If you want to reach a younger audience, you need to look into TikTok. Almost half of TikTok’s user base is under 30 years old. So if that’s a market you want to target, you should consider creating a TikTok account and a TikTok strategy. In this post, we’ll give you 5 tips on how to use TikTok for your business. Let’s go!
Understand TikTok as a platform
It’s good to understand TikTok as a platform before you start using it for your business. Why? Because you need to understand what appeals to people and what type of content is popular if you want more engagement.
TikTok is typically used for short-form videos that range between 5 seconds and 3 minutes long. The app has a huge music library and in-app editing features, which means it’s easy to create your own content.
The TikTok algorithm
Another reason why TikTok has grown so popular is because it has a very clever algorithm. Their For You page seems to effortlessly and endlessly share content that you like. And it only gets better! Which makes it hard for people to leave the app, since it keeps showing them great content. Before they know it, just one more video has turned into twenty videos!
Should you get a TikTok business account?
TikTok offers businesses this neat thing called a business account. It’s not hard to set up, and gives your brand the credibility of being a verified business. It also allows you to set up a TikTok shop and use a link in your profile. Plus, you can download all the analytics, which makes it easier to use the data in reports.
The only downside? You won’t get access to all the commercial sounds. But there are still lots of good sounds that you can use, so a TikTok business account is worth it in our opinion.
5 tips on how to use TikTok for your business
1. Showcase the value of your product within 3 seconds
Users want to quickly see the value of your video. So, try to show your USP (unique selling point) at the very start. Ideally, in the first three seconds of your video. Otherwise, people will just scroll away.
For example, let’s say you sell ultra-strong iPhone cases. You could film a scene where you drop the phone from the second floor, then show your viewers that it didn’t get scratched. Of course, there are tons of ways to showcase the unique value of your business. It all depends on your product. Just remember to keep it to the point!
2. Try not to sell
Unlike other platforms, you should build a connection with your audience on TikTok before you try to sell them anything. In fact, it’s better not to be sales-y at all! That type of content typically doesn’t do well.
Instead, treat TikTok as a way to be authentic with your audience. For example, you could share your journey as a small business owner or showcase your products in fun ways. It will take time to build an audience, but it will be worth it once you’ve found your target audience!
3. Be vulnerable
TikTok users appreciate authenticity and “realness”. That’s why videos where people share their struggles with their small business tend to get a lot of engagement, since people find those stories relatable.
Some ideas:
A “story time” video about how you started your business. A popular trend that fits this topic would be: how it started vs. how it’s going
Things you learned during your small business journey
A mistake you made and what you learned from it
Examples of small businesses who are vulnerable and authentic on TikTok
4. Engage with trends
If you want to take TikTok seriously, you shouldn’t post just once a week. Instead, try to post everyday. This will allow you to keep up with TikTok’s algorithm.
Of course, creating and editing new videos everyday sounds daunting! But there’s tons of ways to create new content. For example, you can hop on trends, make videos of your products, or relate your business to a trending sound. The key is not to take things too seriously. Just have fun!
Note: Of course, you shouldn’t just be posting trends. Try to have a good balance between planned videos and trendy/fun videos.
5. Utilize UGC for your TikTok ads
If you’re a small business, TikTok ads are a great way to get your name out there. Still, it’s good not to be too sales-y. A great way to avoid this is by boosting videos made by users, otherwise known as user generated content (UGC). These videos will come across as more genuine and authentic than a polished video ad.
Just make sure you ask the creator’s permission before you use their video!
Examples of UGC ads
Whether it’s TikTok or Instagram or another social media platform, it’s good for your SEO to be active on social media. After all, SEO is all about being found. When people search for you, it’s nice if they’re be able to find you on multiple platforms. In fact, with social media being so popular as it is, your audience probably expects you to be on social media!
Plus, Google now shows TikTok videos in the search results too. So if your videos show up there, you will get a nice bit of extra visibility.
Find what works for you
Since TikTok is all about authenticity, you should only create content that you feel comfortable with. Don’t try to shape yourself and your business into something it’s not. People will notice. Instead, find a video style and posting schedule that works for you, and have fun!
Sabrina Joest
Sabrina is the Social Media Specialist at Yoast. She’s responsible for creating and curating engaging content to enhance Yoasts’ brand presence across various social platforms.
Are you tired of feeling overshadowed and underestimated as a small business or local company regarding SEO? Well, here’s some good news! You can take your local search results from average to awesome with the right strategy and tools. Whether starting from scratch or already having a website, this ultimate guide to small business SEO will help you leverage local SEO to drive more traffic to your business. So, get ready to make the most of your online presence and stand out in the search results!
Table of contents
Note: This guide is about SEO for small/medium businesses, particularly those with a specific region to target and a limited budget. If your business has multiple locations, you might want to check out our article about creating local landing pages instead. Alternatively, if your website is aimed at a wider audience, you’re probably better off with our regular SEO guide. Our local search guide has more insights on how it works in the background.
