Title tag: Long tail words or keyword dilution?

[Raymondlee]

Hi all,

I am a newbie to SEO. Lately, I have been struggling to optimize my title tag. Ones say that we should have long tail words in title tags because long tail words improve click through rate and generate quality leads. On the other hand, ones say that putting other words in the title tag will dilute the main keyword that my page ranks for. Do keywords really dilute each other in the title tags? I am really confused. Let me give this an example:

1. Web Design Services | Company Name

2. Web Design Services with Conversion Focused | Company Name

Which one would you prefer and why? Thank you.  

Best,

Raymond

[MelcorDev]

A "head term" is essentially the opposite of a long-tail keyword.  For instance if you find a long-tail keyword that gets 100-500 searches per month and isn't too difficult to rank for ... say that keyword is "homes for sale in vancouver bc" ... the head term in this case is "homes for sale" which would be getting a lot more search volume but would also be extremely more difficult to rank for because everyone is trying to rank for it.  In this case, if you're a national brand, both keywords are useful to you so you can create a page optimized for "homes for sale" (the head term) and optimize it for both this term and the long-tail.

Flimsy example, I'm sorry, but my mind is blanking and this is the best I can give you! haha.  Also just noticed this post is over a month old but I'm gonna post this anyway in case it helps anyone.  Cheers.

[Raymondlee]

Thank you for your insights and help!

But by "head term", what do you mean? Thank you for your patience.

[Joe.Robison]

I don't believe there is such a thing as keyword dilution. Could be wrong as things change hourly in SEO, but haven't heard it myself.

The best thing to think of is targeting for the highest volume keyword as well as a long tail keyword. In other words, you want to target long tail keywords that also include a "head term". To put it a 3rd way, if you're targeting a head term, might as well include a long tail keyword.

I prefer your #2 above.

It includes "web design services" up front in the title tag which is great, but you're also including longer tail keyword with the rest of it.

As a quick grammar fix, you would say "Web Design Services with Focus on Conversion" or "...with CRO Focus" or "...with Conversion Focus" (last one not ideal though)

[GastonRiera]

Hi Raymond,

Keep in mind that you want to optimize a certain page for just one o two keywords. So with that idea, you shouldn't worry about the main keyword.
Im assuming that you're talking about you home page. For specific keywords, is advisable to have separate pages, a sort of landing page focused for that page.

Here some resources:

Begginer's guide - 5th chapter - Kw optimization
A Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting and On-Page SEO - Moz Blog
How to Optimize for Keywords in 2015 - SEW
On-Page Optimization for Keywords - outdoorsrank.com Academy

Hope I've helped.
Best luck.
GR.