------------------------------------------------------
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phil.greg...@zero1.co.uk

http://www.linkedin.com/in/philgregory

https://twitter.com/#!/SEOZero1

--------------------------------------------------------------------

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On 21 Sep 2012, at 10:44, Mike Little wrote:

The site had problems with the permalinks, because a theme function added
the bloginfo name at the end of the title, using a separator. Both, the
theme function and the plugin were not compatible, due to the separator PHP
code. Designing a right title and URL is crucial for SEO and then I decided
to make my own functions, considering my particular options (categories,
custom-posts, etc.). This yielded nice results in search optimization,
although competition is quite high.

Socialite is a premium theme, although you might be right. I am hacking the
theme files to obtain several personalized options. It works fine.

I do like wordpress-seo plugin, it has a lot of options and the "green
light" can give you a fast idea about SEO quality of the post-page. However,
sometimes it indicates that the keyword is not in the first paragraph,
whilst it really is, although included in a shortcode or similar.
Furthermore, the Yoast plugin insists in keyword density over the same
keyword, which is not the way SERPs work now, according to experts.

I would say that nobody's perfect :-)

  _____  

De: manchester-wordpress-user-group@googlegroups.com
[mailto:manchester-wordpress-user-group@googlegroups.com] En nombre de Mike
Little
Enviado el: 21 September 2012 10:44
Para: manchester-wordpress-user-group@googlegroups.com
Asunto: Re: [MWUG] Re: title tag lentgh

On 21 September 2012 09:46, Angel Utset <angel.ut...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks!. I used wordpress-seo but there were incompatibilities with my theme
(socialite).

I would question the quality of your theme. WordPress SEO is a very well
written and popular plugin. I have it installed on many, many sites and I've
never had an incompatibility problem.

I am in an "initial developer" stage. I like to come into the PHP code
rather than relying on plugins directly. It is really bothering but a good
way to learn..

Whilst coding themes is a good way to learn WordPress and PHP, I would not
explicitly add SEO specifics to a theme.

At long last some theme authors are starting to realise that SEO
functionality does not belong in a theme. (That's not to say themes'
shouldn't be coded to be SEO aware/friendly. But specific functionality like
title tweaking, etc. do not belong in a theme.)

In fact, in the last week or so, WooThemes have announced they are
deprecating their own theme-engine-based SEO functionality in favour of
Joost's WordPress SEO plugin.

"Therefore, as of October 31st 2012, both Sidebar Manager and WooSEO will be
removed from the WooFramework, in favour of WooSidebars and WordPress SEO by
Yoast, respectively.
If you are using either the Sidebar Manager or WooSEO, never fear. We've
spent time working out really easy methods of switching over to WooSidebars
and WordPress SEO."
http://www.woothemes.com/2012/09/every-line-of-code-audited/

Similarly StudioPress' theme-based SEO options will turn off if Joost's
WordPress SEO plugin is activated. (They hired him to help them with their
themes' SEO friendliness.)

Sorry I couldn't attend 19' meeting. I am in Spain for several weeks.

No worries, there's always the next one.

Mike

--
Mike Little
http://zed1.com/

--
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The trick is to not believe everything you read. I am an SEO and keyword density does play a part because if you over saturate, Google will see you as keyword stuffing. then down the SERPS you go…wweeeeeeeeee
Kind Regards,

Phil

-------------------------------------------------------------------
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phil.greg...@zero1.co.uk

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https://twitter.com/#!/SEOZero1

--------------------------------------------------------------------

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On 21 Sep 2012, at 11:08, Angel Utset wrote:

Angel

having used the SEO plugin from Yoast
I have never had a clash with themes for ? over a dozen sites at least.

Also attached is a SEO cheatsheet from SEOMOZ (maybe not the latest version)
70 characters....

phil

On 21 Sep 2012, at 09:46, Angel Utset wrote:

Thanks!. I used wordpress-seo but there were incompatibilities with my theme (socialite).

I am in an “initial developer” stage. I like to come into the PHP code rather than relying on plugins directly. It is really bothering but a good way to learn….

Sorry I couldn’t attend 19’ meeting. I am in Spain for several weeks.

cheers

De: manchester-wordpress-user-group@googlegroups.com [mailto:manchester-wordpress-user-group@googlegroups.com] En nombre de Phil Gregory
Enviado el: 21 September 2012 09:35
Para: manchester-wordpress-user-group@googlegroups.com
Asunto: Re: [MWUG] Re: title tag lentgh

Thanks Mike,

I use that one but just couldn't remember the name of it.
It is definitely better than All in one SEO pack.  Particularly with the lights it displays to indicate the quality of your SEO.