Local SEO vs. SEO — what’s the difference?
The key difference between SEO and local SEO is which search results you want to appear in. SEO is about ranking in search results that don’t depend on a specific location (i.e., national or international search results). On the other hand, local SEO is about optimizing pages and sites for region-specific results, such as ‘near me’ searches. These searches enable users to find products and services available in their area.
Of course, optimizing your small business website for local searches involves many of the same steps as regular SEO. Our guide will help you through the SEO basics in a way that makes sense for a smaller website, plus the extras you need to know about local SEO.
Small business SEO and local search ranking factors
Where are you (or your store/services) located? Is that near to the person who is searching?
What do you offer, and is it relevant to the person searching for?
Do you have a good (online) reputation?
If you want to optimize your website to rank better but are unsure where to start, you might want to look at our free SEO course for beginners. In the rest of this guide, we’ll cover the most important factors for succeeding at local SEO in more detail.
Let’s be honest; your site is probably not the ‘Mona Lisa’ of websites. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but it does need to meet certain standards. For instance, site structure, loading speed, and security are important for SEO and user experience. Look at our article about what makes a good website to ensure yours will meet expectations.
If you don’t already have a website, you can start with WordPress. Other options are available, but our SEO plugins work best with WordPress. Of course, we have Yoast SEO for Shopify if you run an ecommerce store on said platform. You might also be interested in following our free WordPress for beginners training.
We have talked about this repeatedly: branding is very important for SEO. Branding means stuff like your logo and tagline. Do they represent your company without further explanation? What do your logo and tagline reveal about your values and your field of expertise? It’s all about recognition, and it’s just as important for small business SEO as it is for big companies.
You can work on your branding without investing a lot of money. Yes, low-budget branding is a thing, even if you’re a non-profit organization. When working on your branding with limited resources, there are several budget-friendly tips to consider. One of the most crucial steps is to claim and optimize your Google Business Profile listing. This helps ensure you provide accurate information, such as your name, address, and phone number. Consistency is also key across all platforms, ensuring your NAP information remains consistent on online directories and social media profiles. We’ll dive into this later.
Develop a unique brand language that sets you apart from your competitors. Make sure it is consistently used across all platforms, including social media. Blogging provides a cost-effective way to build brand identity while establishing yourself as an authority in your industry. Attending local events allows you to network with potential customers while establishing your trusted authority in the field.
Encouraging online reviews can significantly boost your visibility. It’s worth encouraging satisfied customers to leave reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, and TripAdvisor. By implementing these tips, you can work toward building a strong brand presence without breaking the bank. It allows you to showcase your business in the best possible light while capturing the attention of your target audience.
To help Google understand where your business is located and put you in the right local results, it’s essential to have up-to-date contact information in all the right places. So it’s very important to align your info on all the platforms you operate on. Search engines will check and double-check your details to ensure everything adds up.
Make a contact page
Aside from search engines, your (potential) customers must know how they can contact you, too. You should always add your contact details in places where users would expect to find them — for example, in your website footer — and, of course, on your contact page.
Local business structured data
Many factors influence small business SEO, but one very obvious is your NAP. NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone number. In the case of a local business, details like addresses, phone numbers, geo-coordinates, opening hours, etc., should be correct at all times. The best way to present these details to search engines is by using local business structured data.Yoast SEO has a lot of options for adding structured data.
Structured data is an essential component of local SEO. LocalBusiness structured data, in particular, provides an excellent opportunity for local businesses to improve their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). By incorporating localBusiness structured data, you can provide search engines with details about your business. Details include your name, address, phone number, and opening hours. This information helps search engines better understand your business, making listing your business in relevant search results easier.
Structured data also provides a better user experience for potential customers. Customers can easily find you by providing accurate information about your business, such as your location. Search results that include rich snippets, such as business ratings and reviews, can help customers decide to visit your business. These factors improve your click-through rate (CTR) and drive more traffic to your website and physical store. By incorporating localBusiness structured data into your website’s code, you’re providing search engines and potential customers with valuable information that can help boost your visibility and generate business.
Google Business Profile, formally known as Google My Business, is a free profile you can set up to help promote your business in the search results and on Google Maps. This official Google tool can help you to rank in your specific geographical area. Not only that, but the tool also gives you many options to manage and improve your listings. By making a GBP listing, you can connect with your customers better. You’ll get insights about how they interact with your business on Google. You can add extras like photos and opening hours to your profile too.
Want results that look like this? You must set up a Google Business Profile and add data about your company
Always use the same name, address, and phone number on your website and your Google Business Profile listing. Be sure to include your website link in your GBP listing too! This is the only way for Google to understand the relationship between them.
When you want to rank for a search term, it’s important to provide relevant content for that search. Google is a bit like a matchmaker — ultimately, they’re just trying to connect users with what they want. So, you need to clarify what your business does, and you can do that by writing about it. Of course, for local businesses, that also means talking about your local environment.
