37% SEO Increase: Optimizing Title Tags for Unbranded Search - Sometimes It's the Simple Things

Home pages are always going to be heavy favorites in the results for branded search, and they should be since so many branded searches are navigational. Deeper pages on a site however can often benefit by giving the brand name less of an emphasis. Sometimes this is simple positioning: moving the brand to the end instead of the beginning of the title tag. Other times, a completely non-branded title tag provides the most benefit for catching the top of the funnel--people completely unfamiliar with the brand, but interested in the products or services provided. Of course, all this goes with the massive caveat of: TEST TEST TEST. The above results in this case study were broken down page-by-page and keyword-by-keyword to ensure not only was the increase in Organic Traffic hitting the top line numbers, but also going on to complete conversions.

In this specific instance, many pages on site were ranking reasonably well, but showing lower than normal click-through-rates for their positions. I re-wrote several hundred title tags using the content of each given landing page, the call-to-action associated with that page, and keywords more applicable to the highest volume and their derivative searches. This kind of work may seem tedious, but is so critical to not only increasing overall numbers but preparing those visitors for the funnel ahead. Every hurdle cleared before a visitor arrives at the site is one less hurdle to cross before converting.

Individual pages showed increases of 186%, 223%, 211% to very specific, long-tail keywords and interests. While smaller in overall volume, these less-trafficked pages began to add to conversions and total Organic Channel volume. The net result being large, sustained gains to my client with more Organic Channel conversions as well. They're now well-positioned in introducing new content on top of their solidified base.