Kind Regards,

Phil

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Phil Gregory - Web Marketing Co-ordinator

phil.greg...@zero1.co.uk

http://www.linkedin.com/in/philgregory

https://twitter.com/#!/SEOZero1

--------------------------------------------------------------------

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Mail Address: Suite 2, West Road House

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On 21 Sep 2012, at 09:33, Mike Little wrote:

On 21 September 2012 09:14, Phil Gregory <phil.greg...@zero1.co.uk> wrote:
Hi Angel, yes it's important. 69 characters is the optimum.

Why bother using PHP to amend the titles?

There are plenty of useful meta tag plugins that can help you achieve the optimum search engine placement.

A handy one that springs to mind is the All in one SEO pack.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

I would recommend Joost de Walk's WordPress SEO plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-seo/) over All in One SEO. All in One SEO tends to automate too many things to the detriment of your SEO! It seems to still work on the principal that it is sites that rank in SERPs when it is pages that do so.

WordPress SEO gives you many tuning parameters with immediate feedback, along with some sensible defaults and a host of other related features like XML sitemaps and proper canonical links.

Mike
--
Mike Little
http://zed1.com/

--
See the group blog at http://mwug.info

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On 21 September 2012 11:56, Phil Gregory <phil.greg...@zero1.co.uk> wrote:

WordPress SEO will tell you too high keyword density is bad as well as too
low.  I regard Joost de Valk as one of the 'experts' who happens to put his
expertise into practice and share it with everyone else for free.

Mike
--
Mike Little
http://zed1.com/

Total agreed

Kind Regards

Azzam Sheikh
<http://about.me/AzzamS/bio>Social Media and SEO Manager -
www.national.co.uk
Mobile: +447903 752 126 [UK]

Collaborative thoughts on Google+ Plus: +Azzam
Sheikh<https://plus.google.com/117023362235410985497/about?hl=en>
Follow me Twitter: @azzams <http://twitter.com/#%21/azzams>
Professional connection on Linkedin: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/azzams

On 21 September 2012 14:22, Mike Little <m...@zed1.com> wrote:

I dont want to be misunderstood. I do respect expert work and I am only a
practitioner. It doesn't mean you have to accept everything coming from
experts.

Wordpress-SEO plugin not seeing the keyword in the first paragraph, whilst
it effectively is, has been found by many people. This bug appears in the
Yoast forum as well.

Besides, using the keyword several times in the content seems not only not
relevant to SEO, but conflictive in some cases. Keyword winner, for
instance, recommends several related keyword phrases combined in h2,h3, etc.

Anyway, the wordpress-SEO is still the best I found. I rely on experts.

  _____  

De: manchester-wordpress-user-group@googlegroups.com
[mailto:manchester-wordpress-user-group@googlegroups.com] En nombre de Mike
Little
Enviado el: 21 September 2012 14:22
Para: manchester-wordpress-user-group@googlegroups.com
Asunto: Re: [MWUG] title tag lentgh

On 21 September 2012 11:56, Phil Gregory <phil.greg...@zero1.co.uk> wrote:

The trick is to not believe everything you read. I am an SEO and keyword
density does play a part because if you over saturate, Google will see you
as keyword stuffing. then down the SERPS you go.wweeeeeeeeee

Kind Regards,

WordPress SEO will tell you too high keyword density is bad as well as too
low.  I regard Joost de Valk as one of the 'experts' who happens to put his
expertise into practice and share it with everyone else for free.

Mike

--
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http://zed1.com/

--
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Thanks for the attachment!

I havent tested the plugin in many themes, actually. I am just starting in
wordpress, coming from a PHP (and other languages) environment.

Perhaps the wordpress-SEO plugin has an option to promote the "brand" at the
end of the title, as recommended in the document you attached. I haven't
seen it.

However, I have found quite effective this approach. The blog name I am
working is a short, keyword rich text. Adding it to the title of each post
and page brought the site to the first Google positions in just 2-3 weeks,
considering a quite competitive keyword.

I am managing data from google analytics. I have also the SEOquake extension
in Chrome, just for testing.

Furthermore, I decided to deactivate the wordpress-SEO plugin in order to
save loading time. I have few plugins active, only those things I'm unable
to program my self in template or simple plugin functions. I am especially
using template pages, because the functions are called only if the page is
visited. The plugins are loaded all the time. Is that approach correct?

  _____  

De: manchester-wordpress-user-group@googlegroups.com
[mailto:manchester-wordpress-user-group@googlegroups.com] En nombre de
Philip Valentino
Enviado el: 21 September 2012 14:09
Para: manchester-wordpress-user-group@googlegroups.com
Asunto: Re: [MWUG] Re: title tag length and SEO

Angel

having used the SEO plugin from Yoast

I have never had a clash with themes for ? over a dozen sites at least.

Also attached is a SEO cheatsheet from SEOMOZ (maybe not the latest version)

70 characters....

phil