Before diving in and writing, consider your niche and which keywords you want to target. That way, you can focus on making the strategic content you need.
Find your niche and your long-tail keywords
Alright, you can do more to make your business stand out. Determining your niche is vital for local or small businesses. When you know your niche, you can emphasize what makes your brand or products unique, improving your chances of ranking well for them. If you have a clear niche, you can compete locally with large national brands – despite their multi-million dollar advertising budgets.
Find out who your customers are and which words they use to describe your product or service because people will use the same terms to find your website. These terms can help you optimize your local business SEO when you turn them into long-tail keywords, and these keywords should be as specific as possible. Once you’ve done all this, regularly assess your niche as it evolves with your company’s growth.
Start making great content
Your small business SEO will get a significant boost from the right content. Too many small business owners just put their products and contact details on their website and leave it at that. But there is so much more to tell and share!
Focus on making an awesome first impression on your potential customer. Write about your business, your business goals, how great your products are, and things like that. You could also discuss market developments or events that relate to your business. These are just a few tips for your local SEO content strategy.
When writing your content, be realistic about the chances of getting that content to rank in search. If you are in a highly competitive market, content works very well as a marketing tool and as input for social media, but it probably won’t get you that number-one spot in Google, and that’s OK. Manage your expectations.
Picking the right keywords to optimize for is very important. Usually, it’s a good idea to pick mid-tail keywords, including the local area you are targeting. It doesn’t matter if you add this content to your site as a page or blog post. Just make sure you write about things people want to discuss or things that make people positively talk about your business.
Write great local-oriented content for small business SEO
Creating local content is a powerful way to improve your business’s visibility in local search results. Here are a few ways you can create compelling, locally-focused content:
Include local keywords: Use local keywords in your blog posts, meta tags, and other website content. For example, if you own a coffee shop in Tacoma, including keywords like “Tacoma coffee shop” and “best coffee in Tacoma” can help attract local customers searching for a coffee shop in that area.
Highlight local events: Showcase your business’s involvement in local events by creating content about upcoming festivals, holiday celebrations, or other local events. This content engages local readers and helps search engines recognize your business’s relevance in the community.
Create location-specific landing pages: Make landing pages that target specific neighborhoods or regions within your city. This allows you to create content that speaks directly to that area’s interests and needs.
Provide local news and updates: Stay on top of local news and events to create useful content that appeals to your local audience. For example, if a new park is opening up nearby, write about it and include information about how your business can benefit.
Use local imagery: Incorporate photos and images of your local area to showcase your business’s connection to the community. This helps your audience feel more connected to your brand and helps search engines understand your business’s relevance to the local area.
Creating local content requires effort and time, but the payoffs can be significant, including improved search engine visibility, increased website traffic, and a more engaged local audience. Keep your content relevant, engaging, and shareable to maximize its impact. Remember that good local-oriented content can earn you valuable links from relevant sources.
Step 4: Share your expertise and reputation
Once you have all that set up, there are a few very good reasons you should reach out and get involved with your business community and customers. Getting people talking about you and your business will help your website grow, whether directly or indirectly.
Firstly, when other people link to your website from their pages, this can signal to search engines that you’re well known, and your website will be a good choice for them to put in their search results. Secondly, you can increase your website traffic significantly with a great social media strategy. And thirdly, ratings and reviews help to build trust with your customers, meaning they’re more likely to buy from you (and hopefully come back for more, too!).
Links from related sites
Social ‘proof’, like the ratings and reviews mentioned below, should be backed up with links from relevant sites. Getting links to your business site is still important in local SEO. You should work hard to get mentions or citations of your business on other sites. How and where you do that differs in every industry, but these include Yelp, Bing Places, Yahoo! Local, Apple Maps, among many other sites and services. Moz has a handy tool that checks your online presence.
You should get a listing on these sites because you also get a link to your website. If you can get some links from other related local websites, that will also help your site’s findability. Note that links from other local websites should be from sites in a related profession. Having your bakery website linked to an accountant’s website is useless.
If your small business is closely related to other businesses not located in the same area, you should also ask those businesses for a link. Google crawls the web link by link, so if your business is linked to a website in the same field of business, that link is extra valuable to you.
Social media
While you can sell your products on social media platforms, in most cases, we recommend using social media for brand awareness or to lead potential customers to your website for sale. Using social media as a small business is all about promoting your brand, your company, and your products to establish your image and get the right traffic to your company website. When used in this way, social media can really help small business SEO.
I like to compare social media to a market where all the stall owners know each other, and customers browse the products. At some point, someone will tell other visitors where to go for a product: “The cheese over there is delicious,” “You should check out the fruit over there,” that kind of thing. So make sure people start talking about you. And start talking about yourself online to make others talk to you on social platforms. Lastly, actively engage in social media conversations to let people know you are listening.
Google Business Profile, like Facebook, allows others to leave a review of your company. If your company has a good rating, people will be more likely to click through to your website from either of these two platforms. Make sure you monitor and maintain these reviews.
Building a website for your business is just the first step toward establishing a strong online presence. Once your site is up and running, it’s important not to forget about it. Regularly checking your site to ensure everything is running smoothly and it hasn’t been hacked can save you from potential headaches later on. Don’t forget to add fresh content regularly or improve your already existing content.
In addition, it’s crucial to keep your contact information up-to-date across all the different platforms and tools you’re using for local SEO. Even if you think you may not need the website in the future, your customers could still be Googling you. They might need directions to your store, want to make a special request, or leave a positive review. By keeping your contact information up to date, you won’t miss out on any potential opportunities that could come your way. Don’t let opportunity knock on the wrong door; ensure your correct contact information is visible to your customers and search engines.
Have you found this article helpful? We have lots more articles about Local SEO you can read. Don’t forget to check out the Yoast Local Premium bundle — designed to make local SEO easier and quicker!
The Yoast Local Premium bundle helps small business SEO
Now you know the recipe for success, let’s take a quick look at some of the ways our dedicated plugin bundle can help:
Automatically convert your contact info (and more) to the Schema.org structured data format
Automatic configuration of Google Maps on your website with your store location and a route planner
Tools to help with keyword research and optimization
Tools to help you make quality, targeted content
Previews for Google search results and social media shares
A year of free access to 24/7 support plus full access to all Yoast SEO academy courses
Nowadays, short-form content is all the rage. Just look at TikTok’s astounding popularity amongst younger generations. It has lead to the development of new and compelling video formats that are mostly found in feeds with a passive discovery mechanism. Or as the younger generations (ominously) call it: the algorithm. In this post, we’ll take a look at how businesses should respond to this trend. We’ll also discuss where short-form video fits within a wider creative content marketing strategy.
Short-form video is not quite the same as videos that are short. It refers to videos that are roughly 06-60 seconds long, organically distributed through feed-orientated social media platforms, and consumed overwhelmingly through mobile devices. They are typically, but not always, shot vertically. This is to keep in line with the screen they’re typically consumed on. You can find short-form videos on TikTok, Instagram Stories, YouTube shorts, and the like.
What about 30-second ads? Are they also considered short-form content? Not in this context. We’re really referring to formats created for organic distribution rather than paid. Another example are short films. They’re historically considered short-form, but in the online world where video has been led by YouTube formats, something that’s 5 to 10 minutes in length is actually considered a mid-length piece.
Short-form video is mostly passively distributed. The user opens up the app in question, presses a button, then receives a stream of content, which they may choose to watch or skip depending on their interests. Depending on the app, the feed is influenced by different things. Instagram’s feed is influenced by who you have chosen to follow, whereas TikTok focuses more on your engagement level with the content and what the algorithm thinks you’re most likely to engage with next. YouTube Shorts sit somewhere in the middle, combining subscription factors, demographic and other data into a complex recommendations algorithm.
Quickly capture people’s attention
Short-form video is geared exclusively to offer instant appeal. There’s a 1-3 second window where users will decide whether to keep watching or move on to the next thing. So you only have a few seconds to try and capture people’s attention. Combined with the short nature of the content, this means that most videos follow a “gag” format. Every video that works immediately sets expectations of what the audience will receive, then swiftly delivers or subverts it.
Visual storytelling
People primarily watch short-form videos on their smartphones. Because this usually happens in in public, most people turn off their sound and watch videos in silence. This means all of the storytelling and creative execution needs to be primarily visual. Videos can still include music, though. After all, some of the most successful short-form videos use music extremely effectively. But it’s important to keep in mind that the essential message and narrative of any video needs to be communicable without sound, such that the essence of it still holds together.
So what can you do for existing videos? You can adapt existing videos by including subtitles and visual overlays where audio or speech is critical to understanding. You can also visually point out to users that the essential “gag” is tied to the musical/aural aspect of the video.
From a business and marketing standpoint, it can be tricky to work out if and when to invest in short-form video. It’s not a reliable way to build an audience or ensure returns, because short-form video discovery is mainly led by algorithms, and less influenced by things like subscriber numbers and historical brand/channel performance. Even experienced creators should generally expect that for every video that gains traction, 30 videos will not.
So it’s important that you’re comfortable with uncertain and unreliable returns. Any business that approaches short-form video with a performance marketing mindset centered around ROI and optimization will find things very challenging. Even one viral success on TikTok or YouTube Shorts probably won’t do anything for the bottom line over the long run. A million hits on TikTok is not going to represent the same value as a million visitors to your website.
It’s absolutely possible to build a brand as a short-form video creator, though. But it’s good to note that brand salience external to the short-form video platforms tends to have only a minor bearing on the effectiveness of distribution. Unless you’re willing to continuously and repeatedly build up your identity as a short-form video creator. However, this can take many months and years. Not to mention, you would probably need to create hundreds if not thousands pieces of content.
So when is short-form video effective?
Short-form video is particularly effective when you can present your brand expertise in a visual format. For example, you could show the creation or function of your product, or demonstrate a process/action quickly. The purpose of these short videos is to provide value to an audience likely unfamiliar with your brand/product, and help them understand a bit about your brand value proposition.
Another way you can use short-form video is by advertising and promoting long-form pieces. If you’re creating a podcast, hosting webinars, or creating longer pieces for YouTube, then short-form platforms are a fantastic way to show clips and trailers of your longer content.
As a rule, if you’re investing in longer-form video, chop up your creation into clips and adapt those for short-form distribution. Your primary goal should be to encourage consumption of the bigger piece – likely to generate a deeper level of engagement with your brand.
Make sure the premise or “set-up” of the video is clear in the first couple of seconds
Ensure your video is fully comprehensible with the sound off. If that’s not possible, you should include overlays and captions!
Consider whether and what sort of music can enhance the entertainment value of your videos, and edit each one with specific tracks in mind
Be clear what you want audiences to do after they watch your video. Is there another piece of content they should watch? Should your audience remember something, or take a specific action?
Create lots and lots of videos. It may take hundreds before you find something that works. This is normal! Keep going.
Phil Nottingham
Phil Nottingham is a marketing strategist who specialises in video SEO and brand strategy and search engine optimization.
We often get questions from people asking about the influence of domain names on SEO. Is there any relation at all? Does it help to include keywords like product names in your domain name? Is the influence of domain names different per location? And what’s the use of using more than one domain name for a site? In this article, we’ll answer all these questions and more.
What’s a domain name?
Let’s start from the beginning. A domain name is an alias. It’s a convenient way to point people to that specific spot on the internet where you’ve built your website.
Domain names are generally used to identify one or more IP addresses. For us, our domain name is yoast.com.
Note that we deliberately included “.com” here, where others might disagree with that. We think the most common uses of the word “domain name” include that top-level domain.
On a side note, if you’ve been on the internet for a while now, you may notice that websites back in the day used to have the “www” prefix before the domain name. So for Yoast that would be www.yoast.com. In this case, the domain name is still yoast.com, while www is the subdomain. These days people don’t add the “www” before the domain name anymore. It’s unnecessary, it makes your URL long, and frankly, nobody uses the term “world wide web” anymore.
Top-level domain (TLD)
Where “yoast” is obviously our brand, the “.com” bit of our domain name is called TLD (or top-level domain). In the early days of the internet:
.com was intended for US companies,
.org for non-profit organizations,
.edu for schools and universities and
.gov for government websites.
But this is from 1985. Things have changed quite a bit since then. For the Netherlands, we use .nl. But lots of companies are using .com for when the .nl domain name was already taken.
These days, TLDs like .guru and .pro are available. Automattic bought .blog in 2015. And what about .pizza? But these are not all. You can find all kinds of TLDs now. Many tech startups and SaaS companies are choosing .io as their TLD instead of the more “traditional” ones like .com or .net.
The list of available TLDs is updated and maintained by the IANA – the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority – which you can find here. We call this kind of TLD generic TLDs.
Generic TLDs
For SEO, you probably want to use just one TLD. And, in most cases, it’s best to choose a common option, like .com, .net, .biz, etc.
If your business is in a very competitive field, it might be a good idea to buy a few more common TLDs. This is to make sure someone else doesn’t use them to build a website with your brand name. It would be frustrating if your website is epicbusiness.com and someone starts epicbusiness.biz, right? But in most cases, it may not be needed. So whether or not this is necessary is up to you.
Generic TLDs give you the option to be a little more creative with your domain name. Some fun examples of the possibilities: order.pizza, visit.amsterdam, ice.land, or maybe buyher.flowers… If it fits your brand, you could give this a try. But you should keep in mind that not everyone might realize that they’re looking at a domain name. It might be a good idea to mention that you’re talking about a website when you put your domain name on a poster or show it somewhere, so people realize it’s a website they can visit.
Country code TLDs (ccTLD)
We’ve already mentioned the .nl TLD. We call these kinds of TLDs country codes or country-specific TLDs.
Years ago, Tokelau – an island in the Southern Pacific Ocean – started giving away their .tk TLD for free, and thousands of enthusiasts claimed their .tk. It’s like .cc, which you might have heard of, because it was once promoted as the alternative to .com. It’s actually a country-specific TLD belonging to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands (although the people of Cypres might disagree)
Country-specific TLD or subdirectory for sites with multiple languages?
If your website is available in multiple languages, you might be wondering what the best solution is. Should it be domain.com/uk/ and domain.com/de/ (subdirectories or subfolders) or domain.co.uk and domain.de (which use country-specific TLDs)?
For SEO, using a subdirectory makes more sense. If you use a subdirectory, all links will go to the same domain. Marketing is easier because you have one main domain. And all the backlinks you get are also attributed to that main domain. If there are language differences per subdirectory, add the hreflang tag to your pages to tell Google about that.
Note that a subdomain, like the “www” we mentioned, is something totally different than a subdirectory. For instance, we have a dedicated website to store technical information related to our software for developers at developer.yoast.com, which is a subdomain of yoast.com. Google actually considers this to be a different website than yoast.com. Though we’re sure they can connect the dots.
Does the age of a domain influence SEO?
The age of a domain – referring to how long your domain already exists – doesn’t matter for SEO as much as it did before. Some may say it doesn’t matter at all. Nowadays, it’s much more about the content, the technical setup, the user experience, and how well your website answers the query people used in Google. You’ll have to be the best result to rank for a query.
As a matter of fact, John Mueller of Google confirmed way back in 2017 that domain age doesn’t matter:
Is it that black and white? No, it’s not.
Domain age as such might not influence ranking. But older domains may have a nice amount of backlinks, pages ranking in the search result pages, etc. And obviously, that might influence ranking.
Does Exact Match Domain (EMD) give you a ranking advantage?
Let’s say Buycheaphomes.com is an existing domain name (it probably is). This is an example of an Exact Match Domain name.
In 2012, Google introduced what we now call the EMD Update. Google changed its algorithm so websites that used domain names like that wouldn’t rank just for the simple fact that the keyword was in the domain name. And yes, that used to be the case, before the update.
So, after this update, does it still pay off to use a domain name that includes a keyword? For the most part, the answer is no.
You don’t need a certain keyword in your domain name. You can build a site on a different domain, write content that targets that specific keyword or topic, and still outrank a site with the exact keyword in its domain name.
But if you managed to build a brand around an EMD, and you still get lots of traffic, keep up the good work. Just make sure your branding is absolutely top-notch.
Choose a domain name around your branding
Following the EMD update, branding became even more important. It makes so much more sense to focus on your brand in your domain name as opposed to just putting a keyword in the domain name.
For instance, you probably know LEGO.com, Amazon.com, or Google.com. It’s all about the brand. It’s something people will remember easily and something that will make you stand out from the crowd and competition. Your brand is here to stay (always look on the positive side of things).
In fact, Google’s John Mu also suggested picking a domain name that’s more like a brand and that you can build upon:
Make sure your brand is unique and the right domain name is available when starting a new business. This might be the reason to claim more than one generic TLDs or country-specific TLDs – to make sure no one else claims it.
We mentioned that a (known) brand is usually easier to remember. For the same reason, we’d suggest going with a short domain name or a catchy one so it stays with people. Like Booking.com for instance.
Does it pay off to claim multiple domain names and 301 redirect all the domains to the main domain name? In terms of branding: no. In terms of online ranking: probably not.
The only valid reason we can think of to actively use multiple domain names for the same website, is offline and sometimes online marketing. If you have a specific project or campaign on your website that you’d like to promote separately, a second domain name might come in handy to get traffic straight to the right page on your website.
“Actively” is the main word in that last paragraph. As mentioned, feel free to register multiple domain names, but make sure not to confuse Google. Besides that, actively using multiple domain names for the same website will diffuse the links to your website. And that isn’t what you want, as mentioned in the subdirectory section as well.
Domain Authority or Domain Rating, what are they?
We feel like we should mention and clarify these concepts. You’ve probably known or heard about Domain Authority, Domain Rating, or Authority score. They are metrics developed by popular SEO software providers:
Domain Authority: developed by Moz. This is a score that predicts how well your website will rank on the search results pages.
Domain Rating: developed by Ahref. This metric shows the relative strength of a website’s backlink profile.
Authority score: developed by Semrush. This metric is used for measuring a domain’s or webpage’s overall quality and SEO performance.
Essentially, these metrics aim to quantify the quality of a website based on many factors. They all have one thing in common, which is the inclusion of a site’s backlink profile in calculating the score. For the Domain Rating metric by Ahref, the metric is purely link-based.
Let us clarify that none of these are ranking factors that Google uses. They are metrics specific to the software that uses them. While Google doesn’t use these metrics, you can still use them as a reference point in your SEO strategy. But don’t blindly rely on them as there may be flaws in how these metrics are developed or calculated.
Writing great page titles and SEO titles is an essential skill for anyone doing SEO. Why? Because the title tag can be the first thing a user sees in the search results and it’s also one of the most important factors that Google uses to determine the topic of a page. Well-written titles are essential to SEO! This article covers why you need great page titles and SEO titles, and how to create them.
Let’s start with the basics. If you look at the source of a page (right-click on the page, then choose View Page Source), you find a title in the head section. It looks like this:
This is an example SEO title - Example.com
This is the HTML title tag, which we also call the SEO title. When you look something up in a search engine, you get a list of results that appear as snippets. The part that looks like a headline is the SEO title. The SEO title usually contains the post title, but it can include other elements too, such as the site name. Or even emojis!
An example of a snippet with an URL, meta description and title in the largest font
In most cases, the first thing people see, even before they get on your site, is the SEO title. In tabbed browsers, you will usually also see the SEO title in the page tab, as shown in the image below.
An SEO title in a browser tab
What’s a post title? How is it different to an SEO title?
The post title (also known as the headline) is the main heading (H1) of your page. Like the title of any document, it gives readers an indication of the topic being discussed. First and foremost, your post title exists for users. It helps them to understand what you’re writing about and adds structure to your page.
Just to be clear, you should not confuse the SEO title with the post title. The SEO title is what appears in the search results; the post title is what users see after they click on the SEO title and get on the page itself.
What’s the purpose of an SEO title?
The purpose of your SEO title is to make people click on it, visit your website and read your post or buy your product. If your title is not good enough, people will ignore it and move on to other results. Essentially, there are two goals that you want to achieve with an SEO title:
It must help you rank for a keyword;
it must make the user want to click through to your page.
Google uses various signals when deciding how relevant you are for a specific keyword. Even when you’re initially ranking well, if nobody is clicking on your result, your rankings might deteriorate over time. The opposite is also true. At first, you may be positioned lower in the search results. But, if your title gets people to click on it, Google will notice. Consequently, over time, your rankings may improve.
Also, as mentioned before, Google uses what has been specified as your SEO title as ranking input. So it’s not just about those clicks, you also need to make sure that your title reflects the topic being discussed on your page and the keyword that you’re focusing on. The SEO title you use has a direct influence on your ranking.
Now that you know about the importance of SEO titles you’ll be pleased to know that Yoast SEO can help you craft them. In its SEO analysis, the plugin checks two crucial aspects of the SEO title: the width of your title and whether you use your keyword. The Premium version of the plugin also includes a check to make sure your post title (H1 heading) isn’t empty.
What does the empty title check in Yoast SEO do?
The empty title check in Yoast SEO Premium is fairly self-explanatory: it checks whether you’ve filled in any text in the ‘Title’ section of your post. If you haven’t, you’ll see a red traffic light reminding you to add a title. Once this is filled in, the post title can be automatically added to the SEO title field using the ‘Title’ variable:
Note that your post title is output as an H1 heading. You should only use one H1 heading per page to avoid confusing search engines. Don’t worry, we’ve got a check for multiple H1 headings in Yoast SEO too!
What does the SEO title check in Yoast SEO do?
You find this assessment in the SEO tab of the Yoast SEO sidebar or meta box. If you haven’t written an SEO title yet, the assessment will remind you to do so. In addition, Yoast SEO checks the width of your SEO title. When it is too long, you will get a warning. We used to give you a warning if your SEO title was too short as well, but we’ve changed that since our Yoast 17.1 release. A title with an optimal width gets you a green traffic light in the analysis.
You can find the SEO title width check in the Yoast SEO sidebar or the meta box
How to write an SEO title with an optimal width
If your SEO title doesn’t have the right width, parts of it may be cut off in Google’s search results. How the result looks may vary, depending on the device you’re using. That’s why you can also check how your SEO title will look in the mobile and desktop search results in the Google preview in Yoast SEO. The tool uses the mobile version as a default, but you can also switch to view it in the desktop version.
Here’s a desktop result:
The Google preview in Yoast SEO lets you switch between the mobile and desktop results
And here’s the mobile result for the same URL:
A mobile preview for this particular page
Width vs. length
Have you noticed that we talk about width rather than length? Why is that? Rather than using a character count, Google has a fixed width for the titles counted in pixels. While your title tags can be long and Google doesn’t have a set limit on the number of characters you can use, there is a limit on what’s visible in the search results. If your SEO title is too wide, Google will cut it off visually. That might not be what you want. Also, you should avoid wasting valuable space by making the title too short. Not only that, the SEO title often informs other title-like elements, such as the og:title , which also have display constraints.
Luckily our Google preview can help you out! You can fill in your SEO title and our plugin will give you feedback straight away. The green line underneath the SEO title turns red when your title is too long. So keep an eye on that, and use the feedback to create great headlines.
The Google preview in the Yoast SEO for WordPress block editor
The Google preview in Yoast SEO for Shopify
What does the keyphrase in SEO title assessment in Yoast SEO do?
This assessment appears in the SEO tab of the Yoast SEO sidebar in WordPress and Shopify, and also in the meta box in WordPress. It checks if you’re using your keyphrase in the SEO title of your post or page. The plugin check for this is quite strict. Since Google uses the title to figure out your page’s topic, not having the focus keyphrase in the SEO title may harm your rankings. In addition, potential visitors are much more likely to click on a search result that exactly matches what they were looking for. For the best results, you should try to add your keyphrase at the beginning of the SEO title.
This check finds out if you’ve used your focus keyphrase in your SEO title
How to use your keyphrase in the SEO title
Sometimes, when you’re optimizing for a high-competition keyword, everyone will have the keyword at the beginning of the SEO title. In that case, you can try making it stand out by putting one or two words in front of your focus keyword, thereby slightly “indenting” your result. In Yoast SEO, if you start your SEO title with “the”, “a”, “who” or another function word followed by your keyphrase, you’ll still get a green traffic light.
Other times, like when you have a very long keyphrase, adding the complete keyphrase at the beginning doesn’t make sense. If your SEO title looks weird with the keyphrase at the beginning, try to add as much of the keyphrase as you can, as early in the SEO title as possible. But always keep an eye on the natural flow and readability.
Want to learn all about how to write a text that’s pleasant to read and optimized for search engines? Our SEO copywriting course can help you with that. You can get access to this course, and all of our other SEO courses, with Yoast SEO Premium. This also gives you access to extra features in the Yoast SEO plugin.
Go Premium and get free access to our SEO courses!
Learn how to write great content for SEO and unlock lots of features with Yoast SEO Premium:
Should you add your brand to the SEO title?
For quite some time it was a fashion among some SEOs to leave the site name out of the SEO title. The idea was that the “density” of the title mattered, and the site name wouldn’t help with that. Don’t do this. Your SEO title needs to have your brand in it, preferably in a recognizable way. If people search for a topic and see your brand several times, even if they don’t click on it the first time, they might click when they see you again on their next page of results.
If you don’t include your site name in your SEO title, you’ll also run the risk of Google automatically changing the snippet for you. As explained in our article on why isn’t Google showing my SEO title, Google thinks it needs to be there too. If you want to read more about branding, be sure to read this post by Marieke: 5 tips on branding.
Optimizing titles after publication
A while ago, while looking at our Google Search Analytics data for yoast.com, we noticed that, while we ranked well for [wordpress security], we weren’t getting a lot of traffic for it. We optimized the SEO title and meta description for our WordPress security article and this increased traffic by over 30%. These changes to the title were done around the same time as the update – indicated by the vertical line in the graph below:
The change was fairly simple. Instead of the SEO title being:
WordPress Security • Yoast
We changed it to:
WordPress Security in a few easy steps! • Yoast
As you can see, this doesn’t necessarily improve the rankings of this page at all. From a keyword perspective, the title isn’t much better, but it is more enticing, and it did lead to many more clicks, which, of course, was the desired result.
Note: Google won’t always use your SEO title
In August 2021, Google announced an update on how they generate titles in search result snippets. This means that sometimes they will show a different title in their search results than the one you set. Before we get into that, it’s good to note that in most cases (more than 80% of the time) the HTML title tag that your page outputs is still the most likely to be used.
Although we’re talking about an update here, Google deciding on how to display your SEO title in the search results is nothing new. They’ve been doing this for a while now. What is new is that they now want to use one title only, and won’t change it up anymore for different search queries. And that they will use different elements on your page to decide on what this title displayed in the search results will be. Elements such as your title tag, headings, prominent text on the page, and even how you link internally to this page.
So what does this mean for you? Right now these changes don’t require you to do anything different. The SEO title you set is still very likely to be used, and more importantly, your title helps you rank for a keyword. These changes don’t impact your page rankings. The title you give is what Google will look at when deciding how your page ranks. Just like before.
But, with all these changes, it doesn’t hurt to keep an eye on how Google displays the titles of your most important pages! So we recommend you monitor the situation with your site for the time being. Keep an eye on Google Search Console, spot-check your search results, and look out for changes in the click-through and bounce rates for your key pages. If you find anything problematic (or just really, really wrong) you can let Google know in this feedback thread.
What might be a good SEO title isn’t necessarily a good title for social media. In social media, keyword optimization is less important than creating a title that entices people to click. You often don’t need to include the brand name in the title. This is especially true for Facebook and Twitter if you include some form of branding in your post image. Our social previews in Yoast SEO Premium and Yoast SEO for Shopify can help you with that.
If you’re using Yoast SEO, you can have a separate title for Facebook, Twitter, and Google. Just enter the Google title in the Yoast SEO snippet editor. The Facebook and Twitter title can be entered on the social tab in their respective fields. If you don’t enter a specific Twitter title, Twitter will use the Facebook title instead.
Conclusion: Craft your (SEO) titles well!
In conclusion, the main point of this article is to encourage you to invest a little more time in writing good titles. It really is worth it. Going back and optimizing some of your SEO titles after publication might also be worthwhile. This is especially true if you’re already ranking well, but aren’t getting very many clicks.
Joost de Valk is the founder of Yoast. After selling Yoast he’s stopped being active full time and now acts as an advisor to the company. He’s an internet entrepreneur, who, together with his wife Marieke, actively invests in and advises several startups. His main expertise is open source software development and digital marketing.
